I was invited to be on the Murnaghan programme on Sky News this morning – which I always find a great deal more intelligent than the Andrew Marr alternative on the BBC. I declined because I did not want to get up and get a 7.30am train from Ramsgate on a Sunday morning. I had a meeting until 11.30pm last night planning a conference on human rights in Balochistan [I still tend to say Baluchistan], and I have a newly crowned tooth that seems not to want to settle down. But I am still worried by my own lack of energy, which is uncharacteristic. Is this old age?
I also have some serious work to do on my Burnes book, and next week I shall be staying in London to be in the British Library reading room for every second of its opening hours. So there may be a bit of a posting hiatus. I have in mind a short post on an important subject on which I suspect that 99% of my readership – including the regular dissident commenters – will strongly disagree with me.
This is a peculiarly introspective post, perhaps because my tooth is hurting, but I seem to have this curmudgeonly spirit which wishes to react to the huge popularity of this blog by posting something genuinely held but unpopular; a genuine view but one I don’t normally trumpet. The base thought seems to be “You wouldn’t like me if you really knew me”.
Similarly when I wrote Murder in Samarkand I was being hailed as a hero by quite a lot of people for my refusal to go along with the whole neo-con disaster of illegal wars, extraordinary rendition and severe attacks on civil liberties, sacrificing my fast track diplomatic career as a result. My reaction to putative hero worship was to publish in Murder in Samarkand not just the political facts, but an exposure of my own worst and most unpleasant behaviour in my private life.
I am in a very poor position to judge, but I believe the result rather by accident turned out artistically compelling, if you don’t want to read the book you can get a good idea of that by clicking on David Tennant in the top right of this blog and listening to him playing me in David Hare’s radio adaptation.
Anyway, that’s enough musing. You won’t like my next post, whenever it comes. Promise.
The untouchable ruling class, which includes the Queen of the United Kingdom (Elizabeth II), the Queen of the Netherlands, the Queen of Denmark and the royal families of Europe. These aristocrats decided at the death of Queen Victoria (the matriarch of the Venetian Black Guelphs) that, in order to gain world-wide control, it would be necessary for its aristocratic members to “go into business” with the non-aristocratic but extremely powerful leaders of corporate business on a global scale.
British Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell plc, Rio Tinto etc etc are part of the “Establishment”.
The 1953 Iranian coup of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh was orchestrated by the “West” after nationalized Iran’s oil industry with near-unanimous support of Iran’s parliament.
Until 1951 Iran’s oil had been controlled by the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), now known as BP.
“Conspiracy is the normal continuation of normal politics by normal means.”
Carroll Quigley
Gog and Magog are two woven willow giant reproductions of a pair of statues in Guildhall. These popular icons reflect the pre-Roman legendary past of the City of London and they too are paraded by volunteers each year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Mayor%27s_Show
David Cameron, currently British prime minister, attended Eton College (the most exclusive private school in Britain). He went to Oxford University where he joined the Bullingdon Club: a secretive, elite society exclusively for extremely wealthy students (rather like Yale’s Skull and Bones). He is married to the daughter of Viscountess Astor. His close friend, and second-in-command in the Conservative Party, is Gideon (George) Osborne, another person who went to an elite private school, then Oxford University, where he also joined the Bullingdon Club. Osborne’s father is a baronet. Boris Johnson, the recently elected Mayor of London, has a similar background: Eton, Oxford, Bullingdon Club.
It was reported that during the summer of 2011, Osborne met investment banker Nathaniel Rothschild (Eton, Oxford University, Bullingdon Club, son of Baron Rothschild, member of the Rothschild banking dynasty) in Corfu. They had dinner on the luxury yacht of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, one of the richest men in the world (and one of the handful of men who mysteriously took possession of huge chunks of Russian industry at almost no cost when Soviet Communism collapsed). Also in attendance was Lord Mandelson (grandson of Baron Morrison and a member of the former UK Labour government, and also an Oxford man, like his close friend Tony Blair, the former prime minister. Blair was educated at Fettes College, Scotland’s version of Eton.).
Don’t forget Prince Andrew’s interactions with the Saudi’s. Weapons’s are probably our greatest export. Drumming up “Sales” requires “unrest” in remote foreign lands.
This is how the Real World Order operates. Well-connected, wealthy, privileged people meet on the yachts of the super-rich to carve up the world between them. All of the important decisions that so affect the lives of ordinary people are taken in these kinds of secret meetings behind firmly closed doors. The changes in financial regulation that led to the catastrophic credit crunch were taken at such meetings. They decide what is best for themselves and then carry out these policies “in the name of the people”.
They don’t consult the people, they don’t care about the people, yet the people still vote for them.
Weapons’s ??
Excuse me…
I should add, these are my own notes made years ago, before I’m accused of copy pasting. I do not recall where some of the information came from. Nor do I claim to have “fact checked” or “spell checked” every word. They were made for my own private use.
Everyone should do their own reading and draw their own independent conclusions.
@Clark 02:16 “please have a look at “complex” mathematics, ie. mathematics performed in the complex plane, where the horizontal axis represents the “real” numbers that we are familiar with, and the vertical axis represents the “imaginary” numbers, the first of which is called “i”, which is that number which, when multiplied by itself, equals -1 (minus one)”
Holy crap, Clark. I have no PhD in mathematics. I love the Mandelbrot fractals though, beautiful.
Can’t we just share a beer and a joint?
@Clark 11.24 “I don’t regard science, nor “material energy” as purely mechanistic nor reductionist. If I’d found that, I would have rejected it long since. And I don’t regard these things as being directly responsible for the shit. I could point to any of the religions that initially grew around genuine spiritual practice, and the strife and conflict associated with those, and on that basis throw the accusation back, but that wouldn’t be spiritual, and it wouldn’t help to solve anything.”
Neither do I, science (the process) or the material energy for that matter is neither good or bad, it’s how we relate to it that makes it “good” or “bad”.
At one point we need to get into defining things like religion, conspiracy theories and progress etc.
“Technology is the application of science, not science itself.”
Absolutely.
Progress is a very interesting discussion as well. Since the modern paradigm is materialism (I generalise but it’s hard to deny) progress is often measured in the advancement of technology. I think progress should be measured in how individuals in society develop qualities like:
Virtue, Trust, Benevolence, Courage, Love, Caring, Charity, Commitment, Compassion, Confidence, Cooperation, Courtesy, Etiquette, Courtesy, Determination, Devotion, Diligence, Discipline, Grace, Endurance, Enlightenment, Enthusiasm, Ethics, Flexibility, Foresight, Forgiveness, Fortitude, Friendliness, Friendship, Generosity, Gentleness, Contentment, Joy, Harmony, Balance, Helpfulness, Honesty, Honor, Hope, Humility, Independence, Initiative, Inner Peace, Integrity, Intelligence, Joyfulness, Justice, Righteousness, Kindness, Loyalty, Mercy, Moderation, Modesty, Morality, Motivation, Non-Violence, Patience, Perseverance, Peace of Mind, Prudence, Respect, Responsibility, Sacrifice, Self-Confidence, Self-Control, Self-Discipline, Self-Respect, Selflessness, Serenity, Tranquility, Simplicity, Solidarity, Temperance, Tenacity, Thankfulness, Tolerance, Truth and Wisdom to name a few.
It’s ironic but there are people in the world that have none of the technological “blessings” that we are gifted with that are so much more advanced than we are.
“Putting myself in the position of the captured antelope being torn apart alive and eaten, I think I’d tell anyone insisting that I was enjoying “natural harmony” to fuck off.”
Hehe, good one.
“NO, I don’t see science (nor its offspring, technology) as mechanistic or reductionist.”
I agree, it’s neither or but, and here is a big BUT, it’s serving the main paradigm in society which is mechanistic and reductionist. Science, just like politics, economy, media and what have you have no independence, it is used by the controlling elite for one purpose only – total and complete control of the useless CO2 producing slaves.
@Zoologist 11.24. “Karl R. Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies, Volume 1 : The Spell of Plato”
I like that quote. And I’d like to get back to the analogy of Open Source vs. Closed Source. The elite is making our society at the top more and more secret, closed. Everything they do is secret and at the same time they want to know more and more about the individuals at the bottom of the pyramid.
They say it is to protect society from external threats but what they actually do is creating structures that protect themselves, the ruling system, from the threat of disapproving citizens.
That is the actual reason for globalization, not the invented dream that it benefits the individuals at the bottom, it’s designed to facilitate control, complete control.
I was really disappointed with Craig’s Europhile post, actually surprised, he of all should understand this.
@Glenn 2.35 “Coming back to the present, the proportion of CO2 has been heading up in a straight line trend since the 1950s, and shows no sign whatsoever of levelling off, let alone falling back. This is despite all these howls that GCC is a hoax by dupes and liars to ruin the industrial base etc. etc. – if it is a hoax, it’s one of the worst kept secrets, and the least successful in outcome ever. What do you think will happen as CO2 maintains its inexorable rise, to 500ppm, 600ppm… nothing at all?”
Let’s say there is a GCC that is out of the normal cycles that the earth goes through. Let’s say it’s caused by humans. What should the remedy be? The global elite says the remedy is more global control for them, for the IMF, for the global banking cartel, tax everything with a CO2-tax, even the sea-otters.
But no, that will no help. What is needed is a change in consciousness and a change of the underlying mechanistic reductionist world view that created this materialistic society that produced the mess in the first place.
Will that happen, no way. That alternative would mean the end of the control society as we know it and the “people” (in the Matrix-example) would fight it. No more reality shows on TV?
Let’s say there is no real threat from GCC, climate will change but people will survive anyhow. Are there any other threats to society that are in parity with GCC? Absolutely, we have a completely insane group of elite people that in actuality are running the world by the power of their control of the global economic system. Impatiently checking their wrist watches, when can we start WW3?
How to deal with them? Same as in the first alternative, a change in consciousness and a change of the underlying mechanistic reductionist world view that created this materialistic society that the elite depends on to enslave us.
Will that happen, no way. That alternative would mean the end of the control society as we know it and the “people” (in the Matrix-example) would fight it. No more reality shows on TV?
What it comes down to is a) would you like to die by GCC b) would you like to die in WW3 c) would you like to die in a concentration camp created by the new world order, or d) if you are not already dead, would you like to have a microchip in your neck and a boot in your face.
Do I come across as pessimistic?
I agree with you Zoologist. So what do we do? I get a bit downed when I start to think about the fate the world have to look forward to.
It’s funny, we have our own little corner in a thread no-one reads, in other places they are tearing each other up in pieces about what part of the NWO that did the killings in France. This is the chill-out zone.
I think I’ll go watch some Mandelbrot fractals.
@Sunflower. I think we have a padded thread here all to ourselves. Are we are in isolation – in case we infect the general populous?
Don’t be dispondent. The world has always been thus. It is better now than it has ever been for the 99 % ers (in rich western countries). The internet wasn’t part of the plan I don’t think.
I found a quote for you btw. I hope you like it.
Intelligence is an extremely subtle concept. It’s a kind of understanding that flourishes if it’s combined with a good memory, but exists anyway even in the absence of good memory. It’s the ability to draw consequences from causes, to make correct inferences, to foresee what might be the result, to work out logical problems, to be reasonable, rational, to have the ability to understand the solution from perhaps insufficient information. You know when a person is intelligent, but you can be easily fooled if you are not yourself intelligent.
Isaac Asimov
🙂
Hi Clark:
In general I believe that to be the case, certainly where you control your hardware and trust the software on it. However it is quite possible for a router to grab a wifi MAC address and forward that on, either at connection time, or per-request, to the ISP. Home routers are most unlikely to do that, since someone would be bound to reverse engineer and cry foul, but it might be done at free wifi points, such as in cafes who’ve installed a “DIY public wifi” kit.
Zoologist – you ask about THE Carbon Trust…..ha ha ha….a failed quango riding £3,000 bicycles on the ‘to work commute’ while dreaming of a sea of windmills allready proved to fail …..ambition far exceeds ability…..alas…..it pays a good pension to the ones that count……
but being Machiavellian…me that is……I was happy with what I got out of it……
If they had read your Asimov quote……well they have not…..
but they ARE all OXBRIDGE, I gather it was a requirement of employment….old boys……what what….
I have enjoyed very much reading your history lesson, I have a lot of reading and exploring to do now……
Sunflower……can I join you for “a beer and a joint + some Mandelbrot fractals”……..
I’d just like to apologise for being away from this thread; I’d posted all sorts of things here, and then found myself too busy to keep up. It looks like I’ll be another day yet… Grief, look at the time. I need sleep…
Best wishes all.
PS, you know who you are, I got your message from the queue, and sent it on, as requested. I e-mailed back, too. I don’t seem to have received the e-mail you said you sent, but quite a few e-mails don’t seem to get through these days. I’m getting a bit paranoid about that…
@Jon “since someone would be bound to reverse engineer and cry foul”
Considering most hardware is closed source and considering the power and resources the ruling elite has as well as the enormous importance information as such represents, it would surprise me if covert surveillance technology is not already incorporated in much of the hardware used for digital communication. The scepticism the Huawai communication hardware is met with by the US authorities tells me this is already going on.
It will not be long until each individual connecting to a distributed network like the Internet will require a personal biometrical hard-coded MAC-address is order to access it. Non-elite controlled encryption will be out-lawed as well. Non-conformation will equal terrorism and will be penalised with death or life imprisonment in a camp.
Dopeyjoe, I would be honoured.
Clark, “I’m getting a bit paranoid about that…” It’s probably just technical glitches, maybe spam filters etc.
Big Brother just oversees your communication, profiles you and makes sure you are always afraid of something. Should you become an actual threat in the future you will be terminated.
In the mean time, take precaution that you do not commit any thoughtcrimes and if you come across anyone thinking in a suspicious manner let the Ministry of Love know about it. We will deal with if swiftly and efficiently.
Yours truly, O’Brien Sunflower
I’m very sad this morning. I got very sad some days ago, but I recovered for a while, but I’m very sad again today. I suppose that I know the cause. I want to be a moral entity with free will. I do not want to be God’s toy, or a pet. Such an existence would not be worth living, and it would be terrifying, because it could be impossible to escape.
I don’t want to be the toy or the pet of any individual either.
You probably don’t have a clue what I’m on about, and in that, you are probably far more normal than me. If nothing is true, and everything is permitted, we all may as well be alone in the universe. If there are no such things as consistency and honesty, we may as well be figments of each other’s imaginations. No personal love is possible in such a world. All that could be available would be narcissism, because anyone you could love would be merely a figment of your own imagination. I suppose one could love the creator of such a reality, but I don’t think I would.
Is there anybody out there? Or are you all just bricks in the wall?
Sunflower, I see that your 10:04 comment contains what I could take as a death threat, should you be acting on behalf of some power or authority. That’s really nasty. I hope I never treat you that way.
Sunflower, there are inconsistencies in your communication with me. The most likely explanation is that you deliberately lied to me.
I’m going to catch up with reading this thread next. I feel that there is malicious intent directed toward me. One source of this bad will would appear to be Sunflower.
Sunflower, I apologise if this is not the case. If needs be, I shall explain more fully here. But It would be better, I think, if you pre-empted that by explaining here yourself, for all to see.
Hi Clark: I think Sunflower was joking at 10:04, with some 1984 references.
Sunflower, at 2 Oct, 10:34 pm, you quoted Richard Feynman: “Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts”.
What do you understand by that?
Regarding the formulae of quantum physics; no, I do not have a formal mathematical understanding of them. However, I do have such understanding of many physical formulae, I just never got quite that far before dropping out of study. I do have a reasonable conceptual understanding of the results of the more famous quantum experiments.
Complex mathematics isn’t that hard, nothing like PhD level. Can you multiply out something like the following?
(2x+3y)(-4x+6y)
Please, Clark. I was ironic, I’m as paranoid as you. That is the limitation of digital communication like this. I took for granted that you would understand my irony,
No, I don’t lie to you Clark. I have no reason to do that. I speak my mind and sometimes there may be inconsistencies but I can promise you there is no ill intent. On the contrary, I’m trying to formulate myself in ways that will not offend or hurt you and at the same time be true to my own perspective of the world.
And I love Pink Floyd, really love. They are the greatest rock band ever in my book.
Clark, I really really, apologise for formulating myself in such a clumsy way.
Zoologist, I fully endorse your political notes above regarding the matters of vested interest, The City of London and The Crown, some of the Internationalist organizations that you list, The 1953 Iranian coup of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, weapons manufacture and export.
Some of the groups you list I have little or no knowledge about.
I agree that “Well-connected, wealthy, privileged people meet on the yachts of the super-rich to carve up the world between them.” Where I start to disagree is when you lump all of these wealthy and powerful individuals and groups into some amorphous “them”. It can look like an amicable carve-up from the view of commoners on the outside. But I strongly believe that these groups and individuals are in competition with each other, to varying extents, and with secret and less secret alliances between them. These powerful entities wouldn’t have become powerful unless they were competitive, and I don’t believe that the competitive impulse just “switches off”, and they all suddenly become cooperative when it comes to interraction between them
This is why I disagree with those who suggest that there is a global conspiracy to de-populate the world. Some of the powerful entities are, or work through, the governments of nations, and the populations of those nations form part of their power base. Likewise, some of the powerful entities are corporations. For corporations, the mass of people are essential, as workforce and as markets.
It is contrary to the interests of a powerful entity to reduce its own power-base by decimating that population over which it has control or primary influence.
Also, natural circumstances are more powerful than any of these powerful entities. For instance, I do not believe that cooperation between powerful groups led to decisions that has made the human population increase so rapidly in the last few centuries. I think that happened because of developments in technology.
Glenn at 3 Oct, 2:35 am, thank you for this sensible comment.
DopeyJoe 2 Oct, 7:48 pm:
What are you referring to here? The provisional nature of the scientific description is its strength, not its weakness. This is science differing from belief systems and scripture, seen in action.
Zoologist has asked you to expound upon this. I, too, would like to read more.
Sunflower, you have not explained what it was in your communication that led to my suspicion. If you do not do so, I will.