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The Saker
A bird's eye view of the vineyard

offsite link Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz
Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb

offsite link The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker
Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog.? We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).?

offsite link What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker
by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are

offsite link Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader
2023/02/27 19:00:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of

offsite link The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker
Pepe Escobar for the Saker blog A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you?re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by

The Saker >>

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Can Science Tell Us the Meaning of Life? Mon Dec 23, 2024 19:54 | Dr David Bell
At Christmas time, Dr David Bell reflects on what has true value in this world, the limits of science to tell us what that is and what a baby in a manger might have to say about it.
The post Can Science Tell Us the Meaning of Life? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Non-Crime Hate Incidents Surge in Half of Police Forces Despite Government Crackdown Mon Dec 23, 2024 17:46 | Will Jones
The number of?non-crime hate incidents?recorded by police has surged in half of Britain's forces despite attempts by the previous Government to crack down on the practice, official data show.
The post Non-Crime Hate Incidents Surge in Half of Police Forces Despite Government Crackdown appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Reeves?s Simplistic Thinking Spawned This Budget from Hell Mon Dec 23, 2024 15:44 | David Craig
Simplistic linear thinking by Rachel from Accounts and the Treasury spawned this Budget from hell, says David Craig. A systems thinker would have known it would send the economy into a doom loop of recession and decline.
The post Reeves’s Simplistic Thinking Spawned This Budget from Hell appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link British Drivers Steering Away From New Cars In Their Droves Mon Dec 23, 2024 13:00 | Sallust
British car-buyers are turning away from new vehicles in their droves and keeping their reliable old petrol models going for far longer as Labour's Net Zero war on affordable motors heats up.
The post British Drivers Steering Away From New Cars In Their Droves appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Britain on Brink of Recession After Growth Revised to Zero Following Reeves?s Horror Budget Mon Dec 23, 2024 11:09 | Will Jones
Britain is on the brink of a recession after official figures were revised to show zero growth in the third quarter of the year and living standards fell, with Rachel Reeves's horror Budget blamed.
The post Britain on Brink of Recession After Growth Revised to Zero Following Reeves’s Horror Budget appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Not waiting for the world to change

category international | anti-capitalism | opinion/analysis author Sunday April 28, 2013 11:28author by luke eastwood Report this post to the editors

The time to do something is always now!

A couple of my friends commented recently on the negative content of much of my writing; one of them in particular found it all rather depressing. I’d have to agree with them that much of what I write about is bad news and it is indeed depressing at times.
However, this negativity is not without reason. The purpose of all this negativity is to facilitate the ‘scales falling from my eyes’ moment in the vast majority of people who are sleep walking through life. Yes, you could accuse me of being arrogant in thinking that I can wake people up to the realities of human existence. I would not be so bold as to suggest that I have the answers, although I think (like many other writers), that I must try to highlight the facts that we are frequently lied to and also that in so many areas of life the truth is hidden from us.
Deception and manipulation of the truth to control people’s lives is hardly a new thing – the well-known expression ‘bread and circuses’ aptly describes the manipulation game played by the rulers of ancient Rome some two thousand or so years ago. In the late middle-ages Niccolo Machiavelli’s dark and cynical masterpiece on achieving and maintaining power (The Prince) became a great and perennial success. It remains a widely read book to this day – a dastardly instruction manual, if you will, for the political and financial elites of any era!
Such cynical underhandedness amongst our governments and social institutions is hard to accept, it’s so horrific that it is in fact much easier to turn one’s face away from it in disbelief. Unfortunately, such actions do not change the fact that the very bedrock of Western society is rife with corruption – so much so that often there is not even a cursory attempt to hide it.
The average person appears to be so stupefied by the sugar-coated drivel that the public is constantly bombarded with that there is little need for more than the most superficial deceit in most cases. People are too lazy to look under the surface or they just do not want to look – preferring to believe the mind-numbing illusions that are conjured up for their enjoyment.
That is why in the same breath people complaining about the war in Afghanistan take a sip of cola and move on to wondering who their favourite celeb is sleeping with this week. Gosh, I sound so cynical myself, and yes I am! However, I don’t blame the ordinary individual for being unable to withstand the ceaseless barrage of nonsense that ends up dominating their thoughts. That is the fault of the system – a system of control that has been refined and improved over many, many centuries.
So then, what is the answer? Where am I going with all this? To my mind, Mohandas Ghandi had the right ideas, nearly a century ago – don’t wait for change, make it happen!
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
“I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could.”
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Ghandi’s seemingly novel, non-violent form of non-compliance inspired his countrymen and sowed the seeds of the destruction of the world’s largest empire. Shocking as his achievements are, it is even more shocking that in a few short decades most of us seem to have forgotten the lessons of his life and work.
However an awakening is in progress, recognition of the state we are in has increased, as has both violent and non-violent resistance. Non-compliance is a tide that is rising once again across the globe, although the simple clarity of vision that Ghandi achieved appears to be missing. Ghandi did not live in an age of instant mass communication person-to-person, he relied on the press and his followers to a large extent, yet he managed to achieve an astounding change in a few years.
In the current climate there appears to be almost open hostilities between ‘the system’ and those that are greatly dissatisfied with living in it. We have long since passed the ‘laughing’ stage that Ghandi spoke of and moved into the early stages of ‘fighting’. However, like so many previous attempts to ferment change, it will fail unless a massive proportion of the public is prepared to make its disapproval known and begin taking concrete steps to resist.
Most of us are critical of the society we live in, not least of all our governments, but until we wake up to the need to be pro-active there is no possibility of things changing for the better.
So if I come across as somewhat negative, in my attempts to stimulate a reaction in the aspartame-addled brain cells of the somnambulists out there, I offer no apology. I will though, offer another brief quotation for consideration, from the 18th century Irish philosopher and politician Edmund Burke - “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
How true that statement still is - one that our rulers rely on remaining true, and while that inertia remains the status quo will remain also.

Related Link: http://www.lukeeastwood.com
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