Unemployed: Stop Searching for a Job, Learn to Forage and Produce

Good jobs are not returning to America anytime soon.  It's time to stop hoping someone will pay you to do useless tasks and learn to forage and produce for yourself.

Howard Beale
Activist Post

A good friend of mine has been unemployed for over 18 months.  He is 32 years old with a master's degree from a respectable university and an impressive resume of non-profit charitable work, as well as international business experience.  He is even fluent in two languages; English and Spanish. Yet he is just beginning to realize after countless job applications, with few interviews, that he is a dime-a-dozen in in America's new paradigm of over-educated, over-qualified people who can't find a job to sustain them.

In his tenacious quest, he joined a cooperative that provides office space with Internet and phone service, job training courses, and kinship for the unemployed.  He even applied to the only entity that seemed to be openly hiring -- government:  The United Nations, the U.S. State Department, the CIA and, yes, the IRS too.  He attended a high-level interview for a U.N. position that was set up by a very connected family friend.  Apparently the U.N. hired someone with even more connections and qualifications.

It is probably a blessing that he never received call-backs from those federal agencies, but at the time it didn't feel that way to him.  In essence, he has used all of tools in the matrix to pursue employment, but to no avail.  It seems the wheel no longer needs his cog.


My friend, like many others going through the same struggle, is finally beginning to see the system for what it is: a rigged game to create dependence.  Dependence for employment, or dependence on government assistance.  It is a system that makes the unemployed feel worthless and hopeless. Unfortunately, this horrible feeling may be a necessary phase of waking up to the nature of this prison.

As everyone already knows, the manufacturing jobs will never return to America in any measurable way, because the incentives have been sent offshore.  Therefore, the only American job growth will take place in a Ponzi-style economy in non-productive sectors.  Since America no longer produces anything, it seems that they must break things in order to create false economic "growth."  Consequently, they can't implement any genuine solutions, because that would threaten even more jobs.

For instance, they can't end the foreign wars, or the War on Drugs, because where would all of the soldiers, contractors, DEA agents, prison guards, court workers, and all their support staff find new employment?  They can't simplify the tax code because where would all the accountants, bookkeepers, tax attorneys, and accounting professors work? They can't undo the Patriot Act because where would the millions of people who make up the surveillance-industrial complex work? They can't clamp down on the exotic games at the Wall Street casino, or virtually no one would be left with a job.

This is the nature of the phony matrix we call the American Economy.  Even if you're "lucky" enough to have a position in the above-mentioned professions (and many other non-productive capacities), you must realize that your job depends on the system remaining broken.  Indeed, many will fight to keep the broken system for their own self-interest.  This was blatantly obvious when police organizations were one of the biggest contributors for the campaign to defeat Prop 19 to legalize marijuana in California.

Since most people subconsciously know that their daily tasks are fundamentally worthless, or at least replaceable, job insecurity is at an all-time high.  It is the system's mechanism to perpetuate the rule of self-preservation that has deliberate consequences.  It creates an atmosphere where moral individuals will engage in immoral acts to preserve their livelihood. So, our survival instinct allows us to justify any moral or intellectual compromise.  In turn, they've convinced us that it is the only way to survive; hence our "dog-eat-dog" world. It's an evil trap and even the best-intentioned can fall prey to it.

The good news is that the system will eventually implode because it is built on an illusion, by fake money, and can only "produce" by destroying things through literal and figurative wars.  It destroys people, property, freedom, and basic morality. The bad news is that while it crumbles the human suffering will get much worse before it gets better.  The only way we can avoid or limit this suffering is by becoming aware and changing our approach to the matrix.

Back to my buddy.  A lot of good his $100,000-plus education has done for him in this system. He is only now taking the initiative to create something productive for himself out of sheer necessity. Can you imagine the level of production he could have accomplished in eighteen months working on a personal project, side business, or learning new skills?

It seems that the times are ripe for the hopelessly unemployed to realize that the only person they can depend on to create labor is themselves. The wonderful thing is that you finally get to choose how you will deploy your precious time and effort.  Sure, you may not make boatloads of money, or have health insurance right away, but some positive income can be achieved.  And if you're truly driven by passion, your labor becomes effortless and enjoyable and will ultimately result in whatever level of income you desire.

You may have to learn to forage for a while before you find the best income vehicle for your passions.  Learning to appreciate incremental gains when they do come is also vital to success, as any gain is certainly better than wasting away as a blob in front of the TV, polishing your résumé , and circling want ads for the next 6 months.

There are countless ways to turn your passions into income by foraging.  You can start a blog for free about topics you care deeply about; learning how to monetize it as your audience grows.  You can treasure hunt for valuable relics at yard sales and shops and sell them online. You can grow, make, and sell homemade products to your local cooperative or farmers market.  And why not organize a local co-op in your community if there isn't one?

The point is: our belief, dedication, and complacency to a "system" that has been defined for us has led to a lost ability to forage and create. The key is taking the first step on our own and seeing where it leads.

Related Article by Howard Beale:
So Broke We Can't Pay Attention

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Society’s “Bubble” Syndrome

S. Paul Forrest

Activist Post  

As I look upon the world and reflect on the current dilemmas facing our environment, and developing within the political arena, a recurring question rises within me: Why do so many people not realize the reality of our present situation?  Do they live in a bubble?  Why can they not see the truth?  Then, one day it occurred to me that maybe some are not able to see it, not willing to see it.  Maybe they exist in a bubble; a warm safe place where reality is perceived by personal experience and driven by the basic instinct of survival.  Maybe they are products of an isolated environment, an insular world.  The real question becomes then:  How do we break them out of the bubble to face reality? 

The Bubble’s beginnings

We are all products of our environment.  It is the arena within which we develop as people.  This environment ultimately determines our perception and understanding of the world around us.  It sets the stage for our interests and social interconnections.  Given the proper guidance and exposure to more developed philosophies, many learn the lost arts of perception, intuition and awareness of the natural world, as well as the social interconnectedness so intrinsic to survival.  They can learn how to welcome complex reasoning into their own worlds, their individual bubbles, but help is necessary.

The stimuli surrounding us in the developmental stages of our human existences ultimately determines the extent to which we relate to the world, and is largely dependent on which type of environment we were raised in.  Quite often, it is the determining factor in the way we interact within the macrocosm of our Earthly existence.  

The strata of environmental influence is very deep, with the outermost layer representing limited exposure, while the deepest encompasses the greater world of experience and understanding.  Each layer of the strata exists as a type of “bubble” where ideas and impressions reach to the edges of the individuals known world.  Each of our spheres of thinking, personal development, and interactions with other people often are limited to the knowledge and experience developed within this realm.  The world is perceived and accepted based on several factors, from basic survival to intellectual curiosity, and all stem from these initial influences.  

As we develop in utero, we essentially exist within our first bubble.  Upon arriving into this world, we are met with bright light and an alien existence.  Our bubble gives way to a second Earthbound one, which begins as a malleable sphere of imagination and endless possibility.  The stratum is quite deep in these initial stages of existence, but over time it begins to harden if the mind is not challenged with new information and taught to be open to new ideas.

The people around us, and the natural world within which we grow, ultimately determine how we function within the larger stratum.  The richer the environment, the more diverse and informed we are as people and the more in tune we become with the greater macrocosm.  Conversely, the more isolated the environment, the more apt we are to have a narrow view of reality. 

The latter, depraved environment is best depicted by the case of the feral child.  It is where offspring is left to develop in an environment without human contact.  These children live in a particular type of bubble where they only have experiences with limited stimuli.  As they develop, they haven’t any idea of bigger issues.  The world around them is limited to animal instincts and survival mechanisms.  They are the perfect example of what is known as an insular existence.  The particular microcosm within which they develop inhibits them from communicating or functioning in what we deem as a "normal" society.  

Surprisingly, many “normal” people have experienced similar environmental isolation.  They were raised in a limited environment, a world of simplicity, where their only thoughts are of clothes, sports, eating, social acceptance, etc.  They essentially function within a larger bubble than the feral child, but it is philosophically similar by nature.   These people have had limited exposure to the teachings of the mind.  Some of course have genetic limitations, but the capable ones, those who can learn, have suffered an injustice at the hands of those responsible for opening their minds.  The capacity to learn, to accept reality, to stay informed has been successfully bred out of them.  They have lost touch with learning, with intuition, with the innate abilities of humankind to commune with nature and other members of the social macrocosm.
On the other side of this equation, some people have been blessed with connections to the diverse spectra life has to offer.  They have been nurtured by parents who themselves exist in the larger spectrum.  They are subjected to being open minded, reading philosophy, and enjoying art and education.  They live within a world of perception, a world of education.  The bubble within which they exist has stayed malleable and has expanded to encompass a great many levels of the spectrum.  Unfortunately, too many people today have become encompassed by the smaller bubbles of existence, which limits their ability to see through the walls of their limitations; they have been left isolated.   

The Reality of the Bubble

Life in the bubbles of the shallow stratum is extremely subjective.  Any opinions, data interpretation and regurgitations are centered around the teachings of an insular world.   Facts are dismissed when they conflict with preconditioned opinions.  When a person in this realm of existence is confronted with contradictory data they become combative.  This phenomenon is not just related to informational data either.  It comes also in the form of religious beliefs, racial origins, sexual orientations and political affiliations.  When anything enters the bubble that appears to cause doubt or insecurity in their screened reality, it is shut out, disregarded, dismissed as crazy or inaccurate.  This is the reality of the world today.  

As the level of information available to the general public becomes more and more convoluted, I cannot help but think we are being led down the Rabbit Hole.  Alice saw wondrous things there, and along the journey she found something within herself to release her from the social dilemma she was suffering.  The reality is, though, that the hole was a prison of fantasy, filled with the dreams of a time of innocence, a time lost, a time that had abandoned her -- or, maybe she abandoned them.  Either way, reality crept into her microcosm and the bubble denied the truth of it, leaving her in a spinning conundrum of existence.  The bubble was safely rooted in the hole, though.  It was the reflection of childhood, of hope, of imagination.  Sometimes, the bubble is a beautiful dream, but breaking free can easily become the nightmare.

The first step toward breaking out of our bubbles is in coming to a clear understanding of humanity and the goals we must make together.   We must find a common ground, one without greed and profit as the center of purpose.  We must break from the dream of a world within preconceived notions of a life of luxury, of Disney-like fantasy.  There is no reality down the Rabbit Hole, only delusion.  The longer we spend in this alternate world, the longer we spend away from the responsibility that has been given to us as the keepers of Nature.  We must envelop, with all of our hearts, the true meaning of existence for one and all: Survival of the species through preservation of our only Earth.

I believe that many of the controlling factions in our society prefer people to live in the top-most layers of existence.  To this end, it seems they have deliberately limited our children’s exposure to art, music, and even physical stimulation.  They have taken education and used it to envelop our children’s minds in pointless endeavors.  Slowly, they have created a limiting environment dictating that our children be taught to think within the shallow stratum.  The goal now, which needs to be taken up by those of us who are able, is to help those who are otherwise incapable on their own to realize the dangers of life within the bubble.  

There are larger bubbles, though, to which individuals gravitate.  In mathematics we call these bubbles within the larger whole "subsets."  The larger whole envelops the subset bubbles and files them within a defined space of opinion, which represents a quasi-collective set of beliefs.  Some of these wholes are represented by religious factions, political groups, conspiracy theorists, academics, elitists, fundamentalists, the list goes on and on.  This is the natural inclination of the tribal spirit within the natural survival instincts of the human animal.  Unfortunately, some tribal leaders only desire to feed upon the smaller bubbles, to control them like puppets on a string.

Time and time again, evolution has dictated adaptation as the fundamental catalyst of change.  So now, as humankind marches down the exponentially increasing steepness of the socio-economic global hill, we must all stand together for a common vision of the future.  We must stand together, hand in hand, if we are ever to break free from the bonds of Society’s Bubble.

Breaking out of the Bubble

The most crippling of all bubbles is the one we have come to term ignorance.  It is the definitive embodiment of not knowing.  This bubble develops for many reasons ranging from genetic dispositions, educational depravity, or the purposeful denial of available information.  Though the former is often biological or conditional, the latter is deeply rooted in survival and the desire to cling to a comfortable life.  The question then becomes: How do we effectively break individual members of society out of their bubbles and welcome them into a collective one where nature andman are functioning on one level?

Today, we are inundated with news stories outlining the realities of our present day existence.  So much information is available that it is difficult to process and maintain an informed perspective.  Those of us who have had the luxury of developing in a malleable bubble can take this information and process it through filters of reason and educational assessment.  Those who have not, however, are at a great disadvantage and are at the most risk of falling victim to the reality of today’s world.

As global interconnections expand digitally, the information highway takes us to places where a plethora of data is readily available.  We can read about the “truths” of the Gulf Oil Hemorrhage, the deception in the food industry, and the controversies surrounding God and Country.  This information, if attempted to be distilled and interpreted by an untrained mind can pose a significant risk to a person’s comfort.  If change is going to come, we need to find a way to redefine the bubbles and welcome them to the larger, expanding world without the controlling factors.

The truth of what is happening to our food, our livestock, our farms, our wildlife, our children, becomes more and more evident as time passes.  We who live in the deeper spectra must help to awaken, to break out of their individual, smothering bubbles, those who are not so capable.  We must all live together and breed a better tomorrow.  To be a part of the future, one must first break away from prejudice, hate, ignorance and self-indulgence.   We must now, more than ever, realize that the future is a moot endeavor without us, and that change is not only necessary, it is the only way we are to survive.  

The future is here to be made, now.  It is dependent upon understanding and interpreting reality.  It is the actualization of our collective actions. Only if we stand united, against those who have us remain in bubbles, will we truly be free.  We must help each other achieve this goal.  We must together forge an alliance to combat the ever-changing landscape into a reality of truth, of human greatness, of freedom from the slavery that has so crippled our present world.  We must let our predetermined insular worlds go, for they are the reason we will not only fall as a civilization but perish as a people.

As we come to the next corner in the road of our human existence, bubbles must come to burst and ideas converge to take us to the next level of existence.  As it stands today, we live separately, existing within defensive mechanisms and self-protection, denying our very humanity at every step.  The world will not survive this continued existence, this self-absorbed concentration of thought, without consequence.  We need to open up, to accept fact, to realize reality.  Alice was lost in a world of make believe, but we here today cannot let our childhood fantasies dictate our resolve any longer.  We must stand together, united, as a people, as the founders of the future to liberate the human race from its own prison.  We must break free from the bubbles that confine us, that define us.  Possibility is not held within this realm, for it is an unbounded power, and only we hold back its actualization through fear and ignorance.  We must together overcome Society’s Bubble Syndrome to ensure our survival.

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Nigel Farage: Why We Would be Better Off Out of This Chaos

Nigel Farage
UK Express

IS it time to leave the European Union, would we be Better Off Out? As the Daily Express courageously insists: Of course we would.

Over the last 20 years I have been promoting the very simple idea that our country would be doing itself, its people and the rest of the world a great favour by returning to self-governance. And this is why.

We would be Better Off Out financially by simply not paying the £48million a day to the European Union. This would be money better spent at home with priorities set by our elected representatives, rather than returned in part with European conditions.

We would be Better Off Out financially minus the dead weight of regulation that makes the life of our businesspeople a misery.

Read Full Article

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Citizens of Europe Rage Against the Machine

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