Farewell to a friend

I have written the following words to make sense of my feelings - they are unedited and un- self- censored

Mike Ruppert

An appreciation

At this stage it is a struggle to put anything into words to express what Mike Ruppert meant for me - what he meant for all of us.

I first encountered Mike while travelling the internet and came across a trailer for the film Collapse.

For some reason the words Bernie Madoff is not a ponzi scheme; the whole economy is a ponzi scheme! come to mind.

That little segment had an electric effect on me.

By chance the film was included in the Film Festival here in Wellington, so I ordered tickets but in the meantime I consumed everything I could, including his talk to the Vermont secessionist movement.

His words, which came not too long after the 2008 financial meltdown just resonated with me.

It felt as if I had found my voice - someone who could clearly enunciate what I felt was the case but couldn't express clearly.

The rest is history - the setting up of CollapseNet, the move from Los Angeles to Sevastopoi Ca.; the shock move to Colorado and then his final, and recent return to his home.

The amazing thing is that I never met Mike personally, or even spoke to him - and yet I feel I came to know him well.

There was never anything half-hearted about Mike. Wherever he was, whatever was happening, Mike looks reality straight in the eye - without compromise - and expressed the truth as he saw it to those who were willing to listen.

I remember those days at CollapseNet. He had many detractors - people who claim he had got it wrong - some date was wrong, he was exaggerating etc. Many people have come and gone.

I have come to realise, as I have encountered such people countless times yet - that this was a form of denial.

They thought they were encountering some weakness or other in Mike - but really what they couldn't abide was looking the reality in the face.

Of course Mike was wrong about many things - the timing, the details.  We all got it wrong - we overlooked the ability of TPTW (Mike's term which we know so well) to mine, frack and drill - to cook the planet - all in order to keep the ponzi scheme going for a little while longer.

But he caught more clearly than most the underlying reality of the human predicament.

You can't have infinite growth on a finite planet

In the short time I have known Mike he has always evolved. He never stood still.

He moved out of a frustrated and angry phase (anyone remember "Say my f...g name!"?) towards the end of his time in Sebastopol, to finding himself in Colorado, becoming fully immersed in native American spirituality.

I really have the sense that Mike, in the last year or so has come into contact with a reality that transcends the mundane, and totally insane dream that we are living.

He understood that to the core of his being.

He was tired and felt that he had completed his work which he followed through tirelessly for near 40 years, dealing with the hatred and insanity of the world as well as with his own demons.

He felt, I am sure, a deep desire to return to Source.

He wanted to come home.

People who know him talk about depression.  Yes, I suppose, from a conventional point-of-view that would be the diagnosis.

But as we know, Mike was not a conventional man.

Anyone who was deeply depressed (in a conventional sense) could not have produced such a wonderful farewell radio program.

No.  Mike knew what he was doing. 

He obviously felt tremendous distress from his experiences of being caught in the matrix in Seattle recently -  the mad and insane world that he had not had to encounter for all of his time in Colorado.

I can fully understand how such an experience could overwhelm a sensitive (and sensitised) nervous system and drive him to an act which he had long contemplated.

Mike has left us a huge legacy and the best way in which we can honour him is to take everything he communicated and make it our own.

Stand on our own feet and find our own salvation.

Evolve or perish
Grow up or die

Mike, I love you for your penetrating intellect and wisdom, but also for your emotional honesty and humanity.

You have been an inspiration for me and for so many.

Go well in your final journey,