Showing posts with label Carolyn Baker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carolyn Baker. Show all posts

Tuesday, 31 October 2017

Reflections of human stupidity in the light of an ongoing controversy

Some people have been clamouring for the lurid details of the online attacks against Guy McPherson, something I have been unwilling to do.

In the light of Guy’s essay from yesterday this is all I am prepared to say on the subject.


This may be about the last essay of this sort that intend to write.


A discussion of Guy McPherson, Carolyn Baker,Mike Ruppert and human folly

Seemorerocks

Today I am particularly despairing – more than anything about the perversity of human nature.

The news of abrupt climate change and the destruction of the biosphere gets worse day-by-day.

Just today I have read reports that show that CO2 levels (at an average of 403 ppm) are the highest since humans have been on the planet. There is more than a sneaking suspicion that methane levels are much higher than we are being told about. This after the ice stopped its process of refreezing and a large earthquake in the Arctic circle.
Meanwhile the satellites that are supposed to be monitoring this have gone dark.

I wrote the following on Facebook earlier today:

We have CO2 at unprecedented levels. The same too with methane and a totally unreported 6.0 quake in the Polar Circle in an area with methane clathrates.

Never mind. We should be concerned about fucking emojis.

Burger bummer: Google CEO promises to ‘drop everything’ to address urgent emoji issue

The die is cast and my main concern right now is the Darkness descending on human consciousness.

And for my money it is is NOT (I repeat, NOT) JUST about Trump.

I am disillusioned with MOST of humanity (or at least the ‘civilised part’) who are quite happy to be led by the nose.

This has happened in all tyrannies in history and is being repeated once more.

I am ready to sign out

Meanwhile, almost as I write darkness is settling over public discourse whereby the voices that tell the full truth about abrupt climate change and all voices against imperialism and war are being censored and silenced.

Meanwhile I detect that the populace in the United States and elsewhere is going the same way as in previous times in history when Darkness descends and we have totalitarian governments (of which the United States is definitely one) – of passive acceptance and even support.

The atmosphere is toxic and previously reasonable and sane voices are changing.

I have (or rather had) one “friend” who has given up activism in the anti-nuclear movement to take up with Antifa – quietly 'defriending' and blocking me in the meantime.

The following is written, not out of spite – more in grief than anger as an illustration of what I have observe.

Although I write about one individual and about the malign attacks against Guy McPherson I see all this as just symptoms of a malaise I see everywhere.


 The devolution of Carolyn Baker

Image result for Carolyn baker

Carolyn Baker is someone who I have known,mostly indirectly,since I encountered Mike Ruppert back in 2011.

It was Carolyn who informed me by phone that Mike had taken his life and this is something that I will always be grateful for.

She has done some great work in the past of helping people for prepare for collapse and (more recently) near-term extinction even if I found her approach far too self-referencing and mercenary for my comfort.

She cut her teeth by meeting Mike Ruppert and doing some of the early work on analysing 9/11.

See,for instance what she was writing 10-15 years ago:

"As long as a community of thinkers, and indeed, the citizenry at large, continue to question the events of September 11, there is at least a spark of hope that at some point, with the proper conditions and at the right time, that spark might be fanned into a flame of revolution. And of course, as our Founding Fathers incessantly reminded us, there are many ways to make revolution besides the use of bombs and bullets, and if we are not willing to do so once a democratic republic has become antithetical to its principles, then we do not deserve to live in a democratic republic. Citizenry in a democratic republic, the Constitutional framers told us, is attended by momentous responsibilities, including the willingness to “alter and abolish” it should it cease to be a democratic republic."

The first indication for me of a change came last year when I inteviewed her for the second annivesary of Mike Ruppert's death.

That I was intending was an appreciation of Mike's life and work but what I got was a rant on suicide and a turning of her back on the entire Ruppert legacy.

I should have seen it coming but in hindsight it is obvious.

From a critique of the 9/11 false flag and a clarion call for revolution it has come to the following – an uncritical acceptance of the official version of the shooting in Las Vegas

Terrorism comes in many stripes.
Image by Occupy Democrats, like our page for more.

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What I see (while,no doubt she continues with her day job) is a reversion to Democrat memes and an obsession with Donald J. Trump.

She has swallowed this meme hook, line and sinker.

Not a single clue of critical thinking unless it is directed against Trump from a very,very conventional way.

Not one criticism of corruption in the Democrat party,not one word against America's criminal wars let alone the Empire.

I would have expected to have read a critique of Trump as a predicament ( a word I first encountered used by her), as a symbol of the collapse of society,politics and economy.

But no – she seems to have accepted the memes thrown out by the corrupt Clintonites in the Democrat Party with singular ease.

The Guy McPherson saga

Image result for Guy mcPherson
And now we come to the Guy McPherson saga.

I had been aware over the months of this woman called Serena Marie Raphael McPherson from Western Australia who appeared to have Guy’s ear.


It turns out that Guy and Serena had been ‘stexting’ for some months, something we were all unaware of until Derrick Jensen posted something with a selected text from Guy addressed to Serena which was pretty lewd.

People jumped on the bandwagon – just about all his old friends such as Cory Morningstar, Mike Sliwa and Forrest Palmer – and Carolyn Baker who ganged together to condemn Guy for ‘abusing his role as teacher’ and taking advantage of a young woman.

Quite apart from the seeming ‘facts’ I found the whole thing pretty disgusting from the start. How dare people deign to condemn Guy for something that was private and none of my business and therefore no business of theirs.

Whatever happened to the very good biblical admonishment: “let he who is without sin cast the first stone’?

This is what appears on Cory Morningstar's Facebook page from Guy's old friend Forrest Palmer:

"Okay...Kill all this...let me be totally forthcoming...the only thing that me and my comrades have responded to is stuff that is already in the public domain...And the burden as to whether or not to respond to this stuff was something we debated ad fucking nauseam...This has been an emotional rollercoaster...It has beat us all the fuck down...period...

Even responding to things that are in the public domain, this in and of itself puts us in a precarious position where we could be attacked in many ways...And since we are all adults, you know that there is a big difference between locker room fucking gossip mixed with hallway rumors in fucking high school and discussion of a personal nature like this in the adult world...So, we are all basically putting our heads on the chopping block in numerous aspects for no other reason than we feel that the masses of people need to know what is going on...Not for us...We could have just took the information and distanced ourselves from this person and left everyone none the wiser...Simply said "Fuck it...It is none of our business...We will worry about ourselves and good luck to everyone"...But we didn't do that...Not to save ourselves...But in an attempt to notify people who are unaware so they won't make the personal mistake that we made in trusting this individual...That is it...That is our only reason for doing this

EACH OF THE PEOPLE IN THIS DOCUMENT WERE INDIVIDUALS WHO WERE DEEP FRIENDS, ADMIRERS, FOLLOWERS AND/OR COMRADES WITH THIS MAN...SHIT, WE WERE THE ONES WHO DEFENDED THIS CAT WHEN OTHERS FUCKING TRIED TO TEAR DOWN HIS NAME OVER THE SCIENCE AND TRIED TO TEAR HIM DOWN PERSONALLY BECAUSE OF THE WORK...I PERSONALLY HAVE DEFENDED HIM...EVERYONE ON THIS DOCUMENT HAS DONE IT...NOW, ALL OF A SUDDEN WE CONSPIRED TOGETHER TO THROW THIS DUDE UNDER THE BUS...TO WHAT END?...WE SURE AS SHIT WILL SEE NO MONETARY OR RESOURCE BENEFIT FROM IT...ALL WE HAVE INVESTED IS THE TIME WE LOST WITH OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY OR JUST ENJOYING THE SIMPLE PLEASURES OF LIFE...THAT IS IT...THIS IS THE ONLY PAYMENT WE HAVE FOR THIS...

Point blank, I don't give a damn who fucks who or what in this world...It is not a concern of mine...Shit, if this person was above board and doing his thing, I would be the FIRST ONE to defend his actions...In fact, I was privy to information before now as other folks were concerning his lascivious nature and using the "doomer" movement to serve his sexual needs...And I didn't say anything...Shit, I am questioning myself as to if I should have said something...Hell, I am mad at myself in innumerous ways...But the fact is I do err on the side of not destroying ANY PERSON'S reputation off of word of mouth and private discussions...This is why I didn't say anything about it, although in the back of my mind I asked myself if I was doing the right thing...

In fact, to go even deeper, I sometimes ask myself why the fuck I personally give a damn about climate change or peak oil or any of this other shit...I don't have any kids...I don't have any descendants coming my way...I should really not give a fuck about any of it...But I do...For some insane ass reason that I can't even explain, where I have every justifiable reason to be at the club shaking my ass after taking care of my sickly mother during a significant portion of my adult life, I am up here staying up late and working wtih my people trying to put a response together to notify folks about a sexual predator who will honestly have no effect upon me personally one way or the other if he continues doing his thing...So, I must have one of the biggest hearts in the world or be one of the dumbest fucking bastards ever...and you know what?...Maybe they are one in the same fucking thing...

So, we will receive nothing from this...We knew going in that a slew of disparaging comments would be directed at us...But I will tell you something...If we can save ONE woman from being taken advantage of by this person in the immediate future, then we will at least have saved that one person...The time that we will never get back will be well worth it..."

To which Carolyn Baker chimed in: 

"I defended his ass and hurt other people in the process. For that I am sorry."

Everyone will be aware that Guy and Carolyn co wrote a book




When the shitstorm broke out in August I heard reports that Baker had been burning copies of her book – a story I took as apocryphal.

However when I looked at her website to write this article I found that all mention of the book has been expunged from her list of books that she so loves to promote.


I quickly discovered that the story being spread by these people was nothing more than a crock of shit. At best this was a example of people jumping to judgement without having access to all the facts.

You would think that with the true situation being pointed out that an apology to Guy might be forthcoming, but no, on the contrary, people have doubled down on their crazy aspersions, even to the extent of accusing Guy and his partner, Pauline, of running a paedophile ring from Belize – something that apart from the insanity and mendacity of the claims may well have put Guy and Pauline’s lives at risk.

I have known the truth of the situation from day one – that Serena, far from being an innocent and helpless victim (something that is very strange coming from ‘feminists’) was an instigator.

I have seen direct proof of this, which I have promised not to share – presumably because all this is subject to legal action.

However what I can do is to share this letter to Guy from Serena:

Received at San Ignacio, Belize post office, 24 July, 2017

Apart from anything this is all a matter of ethics.

In this post-modern age as the civilisation hurtles towards collapse and the American Empire implodes people have separated (even more than before) into tribes and collectively taken leave of their senses.

They take up positions on social media just as quickly as their minds can concoct something and their fingers move across the keyboard without the slightest recourse to evidence or facts.

The double standards and hypocrisy of these moralisers has reached the stratosphere if the reports that have come my way are even half-true.

Such as Mike Sliwa walking over to the Mud Hut in New Mexico to use Guy’s internet to put out his diatribes.

Such as (unsubstantiated) reports that at least one of the men involved in making these accusations themselves being involved in ‘stextng’ with Serena.

I can only repeat: “let he who is free of sin cast the first stone”

The motivations behind all of this remain a bit of a mystery to me. It may be that Serena decided for some reason to set up Guy only to later take revenge.

A more charitable explanation is that the Deep State who has been following everything Guy writes and says and definitely knew of the conversation approached Serena with a mixture of promises and threats to get here to make these accusations against Guy with the aim of blacking his name – something that supporter and NSA spy Mark Austin might possibly confirm (?).

If this were true it would make Messrs. Palmer, Jensen, Sliwa – along with Morningstar and Baker the dupes of the Deep State,

I sincerely hope not, but I don’t find it difficult to read these days.


On Mike Ruppert and sychophancy

Image result for Mike Ruppert

Finally this morning I woke to comments on Ruppert’s Restaurant which continues to keep alive the legacy of Mike Ruppert who died by his own hand in April, 2014.

Someone posted yesterday’s article from Guy with the response from one of the moderators Ali Maverick Thomas saying

I really don’t give a rat’s ass. I found an old article from McPherson dissing Mike. I don’t think anything by or about Guy should be shared in RUPPERT’S Restaurant.”


She was referring to some statement purportedly by Guy from back in 2011 (!!) critical of Mike Ruppert which Guy looked for and couldn’t find.

Never mind. That was back in 2011 when Michael C. Ruppert still doubted that climate change was caused by humans.

He also ‘unfriended’ Guy for some reason but then forgot and went on, towards the end of his life to become a friend of Guy’s and to adopt his message.

So much so that just four months before his death he made the following statement telling people that three (and only three things mattered):

  • Abrupt climate change leading to near-term human extinction
  • Fukushima and nuclear radiation ending life on the planet
  • Infinite growth on a finite planet.

He admonished his followers not to be distracted by other, secondary issues.


This is, of course something that has been TOTALLY forgotten by most of his admirers as they turn Mike into a demigod whose words cannot be doubted even if they contradict each other and his views evolved with more than one volte-face.

So Guy made one statement (allegedly) back in 2011 critical of Mike Ruppert and he becomes guilty of ‘dissing’ the Great Man.

I have to put it on record at this stage that I continue to be an admirer of Mike Ruppert. This has never meant that I agreed with him on everything, much less took his word on everything.

Every human has his/her weaknesses and in the case of someone blessed with genius like Mike, was flawed as a human being.

I have never been, and never will be, anyone’s ‘groupie’. But I acknowledge my debt of gratitude to these people, whether it be Michael C. Ruppert or Guy McPherson.

I regard this as being a far greater form of respect than sycophancy and the uncritical placing on a pedestal – from which, as we have seen, it is very easy to knock people off.

This is my 2 cents.


P.S. My interview with Carolyn Baker has disappeared but here is my appreciation of Mike Ruppert from the second anniversary of his death

Listen to "Remembering Mike Ruppert - Part two" on Spreaker.

Sunday, 27 August 2017

On Wetiko, the insanity of humanity

Wetiko Inside And Outside: A Remarkable Teaching Moment, By Carolyn Baker



This thing of darkness, I acknowledge mine.
The Tempest,” William Shakespeare

 

26 August, 2017


In this time of extinction—whatever that means and whenever it may occur, we owe a huge debt to Paul Levy for giving us Dispelling Wetiko. In that extraordinary book, Levy writes thatwetiko isn’t just a Native American term for evil, it is, in fact, malignant egophrenia (M.E.), or as Levy cleverly names it, the “ME disease.”


I challenge anyone reading these words to state that they are ME-disease-free. No one raised in an industrial growth society is free of malignant egophrenia. Now let’s be clear. Everyoneneeds an ego. To those who tout the New Age nausea of being “free of my ego,” I would only ask: Who’s got the car keys, and how did you last find your way to the bathroom? Every human being needs an ego, and children should be supported in developing one, but at a certain juncture in our development, ego diminishment needs to begin and ego developmentwane so that our inner wisdom or what I call the Sacred Self, can surpass the limits and distortions of our ego development. A pivotal aspect of developing our inner wisdom is becoming aware of and creating a relationship with the shadow.


No, the shadow is not yet another aspect of New Age psychobabble. Drawing from millennia of wisdom traditions, as well as his own experience, Carl Jung inserted the term into modern psychology and in my opinion, literally changed everything by doing so. Quite simply, the shadow is any aspect of oneself that does not fit into one’s ego image of oneself, and ME disease is literally the shadow gone nuclear. Unless we know that we have a shadow and have employed specific tools to develop a relationship with it, it will run our lives. Need I also mention that as well as the personal shadow, nations, cultures, and communities have a collective shadow? And—none of us is immune. In fact, the shadow is now running the world—not Donald Trump, not Kim Jong Un, not the military industrial complex or the deep state.


Whether we like it or not, the ME disease, made even more virulent by the shadow, is not only running the world but threatens to run our individual lives. How not, since we cannot escape the toxicity of this culture? How easy it is to rant about wetiko—out there, and how difficult it is to encounter, explore, examine, struggle with, and heal the wetiko inside ourselves. To clarify, there is no permanent healing of wetiko or the personal or cultural shadow, but owning that it exists and committing to shadow work markedly diminishes its influence whereas ignoring or denying it guarantees that it will consume our lives, compel us to hurt other living beings, and drive us unconsciously to manufacture horrific messes that in most cases, other people will have to clean up.


When shadow behavior erupts or is exposed in the life of someone we highly regard, we have choices about how to respond. We can immediately engage in our own malignant egophrenia and point the finger, as if we have no shadow and are not capable of exactly the same thing. Or because we regard the person so highly, we can discount or minimize the seriousness of their behavior and ignore the shadow. Or, we can own our own shadow, and in so doing, recognize that we are capable of the same or worse behavior. Invariably, this causes us to feel compassion as well as perhaps experience a chilling shudder as we realize the capacity we all have to harm others and ourselves. None of the latter means that we turn a blind eye or continue relating to the person if that does not feel safe or comfortable. But most importantly, when we see the shadow writ large in our midst—whether it is being written by Donald Trump, climate science deniers, human traffickers, trophy hunters, or fossil fuel tycoons, we must stop, take many deep breaths, and humbly acknowledge the event(s) as a teaching moment. The most important question we can ask at that time is: What does this tell me about the personal and collective shadow? And most importantly, what does this tell me about my own shadow?


As we awaken to the horrors of industrial civilization, we must carefully examine the ways in which we have been colonized by it in a manner similar to the ways in which native peoples have been colonized by it. Derrick Jensen has written extensively about de-colonizing ourselves, and I have written a great deal about it as well because I have experienced that it is foolish to rail against industrial civilization if we are not committed to healing within ourselves the traumatic marks that it has left in the personal shadow of our psyches.


When someone we highly regard—a leader in our community or a respected thought leader betrays us by betraying other human beings, the most obtuse response we can employ is to begin arguing about who is right and who is wrong or whether that person’s betrayal means that we should disregard their research or body of work. Such a response engenders an orgy of ME disease, completely overlooks shadow awareness and shadow healing, and misses the stellar teaching moment that that person’s betrayal has presented us with.


I unashamedly submit that if we are not doing deep, intentional shadow work, our activist/resistance efforts are essentially useless because we are not actively de-colonizing ourselves and in fact are opening ourselves to the possibility of damaging, rather than protecting or healing the Earth community.


I do not these write words lightly with disregard of my own shadow. I have been deceived, and I have defended betrayers in the name of “having faith in humanity” or “wanting to believe the best about a person.” To anyone who has been harmed by my shadow denial, I sincerely apologize. What I choose to do in the present moment is dis-associate myself with the betrayer forever and go back into my spiritual cave to do more work on my own shadow. In fact, I would argue that that is where we should all be right now because whether extinction or anything else removes us from this planet next week, next month, next year, or five minutes from now, no question on Earth is more important than: Who do I want to be in the face of unprecedented global and personal cataclysm? As Paul Levy writes:


If ever there was a time when the turning inward of self-reflection was of critical importance, it is now, in our present catastrophic era…In the moment of self-reflection, the psychospiritual necessity for evolutionary growth overrules the biological compulsion of unreflective animal instinct…Self-reflection is a genuinely spiritual act, which is, essentially, the act of becoming conscious…The attitude of self-reflection returns us to the ground of our deepest being, connects us with our destiny, and it begins a cure for the pervasive psychological and spiritual blindness which reigns at the present hour. (193)