Survival__ Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation - Charles George Smith [167]
It is essential to understand that our actions are not just "self-help," though they most definitely are that--our individual and household actions are feedbacks into the community, enterprise and nation. It is important not to limit the context of our individual action to self-help, as that context is a key control technique of the status quo: in the politics of experience promoted by the status quo, the "problem" is not in the system, it's only in you.
The reality is that the "problem" resides on all levels of society that feed back into each other. The mass media attempts to "sell" an agenda and an understanding of the world to each individual "consumer," and the consumer's decision to opt in or out feeds back into the mass media: when marketing/ad campaigns fail to generate the desired consumerist behavior, they are terminated.
There is a well-defined "market" for "self-help" advice, and this market is highly lucrative because people are hungry for ways to improve their full-spectrum prosperity--health, wealth, happiness, etc. This "market" is not just tolerated but encouraged by the status quo's intellectual framework because it is stripped of political content: the "seeker" is isolated, and encouraged to grant his/her loyalty to a safely apolitical "cause" or "spiritual leader," all of whom convey a completely non-threatening, bland politics of experience which assigns no accountability to the "State religion" of consumerism or the dominance of the financial Power Elite and State.
Thus the following "advice" is subversive because it places all individual actions in the wider contexts of a politics of experience which justifies and enables Elite dominance.
Within an integrated understanding of mass media, propaganda and the subtle dominance imposed by a specific politics of experience--recall that framing the "problem" predefines the "solution"--then avoiding network/cable TV and "talk radio" and being highly skeptical of mainstream print and Internet "news" media is not just self-help but a revolutionary undermining of the status quo's dominance and control.
Individuals who opt out of consumerism, mass media and debt/tax-serfdom are "starving the beasts" and taking control of their own lives. Refusing to consume propaganda is the first step to living free, and since a handful of global corporations administered by the State own and control virtually all mass media ("talk radio" included), then cui bono--to whose benefit?--should always be the first question.
If I believe what's being "sold," who benefits? The answer is never the individual "consumer" citizen, though the simulation of benefit is always the "pitch."
The pursuit of full-spectrum prosperity is not passive, nor does it seek to impose anything on anyone. It is built on the concept of free exchange of ideas and value.
This is not "advice" in the usual sense but an expression of what I consider self-evident principles.
1. Engagement
This could be summed up in one phrase: take control of your life. Since humans are prone to self-defeating thoughts, beliefs and behaviors and manipulation by "leaders" and Elites, engagement starts by deciding to stop self-destructing and by deciding to seek an integrated understanding of oneself and our situation.
The principles of an integrated understanding are ontological and scale-invariant, that is, they work in all times frames and situations (see below).
Engagement means accepting the devolution and demise of the Savior State and recognizing the negative consequences of a debt-serf/dependent/entitlement mindset.
Engagement means understanding that education, security, learning, health, etc.--full spectrum prosperity--is your responsibility. No one can do it for you. We can help each other, but only within networks of reciprocity. If you want me to help you educate your child, you're going to have to help educate