Civil War?

[Charlie]

This is a terrifying thought, but reading the papers, I can't help but throw it out there...

Forteanajones posted a link to a John Titor site; Titor was a supposed time traveller from the future. One of his predictions is an American civil war starting in late 2004 or 2005. At first blush it seems like a ridiculous, impossible occurrence, but…

A few of my friends from the East and West coasts visited last month. I asked about the mood of the country. “Extremely divided,” is what they replied. Unlike other periods of unrest, the division is not generational, but idealogical in nature.

I read accounts from many Bostonians who were hassled or inconvenienced by FBI and local police during the Democratic convention. These people were angry. Some angry to the point of violence…

I also keep reading about electronic voting and the state of Florida… that it’s not to be trusted…

What if Bush wins again by questionable means? Would a small percentage of people take to the streets? And if those people were fired on, would there be an even greater backlash? Is a civil war at all plausible, or am I just being paranoid?

Maybe I should be like GWB and simply not read the newspaper...

[Lowlight]

hey charlie i heard about the titor thing from a friend in work a while back. i looked some of the stuff up on the net and as of now i am undecided as to the truth of it. But at least he did make concrete claims that we can look out for. If they start to come true then we know we are on to something. As for the actual thing of a civil war i think something akin to it is possible if bush robs the election again, or even if he wins it outright. but i cant see the milatary being divided so i think the conflict would be a street revolutionary affair of some decription. And if so? i dont blame them, if i was in the US i would be out on the streets with them. as mush as i would like him not to win i have become totally convinced he will, not that it wont outrage me when it happens. Anyway take care people. spread the word.

[Humming]

In my opinion, there's no way in hell that Bush will lose this election. That doesn't mean that he will win it, either....

But does it really matter? The one party Republicrat system is transparently idiotic. In our Democracy you can vote for any candidate you choose, but only one of two of those candidates will have any chance of being elected.

It's like that old joke of being able to buy a car of any color as long as it's black. You can vote for any person, as long as they're a member of the corporate elite.

I don't see a revolution happening for another few years, maybe a few decades. However, if our shared consciousness is indeed going to be thrown overboard and reformed in the wake of our current materialistic destructive mindset, then political revolution might be an incidental, insignificant point 8 years from now.

[sire_012]

But does it really matter? The one party Republicrat system is transparently idiotic. on the surface it does seem to appear there's no difference between the two candidates. but really, there is a great difference between how the two administrations could effect the future of this country and to say there isn't is just fucking foolish. the president is the egregore of whichever political party he/she represents and in that sense is not allowed to show the divergence of ideology that you find in the lesser rolls, more subtle representations in the house, the senate, and the state governments.

there are flaws indeed with the us government, but there is still a fairly great divide between the social on rush of a democratic administration and a republican administration, the tenor which sets into the public discourse as a result of that and the means by which we execute public policy.

its not the president's job to speak to the specific issues but to represent a current of power, grossly, and to carry that representation at the helm of the ship. don't think for a second that things won't be different with Kerry in office. they may not be the highest ideal of a potential but they'll sure as hell be a step in the right direction from where we are now.

what difference does it make? a whole bunch bubba and i can't freaking wait to see this shit change and soon.

[daniel]

I find that I cannot convince myself that Kerry's selection will make a difference. It will slow down the entropic process of the system self-dissolving, and I do not even know if I want that. I don't even know if it is good for anyone if Kerry wins - there will still be a republican congress, so little chance of making any meaningful progress in any direction, meanwhile the liberal perspective will then be blamed for any future failures of the system. Perhaps Attila the Bush will then win in 2008 with an almost unimaginably frightening mandate.

My proposition in my book is that the only thing that can save humanity is the adaptation of a new "timing frequency," a new calendar, that will delegitimize the encrustation of old institutes and debt structures and nation-state charters set up under the old defunct mindset.

After much consideration, I have realized that Arguelles' calendar is not the answer - we will need a global "meeting of minds" to determine the correct harmonic timing program, perfectly synchronized to cosmic and natural cycles.

The problem with Arguelles' calendar is there is no perfect 28-day lunar cycle. There is a 27 day cycle and a 29.5 day cycle. His system is therefore just as abstract and imperfect as the present Gregorian system. His basic underlying insight is absolutely correct - a new calendar as a "new covenant" - but his solution was too rapidly conceived and launched.

I propose a gathering of astronomers, religious leaders, and engineers to institute the correct time for the future.

[Humming]

Sire, I concur that some of the face-value policies will change if Kerry is elected. But while the rhetoric will be different, the underlying structures of perpetual class warfare and material illusion will remain unchanged.

A vote for Kerry is NOT a step in the right direction, it is a continuation of the same old path. A serious overhaul and reconsideration of the necessity and true workings of our social institutions would be a step in the right direction, and Kerry will most definately not give anyone that.

Daniel, I agree. If Bush stays in office, intelligent liberals, people with a sense of morality but still bound to the system, will continue to be enraged and critical of the situation. If the evolutionary political pressure continues to be stressful and undeniable, we can make change--like the creation of a diamond.

If Kerry is elected, most liberals will rest on their laurels, content that the evil dictator has been dethroned, and they can quit reading and discussing governmental atrocities and continue their mundane lives.

I would rather see the fires ignited fiercely and continue to burn than not.

As far as the collective shift in consciousness, I think that any conception should be seen metaphorically. We can envision 2012 as the point at which, if we can succeed in subduing the ego and moving forward into uncharted mental territories, we will be able to create something truly new and wonderful. I would view any calander system as a sort of temporal devotional object. The idea is interesting--it would certainly be useful to have something for everyone to focus their positive energy on.

[sire_012]

daniel:
I propose a gathering of astronomers, religious leaders, and engineers to institute the correct time for the future.as with most of your ideas daniel i love the equal parts starry eyed dreamer and insatiable intellect, it's both your gift and your charm. i can't argue against your proposal and wouldn't want to, it's wonderful and would indeed be a great thing to see come to be.

however, i'm certain you'd agree that, since 99.99% of the global community isn't aware that what they need to solve their problems is to abruptly change their means of measuring years, this council of astronomers, religious leaders, and engineers probably won't meet, let alone come to a decision about this new calender before November of this year. perhaps in the meantime you might throw a bone to an option for change, however small?

[gone]

I seem to keep harping on about personal responsibility in these debates, so… Perhaps a small bone could be individuals opting out of the time status quo? This could be as simple as not wearing a watch to a refusal to acknowledge the Gregorian calendar in daily life.

Furthermore I think an eventual Future Clock might not be a singularity at all, but rather an acceptance that time is local in a very keen sense; let’s use latitude and longitude for the crudest examples right through to a union with the illusory nature of time.

Different modes of time could exists in different places, much like the way there are different languages spoken, with the exception that we might reach a point where we let go of the need to create a general yardstick by which to measure all others (i.e., not creating the time version of English).

[Charlie]

Just to lighten things up--believe me, it's worth the wait for the download.

http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/contentPlay/shockwave.jsp?id=this_land&preplay=1

[gone]

*he he*

[daniel]

sire,

I don't know if I can "throw a bone to an option for change" at this point, if that bone is the Democrats.

I think the level of delusion operating in the current debate is ridiculous - Bush has been blamed by liberals for everything. Everywhere I go I see anti-Bush t-shirts etc. Don't they get that by opposing Bush they are essentially feeding him energy and promoting him? It is this idiotic dualistic thinking that depresses me.

You can only oppose evil by building what is good and true.

As for Kerry, he VOTED TO AUTHORIZE THE WAR IN IRAQ. Did he crusade against the Patriot Act? Did he stop Clinton from approving NAFTA? He is completely compromised as far as I can see.

The biosphere is literally collapsing on us. Our institutions are bankrupt. Reform is not going to help when a complete renovation is necessary.

As for merging "starry eyed dreamer and insatiable intellect," the only chance we have is to be absolutely truthful about our situation, find the one solution that will work, and then completely dedicate ourselves to actualizing it.

After having thought about it scrupulously, using my "insatiable intellect" as you say, I am convinced that the new timing frequency is the only pragmatic solution to our catastrophe. Through a new timing frequency - a new covenant, as Arguelles says - we will be able to activate the noosphere, and transition to the new consciousness structure, escaping the dictates of the reptile brain to finally utilize the neocortex to its potential. I suspect that this is the goal of our current evolution.

There is no reason to give psychic and emotional energy to a system that cannot be stopped from self-destructing.

Pragmatic utopianism is, in fact, pragmatism.

[Phlash]

With regard to the Democrats and Kerry I agree with almost all that you are saying, Daniel. Kerry is not the answer and is a part of the problem. Nevertheless, as between these representatives of the factions of the the mono-business party (Kerry = Center Right & Bush = Far Right) I agree with Sire to a certain extent. The difference is that Kerry is somewhat less likely to lead us into nuclear catastrophe than is Bush. The underlying policies are exactly the same, its the pace at which they pursue them that is different. Perhaps if we can buy sometime without a mushroom cloud we can focus more people are making the transition a positive one. It may be inevitable, but I would not like to see (or be in ) a nuclear war. I'm certainly not saying that a vote for Kerry is a vote that ensures no nukes, just that it may buy some time. For that reason alone I think its worthwhile to vote for him.

[Lowlight]

Daniel, i do not know what you mean by a new time frequency, nor how this will change things. forgive me, i can only read so much and arguelles is not someone i have come across yet. as for bush/kerry, bush will win, its as simple as that. Im not sure if it is right to only build what is good and true though. I think that is part of what needs to be done, but we also need to carry the fight to the oppressors. this can be done simply through raising awarness of injustice amongst those who you know and come in contact with. WE MUST SPEAK OUT, WE MUST. If the world is language then we must strengthen the language of protest and in that way we can represent better ideals that are conducive to community and integration. The earth will continue along its downward spiral until the time of destruction will end. Then we can start anew, then we can create anew. The only thing i fear is, how many of us must die in the process.

[daniel]

phlash and lowlight,

There is nothing to fear, and nobody to fear it.

Phlash,

If you understand the "reality of the psyche" in all of its dimensions, then you understand that Bush has absolutely no control over launching nuclear war - and neither would Kerry. We are undergoing a collective process of individuation, the activation of the noosphere, and figures like Kerry and Bush are simply puppets, pulled here and there by various forces, with no possibility of unleashing destruction according to their own will.

Gurdjieff was excellent, if harsh, at describing this type of condition. He noted that many people - including most political leaders - are in fact already dead. Most people, according to G, are almost complete automatons. Although they all have the spark of the Christ or the Buddha deep inside of them, it is possible that they are simply incapable of access that spark under present conditions in this lifetime. I do not wish anyone harm - but having accepted and integrated an understanding of reincarnation, I can see that in some cases it may be that people will require future earthly lives to purify their karma and work on their imperfections. So instead I prefer to turn my attention to those people who are evolving, who have chosen the path of conscious-intensification, and are experiencing, as I am, the intensifying reality of the psyche in our present circumstances.

I can and do with their liberation and salvation, but I also feel that worrying about the fate of the masses on an abstract level is a trap of the mental structure of consciousness. When we are full of anxiety over masses, abstract quantities, and statistics, we are not paying attention to the subtle reality and deeper attunements that are possible in our immediate, immanent, present. We are only throwing more fuel onto the fire.

If we want to shift the world into a more harmonic pattern, we will have to change the timing frequency.

[sire_012]

daniel:
I am convinced that the new timing frequency is the only pragmatic solution to our catastrophe. i find it hard to believe that you have come to the conclusion that in a world situation as complex as ours there is only ONE solution. to conclude that there is a panacea for the present condition and that cure all is a theory as outre as a new global calender seems like defeatism dressed in fairly ornate optimists' clothing. i'm open and excited to be convinced otherwise, but this one is a bit hard for me to swallow to be totally honest.

i'm attracted to arguelles' calender theory as a powerful metaphor of the revolution we are undergoing. throughout history most conquering bodies would, after seizing a civilization, first change the calender of the overthrown and then change their holidays. this would, in effect, leave the people without any cultural identity to cling upon in order to maintain their personal strength. in most ways this is what America has done and does to people, consciously or not. and yes, this is what must happen eventually in a new method of being. but to think that it will be so blatant, immediate, and ham handed as to occur in the open, under public scrutiny, at hair pin speed not woven into the subtle change over time seems a misperception of what is available.

yes we are involved in a revolution and we will eventually change our perception of time and how we clock it, but to offer that as the salve to resuscitate the global body seems to be addressing a cardiac patient in the throws of arrest with a new diet to live by. it's needed, it's imperative, but there are a few more essential and immediate issues that will have to be addressed before that can be made useful. and really, before that is even allowed and accepted in the world consciousness.

daniel:
As for merging "starry eyed dreamer and insatiable intellect," the only chance we have is to be absolutely truthful about our situation, find the one solution that will work, and then completely dedicate ourselves to actualizing it. agreed. i hope you didn't take the starry eyed dreamer/intellect thing as a stab, don't see how you could, but it does seem you've got some hostility towards it. i actually feel that that is the construction of a mind that can actually alter the frequency of this plane and strive to surround myselves with only people who fit that model. if you want a panacea i'd say that is it, bring people to the point of critically challenging ideas while applying vast potentialities to their imagination and that indeed could bring us from the brink of catastrophe.

daniel:
When we are full of anxiety over masses, abstract quantities, and statistics, we are not paying attention to the subtle reality and deeper attunements that are possible in our immediate, immanent, present. totally agree with this. i can't help but view the world and every person, situation seemingly external to myself as another script reflecting my internal struggles. if i view them as something seperate to me i feel lost, isolated, like the world is out of control and i can't do anything to change it. but when i remember that everything extending in all directions is but another emenation of me allowing me to come to understand a greater means towards my highest frequency of being i can see immediate changes in the world around me, i can begin to heal from myself outwards and actually create great change in my immediate and extended environment.

in many ways it seems much of the media and popular culture is a shadow manifestation of human consciousness pushing us to recoil further from our fears, further from ourselves, making us believe we are seperate, we are individual. a first step towards healing our body as it exists presently is to move inward, enable yourself to remember that you are from the absolute as is everything around you, its simply different points of the absolute obsessing over itself, which is, ultimately you. care, understanding, work, and patience will go a long way to heal this body right now.

[daniel]

if a patient is dying of a heart attack it is not going to help to massage their feet, give them aspirin for their headache, etc. You can only cure them by addessing the essential cause of their suffering, not any symptom.

The underlying cause of our current misguided path is the unnatural mechanization of time.

Everything else springs from this one source.

The Earth is part of a "Sun Moon Earth" system, and to achieve solar-lunar integration we need to be on a timing frequency that actualizes our cosmic situation, which is like the Earth's respiration in a sense. And please remember I am not supporting Arguelles' calendar. We are going to need a "meeting of minds" from different disciplines to work this out correctly.

If you think about this for a while, I think you will come to realize why no less drastic reform measures can work.

In the process of understanding this - first of all for ourselves and then explaining it carefully to others -- we help to change the conditions that make it seem impossible from this present point.

The government of Bushistan operates on the principle of the "Big Lie" that fools enough of the people enough of the time.

The only possible counterstrategy is the "Big Truth," seemingly coming out of nowhere, to reformat the planetary consciousness, and incite the planetization of humanity.

before taking this idea seriouisly, i spent a lot of time looking at other possibilities - new currencies with different value systems, liberal and ecological reforms, etc.

But after much thought, I realized Arguelles and Gebser are correct: Time is the ultimate problem, and a change in time is the only solution.

I know it sounds flippy, but nobody believed Copernicus or Galileo at first, either.

[sire_012]

daniel:
In the process of understanding this - first of all for ourselves and then explaining it carefully to others -- we help to change the conditions that make it seem impossible from this present point... I know it sounds flippy, but nobody believed Copernicus or Galileo at first, either. that's my problem... it *does* sound flippy to me. smile.gif and i'm a person who is not typically the grounding voice of a situation to say the least. so if it sounds strange to me, it sure seems a daunting task to carry this meme into a straighter environment.

have you given any consideration to how this meme can be legitimized in the public mind? have you considered methods of perpetuating this meme, perhaps under the social breath? perhaps a good start to initiating this meeting of the minds is to gather a strategy to push the collective views towards this meme, but how???

[daniel]

sire,

can you, first of all, agree that the relationship to time is the underlying cause of our crisis?

Modern technology is an exteriorization of this misconceived relationship to time.

We treat time as if it were made up entirely of spatial quantities - as it was an amount you could somehow possess. We talk of having "enough time," running out of time, saving time, spending time, killing time, wasting time. But if sit and think about time, you realize it is not an amount in any way - you can't run faster to catch up with it.

The Western technological obsession with speed and size -- faster rockets, bigger buildings, Hummers -- is due to the suppression, and repressed anxiety, over the nature of time. Think about the way time is used in modern sports, for instance.

For Gebser, the birth of the machine represented the beginning of an inevitable process in which time breaks free from space - from the static spatial conception we attained in the Renaissance. Throughout the modern period, humanity became obsessed - possessed by space and quantity. Prehistoric man had no interest in this.

The modern "machine man" hurries, faster and faster, towards nowhere. He is already dead because he has no conception of the nature of time.

Time is quality, not quantity.

Time is inseparable from consciousness.

A new calendar - or timing frequency - would be a way of reifying a new direction for humanity: Not seeking to escape from time (which is not possible) through Promethean feats of technological strength or speed, but seeking an "inscape" deeper into the true nature of time, which is also the true nature of consciousness.

By promoting a new calendar, you would be promoting a new orientation to time, in its essence. Therefore, in promoting the change, you would be advancing the idea of a new consciousness.

And also: as mentioned earlier, a new timing frequency would instantly delegitimize and dissolve the entire coagulation of nation-state charters, debt structures, corporate charters, legal codes, etcetera, that are currently holding humanity back from its proper evolution.

How is this going to come about?

I have no friggin' clue.

[Humming]

What a fascinating discussion....

I have taken long ponderance as to the nature of time, and generally have come apart more confused than I was at the beginning.

Society's current obsession with innanities is dictated purposefully to smother the truth of consciousness--that the infinite exists holographically in all parts of the plenum, all expressions of the same reflection.

The fragmentation of time, the idiotic obsessiveness--the ego process--is specifically engineered as a form of temporal mind control. The general populace is lead by the carrot on the stick, which is the projection of the future: if I work hard, get through school, then I can have a good job, wealth and happiness in the future, etc.

Our calendar is based on Christianity. We are living in the year 2004 A.D., two thousand and four years after the death of Christ. What does this mean, to have a religious system dictating our conception of time?

The nature of perceived time is intimately related to the nature of perceived death. Within our current conception of time, death is the ever looming end-conclusion.

The same architects of the Gregorian calendar, presume to dictate not only the substance of time, but also the substance of after-time, the after-life. Death is an implied correlation created by this calendar system.

As Saul Williams has said, more aptly than I have in so many words, "only believers in death will die."

The adoption of a new calander system could utterly revolutionize everything about the way that we conceieve of ourselves.

I had never really thought about the calendar until now, but it is self-evidentally one of the over-arching, indeed perhaps THE most significant aspect of modern (un)consciousness, deciding every perceieved moment for every human on the planet.

If we do our best to change the current dynamics, that's all that we can do. I find solace in the inevitably that truth runs like love and water--it will always find a way.

This is a new discussion for me, certainly exciting. I've briefly explored Arguelles' woprk, browsing at the bookstore, but I will have to go deeper now.

Daniel, do you have an idea of what this new calendar would be? It is difficult for me to conceieve of it, but it seems that it would necessarily need to somehow integrate the infinite experience. Is that possible?

[daniel]

Hooray, Humming!

I am happy my idea has captivated you (unless you are humoring me?).

I think the new calendar would probably be based on Mayan principles to some extent, but incorporating other thought systems and symbol systems. This is really an engineering problem, to a certain extent. Robin Heath's book Sun, Moon, and Stonehenge is one entrypoint.

The idea would be to enfold and integrate different calendrical ideas rather than rejecting anything and thereby causing more bad feelings.

The goal would be to align enlightened modern scientific knowledge with esoteric traditions. I haven't done thinking about the mechanics of it beyond this... too busy focusing on what I need to do to finish my book, but afterwards I will do research. Calleman is a scholar who has explicated the Day-Count, so I will take a look at that. But I think the Mayan system is probably one jumping-off place, not the endpoint.

[stu]

at least you guys have attila the bush for at most, 8 years. think of th epeople who have had robert mugabe for th epast 24 years. i'm sure the americans are between a rock and a hard place. do you have the answer?

[sire_012]

daniel:
can you, first of all, agree that the relationship to time is the underlying cause of our crisis? i can indeed see how the means by which someone perceives the progression of their existence can and does order their method of existence, yes. i also see the value in the model arguelles has put forward, viewing time in patterns and trends in lieu of viewing it as a forward trodding. is it the underlying cause of our crisis? i don't know. i can't say it isn't, but i can't rightly say it is yet either and i know i'd have a hell of a time trying to convince someone else of this, especially someone who has never indulged in a mystical experience in their life.

as humming pointed out the gregorian calender is inexterably bound to christianity and the monotheistic view of reality. and monotheism has done as great a job as any calender to perpetuate this system of living that says fuck all to this world in exchange for getting your stock binge in the after life. in many ways i would think the argument against monotheism would be easier to make than to make the argument that its our asymetric means of tracking the days that is monking us up. and it may be a better plan of attack, because - although many wiccans and pagans stand in contradiction to this statement - when you start veiwing the world in a pantheistic manner your conceptions of judgement and achievement tend to take on more complex renderings. where once there was simply a goal now there's the permutations along the journey, etc...

i know, i'm rambling a bit and stating the obvious, mostly because i'm using this public space to work out my own thoughts on this matter... sorry. smile.gif

i think my greatest hurdle in coming to accept what you're putting forward daniel is whether this shift in calendrics, and this change in consciousness is going to be something consciously pursued or whether it will be a natural artifact of slow evolutionary change. my personal opinion is that it will be the result of great cultural transition and not as the impetus for that change. my intuition is that through things like Burning Man, these forums, the Day Out of Time celebrations, and other similar gatherings and groups, these loose tribes of people will be drawn closer together in the coming chaos, as the stresses of the times draw people into quarters. those who survive will put together new civilizations, perhaps the techno/hippie set will apply this calender if we have creative enough leadership in that direction. i don't think this will be something to sweep the globe as it just seems like too much to ask most people to consider their life larger than their job let alone ask them to accept that the means with which they are veiwing reality needs an upgrade.

but with that said, i'd be overjoyed to be able to facilitate healing without the trauma, and if applying this calender (or this theoretical calender as daniel you said you aren't fully down with arguelles' project) is a means to that end i am willing and interested to begin indoctrinating people. but how?

i would think the most logical step would be taking a feather from Steiner's hat and applying these methods of patterned occurance and trends in personal experience to methods of schooling and indoctrinating children into it from the ground up. new methods of learning and achieving understanding based upon this would be a fascinating update to many out moded theories on schooling. perhaps the best way is to create this program and have it applied in small groups of home schooling parents? 5 kids, 5 groups of parents, a different parent leads a different day of the week, etc. get the kids out of these prisons and give them a learning experience that will alter they means of perceiving themselves.

it's one idea, and it's a start. it seems worth developing further. does anybody have any other ideas like this as a way to transmute collective consciousness...

b

[daniel]

sire,

First you have to understand and fully accept that the civilization we are in now is not going to last much longer. As it says in the Tao, "Non-Tao is short-lived." The end of this system is not going to be decades, but years, away.

To substantiate this, I recommend Ed Ayres book "God's Last Offer," Jerry Mander's compilation "The Case Against the Global Economy," Ross Gelbspan's "The Heat Is On," Greg Palast's "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy," Herbert Marcuse's "One-Dimensional Man," etcetera. The Independent in the UK has been running a devastating series of pieces on the global environment.

Ayres, formerly of World Watch, does a great job of logically following the spikes in population, resource consumption, biospheric destruction, etc., that lead to the inevitable conclusion we have reached the end of the line. Economists writing in The Case Against the Global Economy conclude that the global financial system is a "house of cards" that could come crashing down at any time.

As the black out in NYC last summer, 9-11, or the recent Florida storm destruction show, this system is very fragile. At the same time, desertification is claiming 200,000 kilometers of land per year, deforestation is increasing, etc.

From my perspective, what is holding the entire thing together at this point are higher spiritual beings and elemental beings, who are waiting for human consciousness to take the next step, at which point we will be in conscious communion with the noosphere, activating an extraordinary new phase in human development.

To reach that point, we have to understand the crisis we are in and move to a higher level of consciousness as well as activating the will necessary to deal with it - this means a pragmatic and forceful and warrior-like mentality that simply accepts where we are at without any depression or nihilism and does what is necessary to make things right.

One point I am trying to make about the new timing frequency is that in the process of people reaching an understanding of it, their consciousness already shifts into a different perspective on the entire situation we are in. Most people have completely forgotten that they are living in a social construction, manifested by a certain level of mind, with a limited ego-based program and systemic irrational rationality to support it.

The basis of the systemic irrational rationality is found in our misconception of the nature of time. The linear or spatialized construct of time is only one aspect, and the least important one, of temporality. Therefore to conceive that model of time as the only form of time is to be completely in error, and a society based on that perspective can only end in cataclysm.

When we fully incorporate the full dimensions of time into all of our thoughts and consideration, it changes everything. For instance, if I asked most people how long they think the United States will exist, they would look at me as if I was insane. They have forgotten that all nations and empires have a certain period - they are like efflorescences of certain social and linguistic conditions, when those conditions change, the nation or empire ceases to exist. "All that is solid melts into air."

On every level, people are wired into a very limited paradigm, an incredible deformation that is maintained by the media and political elites who are also only concerned with extremely short-term goals and gains. When you really contemplate this, you realize this almost ensures that this system is about to collapse.

We can also see an interesting telescoping of temporality through the last 100 years. At least in the Depression they thought they were building a lasting society. The European colonialists tried to build enduring support structures - railroads etc - in their conquered countrties. Decade by decade, the mentality has become increasingly short term until the Bush people are really only thinking on the most limited level of immediate dominance.
They are completely reptile-brain-oriented.

In any event, once you fully realize this entire system not only will but must collapse with relative alacrity, the question becomes not about reform but how could we create the underpinnings for a new harmonic order that would actually answer to the complexities and the high speeds of the new situation? To do that, we need to be in right relationship to time.

To be right in relationship to time is to be in right relationshiip with the solar system and the cosmos - as Gurdjieff said, a year is one breath of the Earth. The movements of the other planets also affect the evolution of human consciousness on the Earth - I anticipate a science combining rationality and intuition that will be able to understand this.

[daniel]

sire: "in many ways i would think the argument against monotheism would be easier to make than to make the argument that its our asymetric means of tracking the days that is monking us up. ... although many wiccans and pagans stand in contradiction to this statement - when you start veiwing the world in a pantheistic manner your conceptions of judgement and achievement tend to take on more complex renderings. "

If monotheism was the basic problem, I might agree, but I feel that all of the various perspectives on the Sacred can be reconciled - each one is after all just a flavor or aspect of something that is numinous and beyond full expression. Once again, a new calendar or "synchronometer" or timing frequency is an interesting solution to this - it is interesting that the Nation of Islam has backed Arguelles' calendar to a certain degree, Tynetta Muhammed, Elijah Muhammed's widow has travelled and lectured with him.

I say this again : A truly synchronized calendar would harmonize the various religions and esoteric and indigenous traditions with modern rational scientific thought.

sire, you ask if "this change in consciousness is going to be something consciously pursued or whether it will be a natural artifact of slow evolutionary change."

I would say that there is no shot at "slow evolutionary change" as the time is over for that. The only possible evolution now is one that comes from the superior aspects of our psyche to reshape the inferior and inherited characteristics. In a sense, Jungian psychoanalysis on a planetary scale.

You cannot have an evolution in consciousness non-consciously. It can only be brought into being by the will and focused intent of individuals who understand the situation.

We have seen over and over again that the will and imagination of a handful of people is enough to transform huge populations and the world itself. Look at Ghandi, Martin Luther King, or the The Beat Generation. Since I know the Beat story more personally, it should be noted that in late 1950s they were a tiny phenomenon, a few years later there were "The Beatles" and millions of hippies and a vast countercultural movement. With new technology and the need for new concepts and new ideas, the next transformation could happen even far more rapidly and completely.

As I said in the book , the 60s were the first phase of an initiation process. The second phase will complete itself within the next eight years, imho.

[Humming]

Daniel, knowing more about the calanders than I do, do you think that 2012 will be "the Ending of Time" as proposed in various ways by various people? "Time" being a psychological construct tied inextricably to physical form. Without physical form, time would not exist.

It is painfully obvious to anyone living in a state of conscious reality that the unsustainable materialist empire is in its final death throes. Having read "Ozymandias" in High School, and then Eastern philosophy as I got older, this realiziation of impermanence has been with me for a long time. The reptile brain has devoured itself. The timescales are the only unknown to me, but the immediate contagion and destruction of the biosphere leads me to believe that it won't be long now.

"From my perspective, what is holding the entire thing together at this point are higher spiritual beings and elemental beings, who are waiting for human consciousness to take the next step, at which point we will be in conscious communion with the noosphere, activating an extraordinary new phase in human development."

This has been an extremely strange concept for me to grapple with, but I am certain of it now. I talked for a while with a friend last night about her conversation with the mushroom entities. They detailed the situation to her as an imminent cataclysm, in which humans will destroy themselves, the majority of us will die but the ones who survive will evolve incredibly, and move well beyond what our conception of "human" currently is.

The transformation to the fifth age is supposedly a transformation through fire.

On the one hand, I find it difficult to believe that the ones in power now, the ones controlling the nukes, the masters of domination could give up their obsessive strangle-hold on power without blowing the world apart first. On the other hand, I know that I must strive for peace and harmony, and disown evil thoughts.

"You cannot have an evolution in consciousness non-consciously. It can only be brought into being by the will and focused intent of individuals who understand the situation."

This seems axiomatic to me, but is it possible for those who have evolved to direct the consciousness of those still blinded by the system? Could we, through psychic uplifting, somehow make Bush and the whole ruthless gang of corporate primates spontaneously realize the error of their ways?

I could see this happening, perhaps, if there was some kind of deus ex machina, an extreme "divine intervention" in which humans were exposed to some force of consciousness, directly and inescapably, that would cause people to shatter the fantasy and embrace the reality. Is this in the cards for us?

Any thoughts would be helpful to me. The conversation last night has severely affected my ability to conceieve of a peaceful resolution to the dissolution of this paradigm. I will keep trying though--that's really all that we can do.

[michael heany]

Humming,

I know you posted your question for Daniel to answer, but let me add my thoughts.

Consider that everything wrong in the world now and in the past is because people are afraid. We're in the Middle East because we're afraid. All violence, emotional or physical, has its root in fear. Why are we afraid? Because we've mistakenly identified with our thoughts, our minds. The ego mind gains energy from fear. It lives off negative energy. It says "You are this body/mind among other body/minds. You need this, this or this to survive! Fight for it if you have to, if your body/mind gets hurt, that means you're close to annihilation! Protect yourself!"

You're mind is lying to. You are not your body or your mind. You are what is aware of both of them: Consciousness. That it your True Self.

God vs. the Devil: this is nothing more or less than your True Self (Consciousness, which is Eternal) vs. your false self (The Egoic Mind).

The Egoic Mind feeds on negative energy. If it had no negative energy, it would have no power over you.

By listening to your fears (those thoughts that tell you "Think about this, you should be afraid, very afraid...) you are effectively empowering The Devil.

The Devil only has power because you let it. Yes, you have a choice.

Next time a fearful thought comes into your mind, don't identify with it. By that I mean, don't let it turn into a stream of fearful thoughts that eventually shows up in your body as quivering or, ultimately, disease.

Simply observe the fear. That's Consciousness. When you simply feel and watch the fear without identifying with it, you'll notice that it goes away eventually. And with pratice your fear becomes weaker and weaker. The True Self gains in strength.

St. Paul wrote something about how "Everything is shown up in the Light, and that which is exposed to the light itself becomes light".

Remember: you are not the fear. You are the Consciousness that watches the fear. The fear can't touch you. Nothing can touch you. Because you're ultimate identity is the eternal Consciousness that prevades the universe.

The world gets worse because more and more people listen to their fears: "We HAVE to be there, because if we don't have oil, we'll die!" "I have to have that car, because if I don't, what will my friends think?" That is not Consciousness. That is the fearful self, the Egoic Mind.

This works on all negative emotions! I've played racquetball over the years with my friend, and though I've gotten better, it always frustrates me when he gets even better, at a quicker pace, and regularly whoops me. Now I'm not a guy with a temper, generally. But when I'm really far behind, I'll get so frustrated I'll throw my racquet down, kick the wall, all manner of ridiculous rage. After the game I'm able to let it go. But now I'm getting even better during the game. When I start to get frustrated, I turn on Consciousness: I observe the emotion. I watch instead of identifying with it. And it works! Has it turned me into a blissful loser? No, but I've shown myself that those absurd angry outbursts are not me: they are my mind/body feeding off negative energy and creating an identity out of it.

And your individual fear is just part of the collective fear. Republicans are afraid of what the Democrats will do if... Democrats are afraid of what the Republicans will do... It doens't matter what side of the fence you come down on. If you listen to your fears, you give the collective fear strength as well. We sink together or we rise together...

[Humming]

Micheal, the question/discussion was meant to be open, not just for Daniel. Thanks for your thoughts. I'm a lot more chill than I was last night.... I've been practicing the Abhaya Mudra and reading about how Shiva burns the world in a ring of fire at the end of time.

Certain aspects are frustrating; namely, it is difficult for me to believe a peaceable solution when it seems that we sit on the razor's edge of total anhilliation.

But, so it is always. And I can't complain, really. =)

[daniel]

Humming,

The process is guided by the Higher Mind of the species, or the noosphere of the Earth. I believe that everything is going to turn out very well. The psyche is becoming real -- therefore, all of the old bets are off.

We are actively engaged in the process of creating reality with our thoughts - this is becoming increasingly evident. Therefore, we should work to gain control of our thoughts. If we do not integrate the shadow - which includes all the worrying and fear and paranoid obsessing we tend to do - then we will continue to project the shadow.

We will live to see miraculous things, and a harmonious completion of this current age.

[imported_saoirse]

"I anticipate a science combining rationality and intuition that will be able to understand this."

Daniel - what you just said resonates deeply with the insights of a book i mentioned previously - "Meditations on the Tarot - A Journey into Christian Hermeticism". I urge you to check out this book, and not to be put off by the anonymous author's catholicism [he was a protégé of steiner, who later converted to catholicism]. there are some excerpts at this website:
http://www.medtarot.freeserve.co.uk/excerpts.htm

peace, kevin.

Excerpt from Meditation on the

Twentieth Major Arcanum of the Tarot

THE JUDGEMENT

______________

LE JUGEMENT

"The state of the brain continues the remembrance; it gives it a hold on the present by the materiality which it confers upon it: but pure memory is a spiritual manifestation. With memory we are in very truth in the domain of spirit."
(Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory; trsl. N. M. Paul and W S. Palmer, London, 1911, p. 320.)



"For as the Father raises the dead And gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.The Father judges no one, but has given all judgement to the Son..."

(John v, 21-22)



Dear Unknown Friend,

The Card that we have before us bears the traditional name "The Judgement", and what it represents is the resurrection of the dead at the sound of the trumpet of the Angel of resurrection. It is a matter, therefore, of a spiritual exercise where the use of intuition — that of the nineteenth Arcanum "The Sun" — has to be carried to a maximum, the theme of resurrection being of the order of "last things", but all the same accessible to intuitive cognition.

Now, the "last things" — or the spiritual horizon of humanity — are not the same for the whole of humanity. For some everything finishes with the death of the individual and with the complete dissipation — maximum entropy — of the warmth of the universe. For others there is a "beyond", an individual existence after death and an existence of a non-material universe after the end of the world. For still others there is not only spiritual life after death for the individual but also his return to terrestrial life — reincarnation — as well as cosmic reincarnation, i.e. an alternation of states of manvantara and pralaya. Others, again, see for the individual something beyond repeated incarnations, namely the state of supreme peace of union with the eternal and universal Being (the state of nirvana). Lastly, there is a part of mankind whose existential horizon goes beyond not only post mortem existence and reincarnation, but also even beyond the peace of union with God —it is resurrection which constitutes their spiritual horizon.

It is in the Iranian and Judaeo-Christian spiritual currents — i.e. in Zoroastrianism, Judaism and Christianity — that the idea and ideal of resurrection has taken root. The advent of the idea and ideal of resurrection was "as lightning coming from the east and shining as far as the west" (Matthew xxiv, 27). The inspired prophet of the East, namely the great Zarathustra in Iran, and the inspired prophets of the West — Isaiah, Ezekiel and Daniel in Israel — announced it almost simultaneously.

Then he (Saoshyant) shall restore the world, which will (thenceforth) never grow old and never die, never decay and never perish, ever live and ever increase, and be master over its wish, when the dead will rise, when life and immortality will come, and the world will be restored at (God's) wish.

(Zamyad Yasht; trsl. R. P. Masani, The Religion of the Good Life. Zoroastrianism, London, 1938, p. 113)

Here is expressed the Zoroastrian idea concerning the ristakhez, i.e. the resurrection from the dead. The prophet Isaiah says of it:

Thy dead shall live, their bodies shall rise.
O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For thy dew is a dew of light,
and on the land of the shades thou wilt let it fall.

(Isaiah xxvi, 19)

What is the idea and ideal of resurrection? The following parable can be useful to us for understanding the meaning of the idea and ideal of resurrection:

Some people are near the bed of a sick person and give their opinions on his state and his prospects. One of them says: "He is not ill. It is his nature which manifesting in this fashion. His state is only natural." Another says: "His illness is temporary. It will be followed naturally by the re-establishment of his health. Cycles of sickness and health follow one after the other. This is the law of destiny." A third says: "The illness is incurable. He is suffering in vain. It would be better to put an end to his suffering and to give him, through pity, death." Then the last one begins to speak: "His illness is fatal. He will not recover at all without help from outside. It will be necessary to renew his blood, for his blood is infected. I shall let his blood and then give him a transfusion of blood. I shall give my blood for the transfusion." And the end of the story is that after treating him accordingly, the ill person — being healed — gets up.

These are the four principal attitudes towards the world. The pagan attitude is that of accepting the world as it is. The "pagan", i.e. he who believes that the world is perfect and for whom the world is the god "Cosmos", denies the fact that the world is sick. There was no Fall of Nature. Nature is health and perfection itself.

The attitude of "spiritual naturism", i.e. that of minds whose horizon is enlarged beyond the present state of the world to recognition of the semi-cyclical evolution — the "seasons" of the great cosmic year — of the world, is that of believing that degeneration and regeneration follow one another cyclically in the world, that "falls" and "reintegrations" of the world alternate as do the seasons of the year. For "spiritual naturism" the present world is certainly "sick", i.e. degenerate, but it will reestablish itself, i.e. it will regenerate, necessarily and naturally, according to the law of cyclicity. One has only to wait for it.

The attitude of "spiritual humanism" is that of people who raise themselves above the pure and simple cyclicity of "spiritual naturism" and who protest , in the name of the individual being, against the interminable chain of cyclicity (be it "seasons" of the world or individual reincarnations) — seeing here interminable subjugation and suffering for the human being. This attitude is one of negation both as a whole and in detail of past, present and future Nature — whether spiritual or material, cyclical or unique. Life is suffering; therefore it would be cruel and inhuman to affirm it. Human salvation, dictated by pity, is to cut for ever all links of the human spirit with the world and its cyclicity.

The naive cosmolatry of paganism is the point of view of the first person in our parable — the one who says: "He is not ill." The "spiritual naturism" of enlightened paganism is the point of view of the second person - the one who says that illness is only a cyclic episode. The negation of the world of "spiritual humanism" is expressed by the third person who says: "The illness being incurable, it is better to let the sufferer die."

Now, these three attitudes towards the world — historically manifested in pagan Hellenism, in Hindu Brahminism, and in Buddhism — are distinguished from the fourth, i.e. that of active intervention with a view to accomplishing the work of the purification and regeneration of the world, in that they lack the therapeutic impulse and faith in therapy, whilst the attitude which is manifested historically in the prophetic religions (Iranian, Judaic and Islamic) and in the religion of salvation (Christianity), where renewal of the world is the motive force and final aim, is essentially therapeutic. It is the fourth person of our parable — he who acts, healing

the illness through a transfusion of his blood — ho represents the Christian attitude, which includes and realises those of the prophetic religions. The Christian ideal is the renewal of the world — "a new heaven and a new earth" (Revelation xxi, 1), i.e. universal resurrection.

The idea and ideal of resurrection goes further than the negation of Nature, as is the case with the "spiritual humanism" of Buddhism; it signifies its complete transformation, the alchemical work on a cosmic scale of the transmutation of Nature — spiritual as well as material, "heaven" and "earth". There is no idea and ideal more bold, more contrary to all empirical experience, an more shocking to common sense than that of resurrection. Indeed the idea and ideal of resurrection presupposes a force of soul which renders it capable: not only of emancipation from the hypnotising influence of the totality of empirical facts, i.e. of breaking away from the world; not only of deciding to take part in the evolution of the world — that is to say, no longer in the capacity of an object of the world but also, and rather, as a subject, i.e. of becoming a motivating spirit instead of a moved" spirit; not only of participating actively in the process of world evolution; but also of raising oneself to conscious participation in the work of divine magic — the magical operation on a cosmic scale whose aim is resurrection.
______________________________________________

"Under the combined influence of men's thoughts and aspirations, the universe around us is seen to be knit together and convulsed by a vast movement of convergence. Not only theoretically, but experientially, our modern cosmogony is taking the form of a cosmogenesis ... at the term of which we can distinguish a supreme focus of personalising personality ... Just suppose that we identify (at least in his natural aspect) the cosmic Christ of faith with the Omega Point of science: then everything in our outlook is clarified and broadened, and falls into harmony."

(Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Christianity and Evolution; trsl. R. Hague, London, 1971, p. 180.)

[Phlash]

Daniel & All:

What does it mean to you to "integrate the shadow"?

[Rob P]

This article is great, and full of links, if
you go to the original....
seeya
ROB

http://www.buzzflash.com/farrell/04/11/far04039.html

The Next Big Thing

by Maureen Farrell

"Around the year 2005, a sudden spark will catalyze a Crisis mood. Remnants of the old social order will disintegrate. Political and economic trust will implode. Real hardship will beset the land, with severe distress that could involve questions of class, race, nation, and empire. Yet this time of trouble will bring seeds of social rebirth. Americans will share a regret about recent mistakes -- and a resolute new consensus about what to do. The very survival of the nation will feel at stake." -- From the Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy, by William Strauss and Neil Howe, 1997

Nearly a decade ago, William Strauss and Neil Howe put forth an interesting theory: Every 80 years or so, they concluded, the U.S. faces a cataclysmic turning point that redirects the course of the nation. The first occurred during the Revolutionary War and the framing of our Constitution, the second, during the Civil War, and the third, during the Great Depression and World War II. And the fourth? You're soaking in it, Madge.

The America many of us knew has vanished into History's happy hunting ground and oddly enough, days of cigars and blue dresses, though surreal at the time, now seem oh-so-sweetly-carefree. If Mr. Bush proceeds with his "mandate," unsavory consequences will follow: Divisions between Americans will widen; the neoconservatives who pushed for war in Iraq will push for more; America will become further isolated from allies; the framework of international cooperation and rule of law we've relied in since WW II will continue to crumble; social conservatives will bulldoze the wall between church and state; policy decisions will be set by faith instead of reason, and America's new pariahs will start edging their way back into the closet. As legendary journalist Helen Thomas put it, we're in for "dark times."

And if you think the country has changed in the past four years, wait and see what's next.

"Sometime before the year 2025, America will pass through a great gate in history, commensurate with the American Revolution, Civil War, and twin emergencies of the Great Depression and World War II," Strauss and Howe explained. "The risk of catastrophe will be very high. The nation could erupt into insurrection or civil violence, crack up geographically, or succumb to authoritarian rule. If there is a war, it is likely to be one of maximum risk and efforts -- in other words, a total war."

In 1997, when this thesis was presented, it probably sounded farfetched. But ask yourself: Could we "crack up geographically"? Could the nation "erupt into insurrection?" Might we "succumb to authoritarian rule"? Are we headed for total war? Not so kooky anymore, eh?

If we really are on the verge of another turning point, our current crisis will be more consequential than shakeups during the sixties or seventies or any time most of us have known. And this time around, we face the added insecurity of having George Bush at the helm. George Washington presided over the first turning, Abraham Lincoln guided us through the second and the third was managed by FDR. And while each man had more than his share of detractors, each was proven capable -- and none catered to a base as dangerous as G.W. Bush's.

"Mr. Bush's base is pushing so hard to legislate social issues and extend the boundaries of religion that it felt as if we were rewriting the Constitution, not electing a president," Thomas Friedman recently wrote of our revolutionary new age. "I felt as if I registered to vote, but when I showed up the Constitutional Convention broke out."

Where will this era lead? If we remain divided, will we find ourselves smack-dab in the middle of a civil war? Are we, as some suggest, headed for World War IV? Is fascism in our future? Or will disgruntled citizens spark a new American revolution?

While your guess is as good as mine, signs point to any and all of the above. And a case could be made for each. Consider the following:

1. A Second Civil War

The Bush administration has done its damnedest to pit citizen against citizen and state against state, and has shamelessly worked to keep us misinformed and afraid. And unless Bush's arrogance causes him to overplay his hand, divisive tactics will most likely continue to work.

The day after the election, the Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel declared that we are "a country at war with itself," New York Times columnist Maureen Down pointed to Bush's election strategy of "dividing the country along fault lines of fear, intolerance, ignorance and religious rule," and 60 Minutes' Steve Hartman joked about dividing the country into "the United Blue States of America" and "United Red States of America."

And in updated twists on our historical legacy, some have actually advocated succession and civil war -- adding yet another ironic footnote to Bush's "uniter, not a divider" vow.

Yes, there are two Americas and one would like to render the other permanently voiceless and irrelevant. But regardless how desperately some ache to install one party rule, the fissure is now so deep and so wide, it seems highly unlikely that America will "heal" or unite anytime soon. Examples of this great divide and its consequences include:

The Guardian's Simon Schama explained that the U.S. is now "two nations that loathe and fear each other - Godly and Worldly America" and urged blue states to fight. "I don't want to heal the wound, I want to scratch the damned thing until it hurts and bleeds - and then maybe we'll have what it takes to get up from the mat," he wrote. ". . . You want moral values? So do we, but let them come from the street, not the pulpit. And if a fresh beginning must be made - and it must - let it not begin with a healing, but with a fight." Within a span of days, Bill Maher, Lawrence O'Donnell and democratic activist Bob Beckel suggested that it's time to let the South loose. "Upon further consideration, you CAN go," Maher said on his show, to laughter, applause and cheers. ". . . And take Texas with you." Meanwhile, during an appearance on Fox and Friends, Beckel mused, "I think now that slavery is taken care of, I'm for letting the South form its own nation. Really, I think they ought to have their own confederacy." And on the McLaughlin Group, O'Donnell explained why blue states would benefit. "The segment of the country that pays for the federal government is now being governed by the people who don't pay for the federal government," he said.

Taking a different approach, Mike Thompson wrote: "If the so-called 'Red States' (those that voted for George W. Bush) cannot be respected or at least tolerated by the 'Blue States' (those that voted for Al Gore and John Kerry), then the most disparate of them must live apart--not by secession of the former (a majority), but by expulsion of the latter."

On Nov. 3, Andrew Sullivan observed unease among gays, thanks to their role as lightening rods during this election. "Heading out to dinner last night, in a mainly gay neighborhood, I was struck by how many people looked shell-shocked, frightened, grim," he wrote.

In the immediate aftermath of the election, one Internet message board discussed the "Secession of Northern States to Join Canada," while another (and I'm not making this up) discussed bringing back slavery in the name of Jesus Christ.

Sensitive citizens, recognizing the impact Bush's election has on the rest of the world, united to say "sorry everybody." Bush supporters, whose photos are often worth more than a thousand words, countered with "we're not sorry." [BuzzFlash Note: At the time this posted, "werenotsorry.com" was no longer working.]

After the election, Canada's immigration Web site saw a six-fold increase in visits from Americans and U.S. citizens' interest in New Zealand quadrupled as people looked for "a ticket out of Bushville."

Presently, things aren't looking good for the home team. But in the end, this deepening rift might be bridged if Americans can finally see that the threat from within does not emanate from Vermont or California or Alabama, but from Washington, DC. "They are the enemy," Gore Vidal said of the Bush/Cheney gang. "And they have targeted the American people. They don't like them. They don't care anything about them. They're interested in corporate America. . . .And they hate the people who stand for the old republic. They just don't like them. And that's the division here. And I think that's why Bush will fall in the long run, but how long a run it's going to be, I do not predict."

2. Another American Revolution

"Great mistakes in the ruling part, will be borne by the people without mutiny or murmur," Thomas Jefferson's muse John Locke wrote. "But if a long train of abuses. . . all tending the same way, make the design visible to the people. . . it is not to be wondered that they should then rouse themselves, and endeavor to put the rule into such hands which may secure to them the end for which government was at first erected."

What "train of abuses" might knock us from our stupor? Glaring proof of Bush's Sept. 11 incompetence and assorted examples of negligence have not been enough to awaken ardent supporters. Common sense hasn't worked, either. If G.W. truly is the #1 man to keep us safe, why, one wonders, did New Yorkers, whose lives were most profoundly touched by the 9/11 terror attacks, overwhelmingly vote to give Bush the boot? Do they know something security moms don't?

Though GOP loyalists' rabid tendency to cling to ignorance and punish those who expose the truth has kept many in the dark, something has to give. And Bush's second term offers an opportunity, the way Richard Nixon's did, for a long overdue wake-up call. After all, former Nixonites John Dean and Kevin Phillips claim that this White House is even more corrupt than Nixon's, and yet, in 1968, Nixon won in a landslide, and America seemed to love him. Until the truth won out.

Fraud and deception have always been with us and the health of our nation has always depended on finding, identifying and punishing corruption whenever we can. "Our system worked, and we were all heroes, " Hunter S. Thompson wrote, of catching the Nixon et al in action.

What might spawn a revolutionary backlash this time? Evidence of impeachable offenses? More news from O-Hi-O? The Religious Right overstepping its Mobbish bounds? While the list is long, some possibilities include:

An economic crisis: Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that G.W. Bush's reelection could prompt the rest of the world to hit us where it hurts. "The dollar could slide still further, in spite of hitting an all-time low against the euro last week in the wake of George W. Bush's reelection," FT said. James Wolcott also raised concerns about "economic blowback" and Seymour Hersh predicted that the world will boycott U.S. markets. "I just see very hard times ahead," Hersh said.

Scandal: Though the scandals bubbling beneath the surface of this administration do not yet rise to Presidential penis level, they nevertheless involve matters of national security (Plamegate), the rule of law (Abu Ghraib), threats to democracy (Votergate) and war and peace (Yellowcakegate). "At some point in the next four years there will be a great scandal that will make Watergate look like a fraternity prank. All the elements are already in place," Salon.com recently asserted. "[Bush] has never been so beautifully set up than now for a cataclysmic, Nixon-like fall," Mark Morford wrote.

Iraq: The weekend before the election, Thomas Friedman told Bill Maher that the U.S. will likely leave Iraq within a year. "Bill, my sense is a year from now we're not going to be in Iraq, or we're not going to be in Iraq in any numbers, no matter what happens [in the election]," he said, before predicting that within three to six months, we'll see America's policy in Iraq as either a fixable policy failure or a futile fundamental failure of judgment.
Though those who still see Iraq as a vital part of the war would be enraged by America's withdrawal, the truth is, we either hightail it out of Iraq or stay the course and revive the draft. And either way, armchair warriors and security moms are in for one hell of a betrayal.

The draft: Let's not kid ourselves. With a stop-loss policy and recall of retired military personnel underway, the U.S. is already engaging in a "backdoor draft." And despite assertions that conscription questions were raised merely as part of John Kerry's campaign ploy, the truth is that this administration's actions continue to raise suspicions -- with former New York Times correspondent Christopher Hedges recently telling students that reinstatement of the draft is right around the corner.

3. World War IV

In Jan. 2001, on the eve of Bush's inauguration, speculation regarding a second Gulf War had already begun. One paper boldly noted that George W. Bush would embroil the U.S. "in at least one Gulf-War level-armed conflict in the next four years."

Unfortunately, that prescient paper was the Onion, and their scoop was a spoof. In time, however, tales of Bush's Saddam obsession and pre-2000 plans to attack Iraq surfaced in the mainstream.

Unfazed by repercussions, and contrary to myths that the neocons are "no longer in vogue," those who pushed for war in Iraq, are now pushing for further aggression. "Bush Win Puts US on Collision Course with Iran," the Sydney Morning Herald warned, while Jim Lobe further explained neocons' plans for the rest of the world.

Right after the election, Frank Gafney, an influential policy adviser with solid connections to the Bush administration, composed a checklist for Bush's second term -- including "regime change" in Iran and North Korea; adopting "appropriate strategies" for handling threats from Russia, China and Latin America; "deploying effective missile defenses at sea and in space, as well as ashore"; and advocating a continued hardline strategy against the Palestinians following the death of Yasser Arafat.

This follows a previously set game plan outlined by former Central Intelligence Agency Director and Committee on the Present Danger co-chair Director James Woolsey. Saying that the Cold War was World War III, Woolsey believes that our new war, the fourth world war, should hold "a new Middle East" as its objective and "make a lot of people very nervous" but that "our response should be, 'good!'"

But with Osama bin Laden reportedly gunning for America's red states and stories of Al Qaeda possibly smuggling nukes through Mexico, World War IV might not be as wonderful as Woolsey imagines.

4) A Fascist Fourth Turn

What have the last four years wrought? For starters, we're less noble, less tolerant, more loathed and more feared than any time in our lifetimes. And while American pride once denoted a sentimental sense of history and honor, it is now often tainted by false bravado and belligerent nationalism -- the kind the American Heritage Dictionary once included in its definition of fascism.

Like an American Charles Dickens, novelist Sinclair Lewis foresaw ghosts of fascism future, while a former Reagan official recently bemoaned the "brownshirting of America." And Keith Olberman's outstanding contributions to journalism and democracy aside, for the most part, questions about election irregularities, like those about WMD assertions, are scoffed at by the media -- bringing at least two characteristics of fascism to mind.

Most agree that if America devolves into a fascist state, religious zealots will be leading the charge. The introduction and passage of discriminatory legislation that marked Bush's first term will likely become commonplace, and as Tom Delay has hinted, the Christian Right will proceed with its plans to cram its agenda down everyone else's throats. ("We're going to put God back into the public square," he announced, the day after the election.)

"Small wonder that everywhere I go, people are talking about moving to Canada. That's the kind of joke you make when you no longer recognize your country," Leonard Pitts mused, pointing to "the soldiers of the new American theocracy" and our brave new world where a looming Armageddon shapes U.S. foreign policy and creationism trumps rationalism.

And so it follows that as Christian soldiers battle heathens at home and Evangelical Marines battle barbarians and Satan in Iraq, reason is viewed as an enemy of the state. "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities," Voltaire said, possibly with Bush and his supporters in mind.

If cataclysmic change is in our future, however, it could also bring welcome relief. The end result of this next turning could be something to embrace. "By the 2020s, America could become a society that is good, by today's standards, and also one that works," Strauss and Howe wrote.

In other words, this could be the dark before the dawn. Perhaps security moms and armchair warriors need a rude awakening? Maybe those who voted for Bush need to be shaken from their slumber? Maybe will be there will be a rebirth, after the weeping and gnashing of teeth?

"Thus might the next Fourth Turning end in apocalypse -- or glory, " Strauss and Howe concluded. "The nation could be ruined, its democracy destroyed, and millions of people scattered or killed. Or America could enter a new golden age, triumphantly applying shared values to improve the human condition."

In time, perhaps, citizens will see that Bush has not made America any safer and that the internal threats we face are far greater than our differing points of view, and we can usher in an era rooted in truth, fairness and democratic principles. After all, though there are plenty of people who strive to win at all costs, for the most part, Americans (when they're not brainwashed or scared out of their wits) are a decent lot -- and value what is true and fair and just.

I don't know what the future holds, but I do not doubt for a moment that the Next Big Thing is upon us. Here's to the Fates. Let's hope that they are kind.

Maureen Farrell is a writer and media consultant who specializes in helping other writers get television and radio exposure.

© Copyright 2004, Maureen Farrell

[nanouk]

well, structured 'america' IS a young nation, as is africa and south america, the new world will behave like the universe in creation for a while longer...

love and respect,
n.

[dragonfly]

I suspect the United States' "next big crisis" will be related to the collapse of the oil-based economy:

Source: The Oil Depletion Analysis Centre (ODAC)
Posted by: Oil Depletion Analysis Centre - archive
Posted on: Nov 15, 2004 @ 6:56 pm

Contact: Jim Meyer (in New York City)
Tel: +1 718 784 1805
E-mail: odac@btconnect.com

Contact: Chris Skrebowski (in London)
Tel: +44 (0)20 7467 7117
E-mail: cs@energyinst.org.uk

New Oil Projects Cannot Meet World Needs This Decade

World oil supplies are all but certain to remain tight through the rest of this decade, unless there is a precipitous drop in demand, according to the results of a study by the London-based Oil Depletion Analysis Centre (ODAC).

The study found that all of the major new oil-recovery projects scheduled to come on stream over the next six years are unlikely to boost supplies enough to meet the world’s growing needs.

ODAC analysed a total of 68 ‘mega projects’ with publicly announced start-up dates from 2004 through 2010. In total, these projects would add around 12.5 million barrels a day to world oil supplies by the turn of the decade.

“This new production would almost certainly not be sufficient to offset diminishing supplies from existing sources and still meet growing global demand,” ODAC Board member Chris Skrebowski said.

More than half of the estimated new supply would simply replace production declines elsewhere due to natural depletion, the study found. A modest one percent annual rise in demand over the six-year period would then leave little or no surplus capacity to cushion against unforeseen disruptions in supply.

If demand were to increase by two percent annually, available supplies could fall short of the total needed in 2010 by more than two million barrels a day – roughly equivalent to losing all of Kuwait’s current daily production.

“With most producers operating flat out to meet runaway demand increases this year, the world’s immediately available spare production capacity has virtually disappeared,” Mr Skrebowski said. “This means that significant additional supplies in the near-to-medium term must come from new projects already in the development pipeline.”

“We now see those projects providing surprisingly limited relief in terms of incremental supply in coming years, and indeed physical shortages appear ever more likely if demand remains strong,” he said.

“Even with relatively low demand growth, our study indicates a seemingly unbridgeable supply-demand gap opening up after 2007,” he said.

Mr Skrebowski, who is editor of the UK trade magazine Petroleum Review, compiles and regularly updates the details of planned major oil-development projects, as reported by the oil companies. The list contains all announced projects with at least 500 million barrels of estimated reserves and the claimed potential to produce 100,000 barrels a day or greater.

Using that list, ODAC examined three demand-growth scenarios of one, two and three percent a year to illustrate the likely range of outcomes. It also assumed that the combined annual rate of production losses from those countries where output is now permanently declining would remain constant each year, despite evidence that it appears to be accelerating and the likelihood that more producers may go into decline soon.

“The effect of depletion in mature oil-producing regions is now becoming a much more significant factor in the supply-demand equation,” Mr Skrebowski noted.

According to data from the latest BP Statistical Review of World Energy, 18 major oil-producing countries are now past their peak production, and their combined annual output dropped by over a million barrels a day in 2003. This group of countries now accounts for almost 29 percent of total world production.

The ODAC study did not attempt to forecast when other countries would peak and tip into decline, but experts agree that several more are likely to do so within the next few years. Mexico and China, the world’s fifth- and sixth-largest producers respectively, appear to be among the likely candidates.

Mexico’s national oil company, Pemex, has already announced that production from Cantarell, the world’s largest offshore oil field, is expected to peak in 2006 and then decline by 14 percent a year. China, too, has confirmed that its two largest producing regions are now in decline. It achieved only modest overall production growth last year of 1.5 percent.

Of the 68 confirmed projects that ODAC analysed, 56 are due to come on stream in the next three years. Seven are scheduled to start pumping oil in 2008, three in 2009 and just two in 2010. Since it takes, on average, six years from first discovery for a major project to start producing oil, any other new projects approved now would be unlikely to add further supplies until after 2010.

“It is disturbing to see such a dramatic fall-off of new project commitments after 2007, and not more than a handful of tentative projects into the next decade,” Mr Skrebowski said.

“This could very well be a signal that world oil production is rapidly approaching its peak, as a growing number of analysts now forecast, especially in view of the diminishing prospects for major new oil discoveries,” he said.

Industry consultants IHS Energy recently reported that 85 percent of all the oil ever discovered is now in production, and only half the total produced last year was replaced by new field discoveries. Annual consumption has now exceeded new discoveries every year since the early 1980s. Overall, worldwide oil discoveries have been declining steadily for the past 40 years.

# # #

Note to editors:

1. The Oil Depletion Analysis Centre (ODAC) is a UK-registered educational charity working to raise international public awareness and promote better understanding of the world’s oil-depletion problem. Further information is available on its website: http://www.odac-info.org

2. Chris Skrebowski is one of seven members of ODAC's Board of Directors and editor of Petroleum Review, a monthly magazine published by the Energy Institute in London. He previously edited Petroleum Economist and was an oil market analyst for the Saudis in London for eight years. He started his career in the oil industry as a long-term planner for BP, then joined Petroleum Times as a journalist and edited Offshore Services magazine in the late 1970s.

[daniel]

hmmm... actually the secession of the East and West Coasts to join a Canadian confederation is not a bad idea at all. It would immediately reduce the middle American country of Bushistan to the status of a minor economic power, a comparative mosquito. Canada, Oregon, Washington, California, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont. etc. could create a potent and enlightened confederation.

Wonder how we could put that to a (paper traceable) vote?

[sire_012]

umm, can we tack illinois on that list too.

[gone]

Originally posted by daniel:
Wonder how we could put that to a (paper traceable) vote?Do you American cousins have the opportunity to seek a nationwide (or even multi-state) Citizens Initiated Referendum? We’re working on one here in NZ to change the flag (which still has the union jack on it), which needs 350,000 signatures (out of a population of 4 million) to put any question on the ballot paper for the coming general election.

[Agent Smith]

well if there is to be a new civil war...

...may Micheal Savage eat the first batch of egg salad. tongue.gif

[Agent Smith]

i appologize, upon further investigation it would appear that i have erred in giving so much thought to mr.savage, and hanging my precious mental processors up on such an obviously self devouring mememine...

...i will say this however. the 'red' states have never forgiven us for the first civil war. most of the military comes from, and is stationed in the 'red'... do you really think they'll just let us leave? what dangerously armed 3rd world bully would allow that to happen? just because we rationally, and politely explain that we wish to leave this abusive relationship? do abusers generally accept such polite brush offs?

i wonder.

t'will not take men with the will of iron i believe, but rather the will, and patience of water...

[Snoe]

I may not be qualified to speak on the topic, but I just figured I'd respond to the concept of an up and coming American civil war.

I remember during certain parts of my childhood, when people would foresee nuclear warfare and things I'd get really afraid. My grandmother whom is approaching her nineties, used to placate me by telling me about how when she was a child, and was afraid of warfare, HER mother would tell her about how there used to be town meetings, and they'd show slideshows of warfare and apocalyptic destruction. She was so terrified. But look, almost 125 years later, practically nothing.

The point being, every generation is afraid. Every youthful generation is living in a time of the "peak" of destructive abilities. I know it's scary but first off, at this very moment, unless circumstance changes, it's out of your personal control. Hence, don't worry about it. Second off, Americans (I'm not dissing here, just stating) are known for wanting others to fight their wars. I find it very unlikely that the common man, the mcdonalds eating insurance salesman, would take up arms for a new civil war.

As far as threat from other countries, any large world powers wouldn't really want to annihilate us. I mean, we're too much of an economic benefit to the rest of the world. The only threat being small, poorer countries. This is a problem, but we shouldn't treat it by attempting to control them, we should treat it by befriending other countries. That's pretty cheesey, I admit, but I'm afraid that trying to control any spot or country in the world has failed throughout history.

As far as America sending out nukes, also not a likely issue. The American government was designed with Tyranny in mind. We have just about every system to make sure that it's virtually impossible for one person to have control over our capabilities and government.

Ultimately, I wouldn't worry. Just sit back and let history unroll. Participate when you can, vote, make decisions that you think are important and never get discouraged.

Best wishes and no worries,
Theo

[Lowlight]

there is a lot to think about here.

i think much depends on what moves beneath the surface of global politics as we see it day to day i.e. the intentions of those who are really in power and the deeper occult forces which shape reality.

if 'man' is to become the future human(e) then 'man' must die.

[Humming]

"The point being, every generation is afraid. Every youthful generation is living in a time of the "peak" of destructive abilities. I know it's scary but first off, at this very moment, unless circumstance changes, it's out of your personal control. Hence, don't worry about it. Second off, Americans (I'm not dissing here, just stating) are known for wanting others to fight their wars. I find it very unlikely that the common man, the mcdonalds eating insurance salesman, would take up arms for a new civil war."

Snoe, this is partly true, but I think you're unaware of the forces which have been coalescing in the past years, decades, and centuries which are now coming to a head. In our lifetimes we can possibly look forward to global warfare on a scale unprecedented in our human history: fighting over resources as they become increasingly scarce. Namely, water and oil. This will be caused by drastic climate change, as the oceans rise and entire countries and populations vanish virtually overnight.

As far as civil war, the intensification of truth, largely disseminated and expressed through the internet, has for the first time since the invention of the printing press created a massive underground resistance movement of *informed* and capable people, which will eventually topple the imperialist structure from the inside out. We don't need the insurance salesman to take up arms, but you can be sure that when the time comes, he will find his place: fighting for truth, or fighting to retain his delusions.

But we are not afraid. We are actively shaping the contingencies and planning for the best of humanity to be revealed in the midst of the cataclysmic evolutionary siphon.

At least, that's what I think. There are several scenarios to consider. Certainly one of them is peaceful r-evolution, which is what we all must strive for by transforming our own consciousness to actualize love in times of senseless hate. But if this isn't viable, there will be bloodshed, and civil war.

About climate change:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1153513,00.html

EDIT: Also, it's important to realize that this intensification of evolutionary pressure is also directly involved with the intensification of consciousness happening globally, and the accelerating real-ization of subtle levels of reality.

Check out Daniel's New World Disorder interview here: http://www.newworlddisorder.ca/issuethree/interviews/pinchbeck.html

[ November 17, 2004, 09:24 AM: Message edited by: Humming ]

[dragonfly]

Originally posted by daniel:
hmmm... actually the secession of the East and West Coasts to join a Canadian confederation is not a bad idea at all. It would immediately reduce the middle American country of Bushistan to the status of a minor economic power, a comparative mosquito. Canada, Oregon, Washington, California, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont. etc. could create a potent and enlightened confederation.I don’t think it’s helpful to fall into the whole binary, blue state/red state way of thinking. It’s an oversimplification of a complex reality that leads to unjustified pessimism and a hardening toward fellow citizens. It’s a sort of civil war of the heart to which I conscientiously object. In truth, America is not red or blue but varying shades of purple, and Middle America is no more a monolith of narrow-minded ignorance than the northern coastal regions are all peace and joy and light.

Yes, it’s true the majority of voters in my current home state of North Carolina chose Bush over Kerry. But we’re only talking a difference about 435,000 people in a state where about 3.5 million people cast ballots. That should condemn the whole lot of us to “Bushistan”?

Interestingly enough, in that same election North Carolina also strengthened the Democrats’ hold over the General Assembly, pro-environment and pro-choice candidates made big gains and Wilmington – not exactly a city known for its out-there progressiveness – elected the first openly gay state lawmaker.

[Humming]

Here is an article which illustrates the widespread resurgence of global dissent, which, again, I think is fueled by the intellectual freedom of the information age. An informed populace cannot be complacent.

Mistrust of leaders found high worldwide
By Meg Bortin International Herald Tribune Friday, November 19, 2004

PARIS Distrust of political leaders is high across the world, with significant majorities of people viewing the authorities of their countries as dishonest, wielding too much power and overly susceptible to influence, a new global opinion survey has found.
.
In Asia, according to the poll, people were more critical of their leaders' honesty than in Europe or North America, with about three-quarters of Asians expressing distrust compared to about half of Europeans and Americans.
.
The level of no-confidence was highest in India, where a full 91 percent of those questioned said they viewed their political leaders as dishonest, according to the poll, which surveyed 50,000 people in 60 countries.
.
The lowest level, however, was also in Asia: only three percent of those questioned in Singapore said they distrusted the country's political leadership.
.
The "Voice of the People" survey was conducted by Gallup International for the World Economic Forum.
.
According to Gallup, the results are statistically representative of the views of more than 1.2 billion people worldwide.
.
The poll, conducted from June to August, was commissioned ahead of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting of world leader's in Davos, Switzerland, which next convenes from Jan. 26 to 30.
.
A spokesman for the forum, Mark Adams, said in a telephone interview that the poll's results would help set the frame of reference for the meeting.
.
He said the poll's dismal findings on political honesty would have to be addressed in Davos. "When you have a group of world leaders getting together to discuss the state of the world, it is imperative for them to have an idea of what the world's people are actually thinking," Adams said.
.
Business leaders fared better than politicians in world perceptions, according to the survey, with 43 percent globally viewing them as dishonest, compared to 63 percent globally for politicians.
.
Likewise, while 52 percent globally said politicians behaved unethically, only 39 percent said the same of business leaders.
.
Asians showed relatively more confidence in their business leaders than other regions, with about half agreeing that captains of industry "respond to pressure from people more powerful than them," compared to about two-thirds in North America.
.
"Interestingly, in the Asia Pacific region, the economies that many would deem the most successful, such as Japan, Malaysia and Singapore, are generally more tolerant of business leaders, and are joined by the thriving new economy of Vietnam in this," Gallup International said in its review of the results.
.
"But majorities in several powerhouse economies of the region are harsh regarding the honesty of their business leaders - notably Hong Kong (63 percent say they are dishonest), Indonesia (61 percent), the Philippines (53 percent), Taiwan (57 percent) and South Korea (55 percent)."
.
Perceptions of whether the world will be a safer place for future generations varied sharply from region to region, and often had changed since last year.
.
In most of Asia, about half said the next generation would live in a less safe world, a figure little changed since last year, and only 20 percent said the world would become safer. But in India and Pakistan, although overall confidence was greater, there was a sharp drop since last year. This year, 34 percent in the two nuclear rivals said the world would be less safe for the next generation, a rise of seven percent over 2003.
.
In Western Europe, in contrast, 55 percent feel the next generation faces a more perilous future. While high, that figure is nine percent less than last year, when opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq was perhaps more vivid in Europe than now.
.
The most optimistic predictions for the future came from Africa, where 50 percent said the world would be safer in future, compared to 30 percent who said it would be less safe. There was also optimism in Eastern Europe, with 34 percent expecting safer times, compared to 27 percent who were pessimistic.
.
One of the most pessimistic regions surveyed was the Middle East, and the most pessimistic country was Egypt, where more than seven out of 10 people thought the future looked dim.
.
"Globally, women are slightly more pessimistic than men," Gallup said in its review, "with 46 percent of women saying the world will be a less safe place for future generations, compared with 43 percent of men."
.
In most of Asia, 42 percent of the people surveyed predicted less economic prosperity in the future, with only 24 percent predicting greater prosperity. This contrasted with West Asia - India, Pakistan and Afghanistan - where 45 percent expect to see greater prosperity, and 28 percent expect less.
.
In fact, in Afghanistan, fully 74 percent of those surveyed expect future generations to live in a more prosperous world.
.
And the world's most optimistic country on this question was also in Asia, the survey found: "In Vietnam, more than nine out of ten believe next generations will be more economically prosperous," Gallup's review said.
.
Prospects for political stability and economic prosperity will be at the center of discussions in Davos, where the theme this time will be "Taking Responsibility for Tough Choices." Adams, the spokesman for the World Economic Forum, said the meeting would cover "areas of concern where choices need to be made," from global warming and AIDS to the Middle East.
.
"Change is not likely overnight," he said, adding however that if the leaders gathering in Davos review the poll results and "see that what they're doing is not in accord with their people, hopefully it will slowly have an effect."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/11/18/news/poll.html

[sidecross]

Civil War is funded by U.S. tax payer

Washington funds false sex lessons

Gary Younge in New York
Friday December 3, 2004
The Guardian

The Bush administration is funding sexual health projects that teach children that HIV can be contracted through sweat and tears, touching genitals can result in pregnancy, and that a 43-day-old foetus is a thinking person.

A congressional analysis of more than a dozen federally funded "abstinence-only programmes" unveiled a litany of "false, misleading and distorted information" in teaching materials after reviewing curriculums designed to prevent teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease.

There are more than 100 abstinence programmes, involving several million children aged nine to 18, and running in 25 states since 1999. They are funded by the federal government to the tune of $170m (£88.5m), twice the amount when George Bush came to power.

The money goes to religious, civic and medical organisations as grants. To qualify they may only talk about types of contraception in terms of their failure rates, not about how to use them, or the possible benefits.

The survey was conducted by the staff of congressman Henry Waxman of California, a longstanding Democratic critic of the Republican administration's approach to sex education. His team concentrated on the 13 programmes that are most widely used, and found only two of them were accurate.

"It is absolutely vital that the health education provided to America's youth be scientifically and medically accurate," Mr Waxman said. "The abstinence-only programmes reviewed in this report fail to meet this standard."

Other "facts" include that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, half the gay male teenagers in the US have tested positive for HIV, and condoms fail to prevent transmission of HIV in 31% of incidences of heterosexual intercourse. US government figures contradict all of these assertions.

AC Green's Game Plan - a programme named after a basketball player who said he would not have sex before marriage - teaches: "The popular claim that condoms help prevent the spread of STDs, is not supported by the data."

Mr Waxman told the Washington Post: "I don't think we ought to lie to our children about science. Something is seriously wrong when federal tax dollars are being used to mislead kids about basic health facts."

But government officials said Mr Waxman's report rehashed old anti-abstinence prejudices for political purposes. Alma Golden, the deputy assistant health and human services secretary for population affairs, said it took statements out of context to present programmes in the worst possible light.

"These issues have been raised before and discredited," Ms Golden said. "One thing is very clear for our children: abstaining from sex is the most effective means of preventing the sexual transmission of HIV, STDs, and preventing pregnancy."

Mr Waxman also criticised some programmes for reinforcing sexist stereotypes to children. One - Why Know - says: "Women gauge their happiness and judge their success by their relationships. Men's happiness and success hinge on their accomplishments."

Another programme, Wait Training, says: "Just as a woman needs to feel a man's devotion to her, a man has a primary need to feel a woman's admiration. To admire a man is to regard him with wonder, delight, and approval. A man feels admired when his unique characteristics and talents happily amaze her."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1365262,00.html

[nanouk]

bl***y h**l!!!

i think it is time we all show our hairy palms, haha! :D

how DO they get away with it?