I always thought there was something wrong with me. There was always so much of what was accepted as common knowledge and convention that simply puzzled me. I usually concluded I either didn't have the capacity to understand certain simple systems which most took for granted, or I was cursed with The Emperor Has No Clothes Syndrome, a disease which probably afflicts most people reading this. Sorry, despite society's perpetual effort to wipe it off the face of the earth, it seems to be spreading.
One of the things that confounded me was this thing called The Economy. Economy with a capital E because it is not just a concept, but rather a living fire breathing entity that has its claws always around our throats, ready to lift us to new heights with its gargantuan wings if we do as it says, or singe us to a crisp should our actions displease it, should we not obey its will.
Trading grain for cloth or labor for shelter, that kind of thing, is easy to comprehend. Even the more complex system most of us work at the end of, where a person gets paid money for goods or services is pretty easy to follow. Small business is also easier to comprehend - products or services are which have a value are offered to other people in exchange for the money they earned, earned usually by being in the loop of offering goods and services themselves.
After this it gets a little fuzzy. Modern banking, Wall Street, and many large corporations have been operating at a level of complexity, fear, greed, and smoke and mirror trickery in the past few decades that the value of a thing is dependent merely on the number a person chooses to assign to it. Heck if it is that easy I will just declare my 1984 Dodge caravan has a value of $27,000 and loan out money based on that value. Does that sound CRAZY? To a large extent that is the kind of thing that has been going on. Or better yet I would create vast amounts of wealth on paper for myself by betting whether the value of my overpriced Caravan would go up or down. Does that sound even CRAZIER? It is. If you listened to Whitley interviewing John Petersen in the January 24th Dreamland you find out just how crazy some of this is - and how scary!
John and Whitley talk about a phenomenon in the stock market called derivatives, which are well beyond smoke and mirrors and well into the category of casino gambling. The difference is after you have lost all your coins in the slot machine the coins still physically exist in the machine. In this case .....POOF...vanished! OK billions in wealth are made from this legal gambling as long as the mirrors don't get smashed and the trillions held within the illusion vanish. If you want a much better description of this read this article in the UK's Independent News http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/a-163516-trillion-derivatives-timebomb-958699.html
And you thought the $700 billion bailout was scary. Getting back to my understanding of modern finance, which admittedly may only be one step above the Amish, I do know that the thing our country, my country, has placed value on above all else in the last few decades is greed.
I am not confusing wealth with greed, nor profit with greed. The motivation for wealth and profit is the thing that has brought us to where we are, to most of the advancements and technological miracles we see all around us. Yes, many were at first concept to better living standards and improve the enjoyment of all people, or just the products of creative minds. But, the mechanics and implementation for the most part, of making the concepts real, came about from the pursuit of wealth and profit. Everybody wants to make a buck. That is not greed. It is how the evolution of commerce has brought us to where we are so far. The greed part, though it has always existed, was never given a place of honor until the late 70s and early 80s.
It was not only given a place of honor, it was elevated on the highest pedestal - the Holy grail of achievement. The American Dream changed fundamentally from succeeding to becoming obscenely wealthy: at any cost - cost to others, that is. I always ask people what the modern image of a successful person is as opposed to the chicken in every pot /car in every garage American Dream of the mid 20th century. The model of the modern "success" is in unwritten, yet we see it in everywhere, TV especially. Who wants to be a Millionaire, The Apprentice, and The Weakest Link teach (I should say reinforce) one thing - Always want more, there is never enough, and it is OK to crush our opponent in the pursuit,the game, to increase your own wealth. You all know the stereotype - Ivy League graduate...millionaire by 30...every personal possession is obscenely expensive and flashy...several multimillion dollar homes throughout the world...retired by 40 to travel the world lavishly...etc. In other words it is a model that is only ever attained by an extremely small group, and even then is more of a cartoon character of outward appearance.
Herbert Hoover's "A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage" goal was achievable by most, or just out of reach. Simply having steady job brought it within reach. By the 50 it could easily be achieved by most households with only a single income - that American dream also had expanded to the norm of most families actually owning a home, taking regular ( but not opulent ) vacations, and most of all expanded to bring hope for, and belief in, a better future for themselves and their children.
Where are we now? This new American Dream is not just a lie; it has left a couple of generations hopeless, feeling like failures for their inability to even come close to that Wall Street image of success. The inadequacy and angst that it brings is just another sign we have as a nation failed our children, failed ourselves. The American Dream evolved into unabashed greed. What we are seeing now is the manifestation of that twisted dream. And, we are left with only one question; where do we go from here?
I must say, Whitley's interview of John Petersen didn't provide much comfort. Unless you consider being told you have cancer, but after several major operations you might live, being comforted. I do not. I don't listen to Dreamland to be comforted. Many of the interviews, like the ones with Dr. John Lerma, William Henry, and Dr. Richard Bartlett, to name a small few, do inform, uplift, and enlighten. Many others are about the dark information. Bringing it to the exposure of light can in time transform us all, but hearing about dark information isn't a comfort.
Both Whitley and John were hopeful...hopeful for a much better, perhaps a drastically different future. That is comforting, and I am thankful to them for that. For the next few years though, the message reminds me of the spoof signs listing instructions on what to do in case of a nuclear explosion - 1. Sit in a chair 2. Breathe normally 3. Put your head between your legs 4. Kiss your ass goodbye!
I have never been good at whistling in the dark. The fact that most people you talk to can "sense" what is coming, doesn't help even if they are good at whistling in the dark. I am reminded of Marla Frees last interview with Anne Strieber as I wrote about in my last post. Max, the crystal skull told Marla, about the future of humanity, "The intervention is Wisdom - Wisdom is understanding Intention". Understanding this concept may be the way out of our current worldwide dilemma. I think it has to do with using our thoughts to intentionally make a better world. And doing it this time from an Intent driven not by greed, but by love.
Will that happen? Is it possible even? What part can I possibly play? Is it too late? Are we Screwed!!? Lots of questions. Not many answers. The Black Swan wild card Whitley and John hinted at might be the key. Will it be in the form of Alien contact or intervention, a pulse from the galactic center, or a more pedestrian process of being destroyed to be reborn anew like a phoenix rising from the ashes? Is William Henry showing us the way with the Light Body? Will going to places like The Monroe Institute, and having a Gateway Experience, help open the doors wide enough for us all to pass through? Maybe it is all of the above and every single thing that leads us away from the material world to the Spiritual.
For now though, we function in this material world, and that world seem to be coming apart. The looming threat of economic collapse and catastrophic climate change brings no warm fuzzy feelings for the near future. The near future image of ones family, friends, pets, and neighbors starving and dying on a grand scale until things get better tends to override the hope for, and vision of, a better world, even if that world is only a few years away. Yeah, I know...there is no past or future , there is only now...Law of Attraction...manifest your dreams...blah blah, blah...easy to say, harder to live when things get really bad. And they might. And if it happens, we will first have to overcome the fear most of us carry around all the time before we can live in the Eternal Now, or even manifest the next meal for our families. In other words - we will have to learn to Trust in God, in Spirit. Which again, when all your utilities and food supplies are shut off, is a little trickier to do for most people. Yet it may be exactlywhat is needed, what is required of us.
I think John and Whitley are right; we will rise to the occasion - dragged kicking and screaming. I am not looking forward to it though. Can't you just wake me up when we get there? Sigh!...guess not, since the process IS the Awakening.
