| This will be my Good Bye to NCN | |
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20 Jan 2007 @ 17:54, by jobrown
I've been going back & forth on this NCN thing.
I hate the fact that such good name for a web-site is hijacked to such dirty HIDDEN purposes: to lure good, trusting people, whose only wish is to connect with others like-minded, whose only desire is to put an end to the madness of the Crooks and save the Planet -and to respond to their own Inner Promptings of letting them grow in Awareness into ever higher vibrations of consciousness & Cosmic Existence.
Judging from the name One would think that a web-site calling itself NEW CIVILIZATION NETWORK would be exactly thee forum for such interaction.
We tried and we tried and we did connect with many wonderful friends here, but we also got "spit on", slandered and our words and truths were taken out of context and twisted and mutilated etc etc etc -in(to) absurdum, certainly more than one would expect from a forum working for a NEW Life-Loving, supporting and Understanding Civilization should take upon it's conscience!
So many well intended, good people have come -and gone- through the "doors" of New Civ.org.
Of the more than Fifty thousand who have signed up as members at one point or another we are never told how many quit -and how quickly!
One thing I dare to predict: the time these good people choose to stay putt, is getting shorter every week!
The cosmic Energy coming towards this Planet from Outer Space is of such high vibrations, speeding up the TIME-thing by the week -if not day, so Things will be changing in that same pace; the old will disintegrate ever faster and the New will find its spots to grow and flourish ever easier. No OLD WAY Thinker (bully-mentality person) can stop this, no matter how hard they might pretend to be capable!
There will come a day when the bullies -where ever they are congregated, be it New Civ Network or in the Echelons of "Power" in Washington DC- will find no one but their own ilk to suck blood from. Now WHAT??? Who cares! They all had their chance, just like the rest of us, we who responded to Life and chose to see through the Age Old Lies, the deception, robbery and over all Man's CRUELTY towards Man, (as well as the rest of Nature); which has almost destroyed this corner of the Starry Firmament of the Universe. No more! Try as they might -and they DO! here's proof of that.( No more putting the Spotlight on the sh-- by me any longer. Just wishing you all the bullies a good time with each other, ripping each others heads off!... coz' you WILL be doing it!)
THANK YOU all you sweet Life Loving Friends, I will stay in touch with you! /// Astrid
Truth Is Speaking - Is Power Listening?
Carolyn Baker interviewed by Jason Miller
1-20-7 /// Posted by Bb Astrid
Deep crimson stains mottle the pages of humanity's history. Untold numbers of souls who were skewered, decapitated, eviscerated, or obliterated in anonymity scream out for recognition as one peruses humankind's memoirs. While our historical manuscript is also generously dappled by the milk of human kindness, much of our narrative is dominated by tales of man's savage cruelty to man.
And despite widespread misconceptions, the human collective of the United States has acted in accord with the rest of the players on history's stage.
Relative to its predecessors, the empire sometimes referred to as Pax Americana is not exceptionally exploitative, acquisitive, or genocidal. One can point to numerous historical examples of clans, tribes, or nations with comparable levels of bloodlust. As masters of the world go, the United States has been fairly run of the mill in its pathologies.
Yet what galls many about the United States is the hubristic set of pernicious and enduring myths that portray our nation so disingenuously. Since the founding of our so-called republic, textbook authors, historians, teachers, our government, the mainstream media, and the moneyed elite have striven tenaciously to convince the working class, the rest of the world, and perhaps even themselves of our moral superiority and exemplary virtue.
Recently the Bush administration's egregious and blatant breaches of morals, ethics, and laws have rendered the illusion of American Exceptionalism virtually untenable.
Yet not unlike Joe Pesci's witness in My Cousin Vinny, whose testimony could only have been true if the "laws of physics ceased to exist on [his] stove", there are still many among us in the United States who make claims that could only be true if the "laws of human nature" ceased to exist in our country.
We are as prone to cruelty, greed, gluttony, selfishness, and the like as the rest of the human race. In fact, our refusal to own our collective shadow (coupled with our possession of nearly unlimited economic and military power) has heightened our nation's tendency to behave like a rogue.
Why do so many amongst the poor and working class of the United States embrace the spiritual cancers of consumerism, patriotism, nationalism, blind allegiance to corporations, and delusional thinking so readily proffered by a relatively tiny group of aristocrats who reside on the other side of a wealth canyon that was once known as a gap?
A few days ago, I caught up with Carolyn Baker, an open-minded and deeply knowledgeable author, essayist, publisher and history professor. She worked as a psychotherapist for two decades and has spoken truth to power for years. I felt confident that Carolyn could shed some serious light on the issues vexing me. So I asked her a series of questions.
1. Please briefly acquaint us with your latest book, US History Uncensored: What Your High School Textbook Didn't Tell You (1).
This book grew out of years of teaching recent American history (1865 to the present) when after several semesters of teaching, I realized that I should compile my lecture notes and relevant documents into a book. Because I prefer struggling with questions rather than declaring that I have answers, I introduce the book in this way: "How did we arrive where we are now: American society dominated by corporations and their interests, an economy based on war and the weapons industry, trillions of dollars missing from federal government agencies, the annihilation of our civil liberties and the shredding of the U.S. Constitution, the dumbing- down of America and the reduction of our educational system to the lowest common denominator, Peak Oil-the best-kept secret in America, and the polarization of economic prosperity and quality of life?"
The book raises myriad questions about recent American history and offers possible answers, and very well-documented ones at that.
2. Those who are familiar with Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States(2) are probably thinking that the two books sound similar. How would you compare and contrast your book with Zinn's?
First, Zinn's books are essentially essays, and they are extremely worthwhile. Zinn has been an enormous inspiration for me, and I can't get enough of him, but my book is more than a book per se; it is a curriculum abstract. In other words, it was written not only for the reader who just wants to read about U.S. history from the end of the Civil War to the present, but was also written so that history instructors or instructors of other subjects can utilize it as a supplement to their required textbooks or other materials.
In addition, while I have the greatest respect for Howard Zinn, there are some subjects that I do not feel he has sufficiently addressed such as 9/11 and energy depletion as a motivation for epidemic resource wars around the world.
3. I am curious, and I suspect the readers are too, to know more about you as a person. Please favor us (to the degree to which you feel comfortable) with a brief verbal self-portrait of Carolyn Baker.
I'm a baby-boomer who grew up in a fundamentalist Christian family in the Midwest. I was raised on McCarthyism, racism, hellfire and brimstone. I bought into it throughout my childhood, and at the age of sixteen was saving my money to join the John Birch Society. I was sent to an evangelical bible college where I became a rebellious skeptic and left there in order to attend a major Big Ten university. One thing that my upbringing was unable to squelch was my thirst for learning, and my university experience proved that indeed, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I became an activist in the throes of the sixties, and you might say that I have never ceased being one. I spent most of my adult life in the fields of human service and psychology and returned to college teaching about ten years ago. Although I am no longer a psychotherapist as I was for seventeen years of my career, I experience the fields of psychology and history as extremely relevant and complementary to each other. What is history if not the story of the behavior of human beings? Learning from history can alter our psychology, and altering our psychology can re-direct how we make history.
4. Who has been your biggest inspiration?
It is almost impossible to name any one person as my biggest inspiration. In college I was greatly inspired by Norm Pollack, the history professor to whom my book is dedicated, other professors, peers, employers, therapists, and a variety of other activists.
My spiritual path is extremely important to me, and individuals like the poets Rumi, Mary Oliver, Mario Benedetti, and Pablo Neruda have been guiding lights, as well as the principles of indigenous spirituality and specific teachers such as Carl Jung, Matthew Fox, the Gnostics, Pema Chodron, and many more.
Politically, I am inspired by contemporary Latin American socialists such as, President Michelle Bachelet, of Chile; Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia; Che Guevara; others like Vandana Shiva, Cesar Chavez, and Robert Kennedy continue to inform my perspective.
Sometimes when I am feeling depressed or discouraged, I go to the websites of the Latin American presidents I have mentioned, and there I see and hear the changes they are making and the ways in which they are transforming their countries and defeating neoliberalism in Latin America through democratic elections and by engineering humane government, and I am inspired and enlivened. In an article I recently wrote entitled "New Kids On the Block Confront Imperial Bully: Why I Am Smiling"(3), I explained how these people warm my heart and challenge me to keep going. Most of them know more of suffering and the struggle for justice than I ever will, and the ways in which they walk their talk daily reminds me that a better world is possible.
5. Who has influenced you the most?
I suppose I would have to say that the teachings of Jung influenced me the most in my forties and continue to inform my emotional, spiritual, and political perspectives. One does not have to be in the field of psychology to experience illumination of one's inner and outer worlds from Jung's writings. While Jung was a product of his time and influenced by the racism and sexism of his era, he was also far ahead of his time in a host of other ways. As a group, I feel that Jungian therapists can sometimes become focused on the inner world to the exclusion of the outer, whereas for me, it is essential to develop both a rich inner world and at the same time, struggle to create a just and humane outer world. In terms of history, it is because of Jung that I insist on looking at the dark aspects of it as well as the positive. Only in this way can real integration occur.
6. Your bio for your new book states that you were an administrator for non-profits and a psychotherapist (for about two decades) before you became a history professor. What motivated your transition?
Perhaps it was exactly what I just mentioned in answer to the last question. I began feeling that it was time for me to get out of the therapist's office and human service management and into the world more directly.
For one thing, I felt that the injustices in those fields were becoming intolerable. Increasingly, there were no federal and few state funds for non-profits, while the unregulated corporate capitalist system was running amuck. The field of psychotherapy was also being destroyed by the health insurance industry, unbridled and unchecked. For example, we all know that the society in which we live in the United States is not emotionally healthy, and there is a ghastly amount of violence and abuse on every level. In the pre-managed care world, people could receive psychotherapy and be able to use their health insurance benefits indefinitely, but after the triumph of managed care, "brief therapy" prevailed, and people were generally only allowed twelve sessions in which to address gargantuan emotional issues such as sexual abuse or other trauma. Thus, the profession increasingly became about bandaging people up and getting them "repaired" well enough to function. At the same time, the mental health professional has been put in the position of either playing the insurance company's game in order to survive or taking only clients who can pay out-of-pocket, and the economic situation in this country being what it is, makes that untenable.
But more importantly, my leaving those fields also had to do with a transition from life in California, as I responded to an inner calling to move to the Southwestern US and specifically to live in closer proximity to Latin America and its cultures. Nevertheless, the experiences and enrichment of the two prior decades continue to inform every aspect of my current work as a teacher and writer.
7. How long have you been teaching history?
I have been teaching history at the college/university level for almost a decade.
8. How valuable has your humanitarian background been to you in your efforts to teach and record history in ways that deviate significantly from the "traditional approach"?
Well, as I said in my answer to #3, I see the two worlds as very compatible and complementary to each other. Much of the psychotherapy world, certainly when one has a Jungian perspective on board, is about finding meaning-critically thinking about any subject, analyzing, looking deeper than the bland, superficial material that is printed in college textbooks. My graduate studies in history were all about that, and when I became a teacher of college history myself, I was appalled at the lack of concern for this. Students came into classes loathing history based on their experiences of it in high school which were overwhelmingly about memorizing dates and names and with absolutely no attempt to connect the dots or make meaningful sense of history.
9. Quoting from your book's forward: ".the relegating of history to an antiquated closet of insignificance is not only intellectually unsound but fundamentally dangerous." How much of the US American publics' minimization of the value of history do you think is orchestrated by the plutocracy which has managed to leverage most of the wealth and power in the United States?
I do believe that a significant amount of the minimization of history is orchestrated by the plutocracy, but there are other factors at work as well. First, we have a president who received an undergraduate degree in history from Yale and nearly brags about his doing so by making C's and D's. In addition, technology, which I love and utilize as much as anyone else, has seduced us into believing that only that which is instant, momentary, or future- focused is worth considering. Current conditions do not lend themselves to a consideration of history as relevant or valuable. I believe that we live in an infantilized culture, and I have written about this extensively, as recently as in my commentary on the film "Children Of Men". Part of the infantilization is due not only to the United States being a very young nation compared with European countries, but we have little sense of history. What inkling most Americans do have is inordinately positive. Few students coming into my classes have any concept of Native American genocide or the actual treatment of African Americans before or after the Civil War. For most of them, U.S. history is "white, bright, and light"- we were the good guys in white hats, devoid of any dark side. I've noticed, however, that during the past six years, that attitude has been changing specifically as a result of war-weariness and the demise of Bush's popularity.
Moreover, and this is extremely important, if people do not know their own history, then like children, they are easily manipulated and controlled and have little discernment about when they are being lied to by their government or the extent of corruption in their government. Being unfamiliar with the U.S. Constitution and the process by which it was formulated makes citizens extremely vulnerable to oppression because as a result of their ignorance, they do not know when their rights are being violated, why they should not be violated, why hundreds of thousands of men and women died so that these rights would not be violated, and that citizens have every right, not only to make certain that their liberties are not violated, but that according to the Constitution, when their government does so, they have a right and a duty, to abolish that government. Certainly, such ignorance of history benefits the plutocracy and no one else. That is the danger of not knowing one's history.
10. How do you believe the opulent class and corporatists use the dearth of historical knowledge amongst the masses in the United States to their advantage? If the question is too broad, perhaps you could simply provide a few specific examples.
No, the question isn't too broad. As stated above, unfamiliarity with the history of the U.S. Constitution creates people who function like sheep in obedience to their government. For example, unfamiliarity with the war in Vietnam makes certain that young men and women have no historical perspective about fighting in wars. Many have heard that the "poor U.S. troops" upon returning from Vietnam were spit on by protestors, but they have no clue that thousands of those returning troops quickly joined the anti-war movement, and they have no clue about why because they have no historical understanding of the Vietnam War and what it was about.
When I teach the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century periods of U.S. history, students rarely know that working people at the time were subjected to ghastly mistreatment by management with no laws to protect them. They take working five days a week with a guaranteed lunch break and bathroom breaks for granted, as they take getting a paycheck and having a weekend for granted, not knowing that working people of earlier eras in the U.S. often worked 18 hours a day, 6 days a week and got no paycheck or were cheated on the amount they received. In my class they learn where these things that they take for granted in the workplace came from, and they learn about the lives that were lost in the cause of making sure that working people had humane treatment and that their civil liberties were respected.
When you do not know your history, you can be sorely taken advantage of, and of course, who does that benefit?
11. As I watched Scott Pelley interview our unitary executive on Sixty Minutes last Sunday, I literally felt a chill go down my spine followed almost immediately by a feeling of intense rage when I heard this exchange:
PELLEY: Do you believe as commander-in-chief you have the authority to put the troops in there no matter what the Congress wants to do?
BUSH: In this situation, I do, yeah. Now, I fully understand they could try to stop me from doing it. But I made my decision, and we're going forward.
Drawing on your knowledge of history, when has another US president so boldly asserted his intention to utterly defy the system of checks and balances so crucial to the preservation of our Constitutional Republic? Obviously, the Bush Regime has dealt many blows to what is left of our Constitution. How much weight do you give this one relative to the Patriot Act, Signing Statements, and MCC?
To my knowledge, no other U.S. president has so blatantly disregarded checks and balances, but in my book, I discuss a couple of incidents in which Bush's father did the same kind of thing as Reagan's Vice-President, but did so behind the scenes. For example, I explain in detail the creation of a black budget for the military industrial complex under Vice-President Bush which egregiously violates the U.S. Constitution.
While I give little attention to mainstream media, I do watch Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" on MSNBC every night. In the throes of debate on the Military Commissions Act a couple of months ago, I listened to Olbermann interview Jonathan Turley, law professor at George Washington University, and as they discussed the appalling violation of the Constitution that the Act is, Turley's principal lament was that the American people and Congress were doing nothing about it. Congress has little excuse since most of its members have some knowledge of U.S. history, but the American citizenry, ignorant of their history, if they had even heard of the Military Commissions Act, had virtually nothing to say about it, and if they did, it was most likely in support of torture and "doing whatever it takes" to get rid of those nasty terrorists.
I consider one of the final steps of sealing our fate as a fascist empire, this 2006 act which violates every principle of liberty in the U.S. Constitution. The violation is blatant-unprecedentedly blatant, but no other president of earlier generations could have gotten away with shredding the Constitution or calling it as Bush did "a goddamn piece of paper". That's because in those times, people still had enough sense of history to prevent such outrageous usurpation of power.
12.Your book touches on the darker aspects of US American history which are often white-washed or ignored in "mainstream" texts. Most history students spend very little time learning about the Native American genocide, chattel slavery, the violent oppression of labor and social movements by the moneyed class, US imperialism, and unprosecuted US war crimes (i.e. Dresden and the secret bombings in Cambodia). How much time do your students spend studying these facets of US history?
My students spend a great deal of time learning about those facets, alongside the positive aspects of our history. Zinn has done a fabulous job in PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES in recounting noble, courageous, and heroic acts undertaken by ordinary people in our nation's history that served to make us, in principle at least, a great nation. I educate my students in the necessity of knowing the dark side of their history, just as they should know some of the not-so-pretty parts of the personality of a person they plan to marry, or the unpleasant aspects of a job they want to be hired for. Without an integration of the dark side and the light side, we either become cynical and depressed, or infantilized sycophants. Either way, we cannot function as informed and useful citizens.
One thing I want my students to know about is role models in U.S. history other than presidents. In fact, I spend very little time talking about presidents because, as I tell students, presidents don't run the United States, in my opinion, and because this nation was built on the backs of people of color, women, and the poor. One of my favorite assignments is a reaction paper on the "Autobiography of Frederick Douglass" in which students must read the autobiography and write a paper, putting themselves in his place. There are specific questions they must address in the paper, but without exception, when students read the life of the former slave and imagine themselves in his shoes, they begin to see themselves, people of color, and their entire world differently. I have had students contact me years after doing the assignment and tell me that it was the most life-changing college assignment they had.
13. You wrote that educators face a backlash for deviating from teaching "traditional history". How has your critical and honest examination of US history affected your professional career?
Personally, I believe that it is easier to teach alternative history in college than in high school. There are too many constraints--parents and administration looking over the shoulders of high school teachers. College and university professors have greater latitude.
My professional career has not suffered as a result of my alternative views. As I mention in the book, one student once said in front of the entire class, "We may not agree with you, but we will never forget this class." In 2004, one of my very activist students wanted to give an oral presentation on the war in Iraq and used a couple of video clips she had gotten from a returning veteran. Some of the scenes were gory, but overall, they simply raised disturbing questions about why the U.S. was even occupying Iraq. There were several complaints to the administration about the class and my not being "patriotic", but I was not personally penalized. Today, in 2007, attitudes have shifted enormously, and what I hear and feel in class from students is rage at the current administration-bitterness and despair over having lost relatives and friends in a war that they now recognize as vile and based on lies. The overwhelming majority of my students are Hispanic and therefore are disproportionately affected by a recruitment system that promises them the sun, the moon, and the stars, but either gets them killed in combat or does very little to help them when they return to the U.S. gravely disabled or suffering from post- traumatic stress disorder.
14. How much pressure have you felt from the university where you teach to curb your efforts, which often (in your words) lead people to accuse you of "hating America and lacking gratitude for the benefits of being born in this nation"?
As stated above, I have not felt a great deal of pressure. What I have seen in the classroom in the past three years is the almost- total evaporation of patriotism and a burgeoning cynicism and despair.
15. Despite the existence of nearly innumerable sources of evidence that obliterate the incredibly disingenuous assertion "that the United States of America is the most tolerant, moral, non- aggressive, and benevolent nation on earth", many US Americans cling tenaciously to this pernicious delusion. How do you account for this?
Actually-and fortunately, I'm finding that many students these days are not clinging to this disingenuous assertion. I think that because many of my students are working class Hispanics and have seen the darker side of U.S. history in terms of the experiences of family members who have come to this country to have a better life, only to find that the U.S. isn't the "land of the free" they had fantasized, perhaps they are more open to an alternative view of U.S. history. However, there are still some who do embrace the "America can do no wrong" delusion, and of course, I believe, this is true of many more Anglo American adults. My sense of that is not only what Jung says, that human beings can only handle so much reality, but that people who cling to this assertion need to do so because to entertain a different perception is too threatening, i.e., coming to realize that they have been egregiously betrayed and that what they have worked so hard to support and affirm is not as it seems. All of our institutions in the U.S. serve to perpetuate this myth, so without profound life experiences that break through the fantasy, many people never do.
16. In your opinion, considering the unbridled power of corporations, unchecked militarism, propaganda disseminated by the corporate media, erosion of civil liberties, and concentration of power into the Executive branch, has the United States devolved far enough for the label of fascism to be accurate? Please elaborate on the reasoning you used to draw your conclusion.
As I tell students, we tend to think of fascism as soldiers marching around in jackboots, flags with swastikas draping the entrances of buildings, and Jews being loaded into boxcars headed for death camps. But Mussolini gave us a very simple definition of fascism which I emphasize in my book: the merging/symbiosis, enmeshment of the state and corporations. In fact, he said fascism should be more properly called "the corporate state."
It is no longer possible in the United States to define where corporations leave off and the state begins. That situation has existed for decades, but the current Bush administration has taken fascism not just to the next level, but to a new galaxy-a new realm of power of the state and of capitulation by the citizenry, as well as a carte blanche for corporations more lenient than we have seen since the late nineteenth century.
In the 1930s, historian Robert Brady wrote a powerful and chilling analysis, The Spirit and Structure of German Fascism(4), in which he examined the creation of the Nazi empire, but also argued that fascism was not necessarily unique to Germany. In the book he states that "almost the entirety of the German Nazi program and line of argumentation is identical in content and point of view with that of the American business community." (P.380) He continues:
If the analysis given here is correct, the only difference between fascist and non-fascist capitalist states-between Italy, Germany, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Brazil, etc, on the one hand, and England, France, and the United States, the Argentine, Belgium, etc. on the other-is to be found not in the content, but in the level on which the propaganda is promoted.(P.384)
Brady then asserts: "in the United States business is still trying to 'sell itself to the public' while in Germany this is no longer necessary-it has sold the public to itself, and those who do not believe, who do not accept, and who do not conform are branded as 'traitors' to the state and treated accordingly." (P. 384)
I submit that the corporatocracy of the United States has "sold itself" unequivocally to the American people, and the Bush II administration is putting the finishing touches of institutionalized fascism on the society-a society that has little sense of history and what actually happened in Germany in the 1930s.
If you have any doubt left, you must watch Aaron Russo's fabulous documentary "America: From Freedom to Fascism."(5)
17. You have indicated that you see a connection between the 2000 Presidential "election" and the events on 9/11. What does that entail?
One point I made in the book is that 9/11 is not necessarily the most significant event of the twenty-first century because I believe that the 2000 presidential election was. I believe that it was unambiguously a coup d'etat, and that that coup was completed with the orchestration by the U.S. government of the 9/11 attacks. Thus, the two events are inextricably connected.
You know, on the night of the 2000 elections I was teaching at the university in Juarez, Mexico, and I was watching the election returns on TV in the faculty lounge, quite appalled at what I was witnessing. Then one of my colleagues, a friend and a Mexican national, playfully but seriously said to me, "It looks like you Gringos are living what we Mexicans have been living for decades- dirty elections that have nothing to do with how the people actually voted."
Very soon on my site (www.carolynbaker.org) I will be reviewing the book 9/11 And American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out(6) which is one of the best examinations of 9/11 in the past year. A chapter at the very end "Parameters Of Power In The Global Dominance Group: 9/11 & Election Irregularities in Context" by Peter Phillips, Bridget Thornton, and Celeste Vogler, superbly connects the dots between this administration's usurpation of power illegally and "The New Pearl Harbor" of 9/11. Overwhelming evidence of every kind points to the orchestration of the attacks by the Bush administration, and on this point, most Americans cannot and will not allow themselves to demand a deeper investigation because they are terrified of what such an investigation may uncover: that their government-yes, that government that is supposed to be the most liberal, uncorrupted, pure- as- the -driven -snow entity on earth, murdered 3000 of its own people as a pretext for endless war and global dominance.
Thinking critically and analytically demands that we penetrate the veneer of the "official" story of that event; otherwise we will not understand the current occupation of Iraq, the likely escalation into Iran and Syria, or the plethora of resource wars provoked and carried out by the United States that will ensue for the remainder of this century and beyond.
18. You are one of a growing number who now calls the United States an "empire". What do you say to those who claim that we US Americans only use our military might to maintain a peaceful, free, and orderly world?
Well, don't take it from me, take it from history! In my book is a marvelous article by Zoltan Grossman, a professor at Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington in which he presents a detailed and very well-documented list of all U.S. interventions internationally in our nation's history. It is one thing to have heard about this, and it is quite another to actually see the list with one's own eyes. It appears almost infinite. And history absolutely does not confirm that these interventions served to maintain a peaceful, free, orderly world. Quite the contrary!
But that's empire on the geopolitical front.
The consequences of empire are always a draining and hollowing out of the domestic economy as a result of endless military adventures abroad. Catherine Austin Fitts writes and speaks of this hollowing out as "slow burn" in which the nation's economy and infrastructure are gradually eviscerated as a result of war and corporate privatization, or as she says "piratization' of resources at home and abroad. An honest examination of the current U.S. economy-an examination that looks beyond the rosy picture of the financial pages of U.S. media, reveals that this is precisely what is occurring, and precisely why the American middle class and working people are working themselves to death but have nothing to show for it-or as a friend of mine says, "I'm working my tail off, but I feel like I'm on welfare."
Another result of empire is that it must make war not only on the rest of the world but on its own citizens. American citizens are now the targets of unprecedented totalitarian surveillance in the United States, and like the frog placed in a pan of cold water who feels quite comfortable; the heat is being turned up daily and will continue to rise until the contented inhabitant of the cold water is cooked.
19. How has your friendship with "conspiracy theorist" Michael Ruppert affected your academic career and reputation?
Well, first of all, Mike would say that he doesn't deal in conspiracy "theory" but deals only in conspiracy fact. Mike's research has been pivotal in my political awakening in recent years. His writing, speaking, and research are superb and impeccably documented. In my opinion, he has written the definitive book on 9/11, Crossing the Rubicon, and while I believe that physical evidence on 9/11 is important even though it has all been destroyed, Rubicon provides us with indisputable evidence of motive, means, and opportunity regarding the atrocities of 9/11.
And by the way, ALL theories of 9/11 are conspiracy theories. The greatest conspiracy theory ever devised is the premise that 19 Arab males under the direction of Osama bin Laden hijacked four airplanes and flew three of them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Once we understand that all theories of 9/11 are conspiracy theories, then we have to decide which conspiracy theory, based on a thorough examination of the evidence, we will embrace.
20. Are you still affiliated with Michael's From the Wilderness website?
From the Wilderness, of which I was the last Managing Editor, went out of business late in 2006. I link to the FTW archives on my website(7) and maintain a site that is extremely current with breaking news and trends, as well as offer a free subscription to my daily news service in which I email the most current stories from websites people may not know about or have time to visit.
21. Catherine Austin Fitts, a former Wall Street banker and Assistant Secretary of Federal Housing Commissioner at HUD under Bush I, wrote the foreword to your book. Catherine is now a strident critic of the Empire and a strong supporter of Cynthia McKinney. She cites you as a guiding influence in her profound conversion. How much influence did you have in her metamorphosis?
I believe that I have had a great deal of influence in Catherine's understanding of history, but her "conversion" as you say, began long before she met me in 2002. Catherine's story is extraordinary, and as a result, she cannot possibly be considered a conspiracy theorist because she has lived through an enormous conspiracy by the U.S. government to destroy her. I strongly urge folks to not only study her website at www.solari.com but also her newer site at www.dunwalke.com which she constructed while I was writing my book and which she constructed with my book and history classes in mind. The latter site documents the extent of U.S. government and corporate corruption during the past fifty years.
And by the way, I would like to add that one of the topics I offer to my recent American history students for research and an end-of- semester oral presentation is: MOST AMERICANS BELIEVE THAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT, UNLIKE THE GOVERNMENT OF MEXICO, IS NOT CORRUPT. DO YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE? WHY? EXPLORE THE REALITY $59 MILLION MISSING FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT (H.U.D.) AND $1.3 TRILLION MISSING FROM THE PENTAGON.
Catherine's story and research profoundly inspired me to include this as one of the topics of research and oral presentation. As I mentioned above, many of my students have their roots in Mexico, where they and most Americans presume the worst corruption on earth exists. Without exception, however, I have never had a student, with roots in Mexico or otherwise, who completed the assignment and did not overwhelmingly conclude that the U.S. is one of the most corrupt nations on earth.
22. You have impacted me positively as I have been awakening from my corporate media-induced slumber over the last few years. Care to speculate on how many others you may have truly enlightened along the way?
I'm honored and humbled to have impacted you, Jason.
I don't like to apply numbers to the people who have been exposed to my classes or writings. One of the unfortunate aspects of being a teacher of any kind is that unlike being a psychotherapist, one does not always get to see progress in the moment. A student may take my classes and yawn his or her way through, not appearing to be deeply affected by anything he or she heard there. Yet years later, a light bulb may go on, and much of what I said in class is recollected by the student. That very thing has happened on a number of occasions as students have contacted me years later to relate such an experience. But if I make a difference in only one person's life, I will have served my purpose on this earth.
My passion today is getting information out into the world because if I believe nothing else, I believe-I know, that knowledge is power. How can we create options to navigate the daunting future ahead of us if we do not have information?
Therefore, I am pleased to announce many positive changes occurring on my website in the coming months. We are beginning to feature pivotal articles by talented writers who will offer the best in writing and research. Other changes are in the works as well, and I invite everyone reading this article to visit us and become a news service subscriber.
Incidentally, today, I received the following comment on my book:
I had to comment on your book. I purchased it recently and once I opened it, I read it cover to cover it's that compelling. As a 'baby boomer' who experienced doubts about the JFK assassination, researched conspiracies, protested the war etc., this book was a must read. It provides a cogent approach in weaving together seemingly disparate and disjointed historical events into a definitive context one in which the American public has been repeatedly lied to and led like 'sheeple'. Hopefully, research like this will raise consciousness of awareness and will stem the tide of inequities and lies.
Keep up the great work. I would recommend this to anyone.
-Dennis from Texas
You see Jason, not everyone in Texas is jaded!
23. In closing, I note that the introduction to US History Uncensored: What Your High School Textbook Didn't Tell You would seem to indicate that you are encouraging history instructors to incorporate your book into their curriculum. In today's increasingly academic environment (which is increasingly subject to over and covert oppression of "alternative" or "subversive" viewpoints), how could a text like your proliferate?
I have no illusions that my book will become a "best-seller" in academia, but some professors may want to use it supplementally or as the foundation of their teaching. I think the best way to test its usefulness is simply to use it and see what happens. If an instructor wants to generate discussion, it is guaranteed to assist that process.
I also believe that the academic experience can generate both positive and negative results. Sometimes we emerge from academia with constricted notions about what it means to be part of academia- how we "should" think, how we "should" teach. I notice that many academics are terrified of being called a conspiracy theorist which is one reason that I so admire the individuals who participated in the writing of 9/11 And American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out.
In recent years I have taught a course in the Education Department on academic excellence in addition to my history courses, and one section of the course addresses critical thinking. I have incorporated into that section of the course a segment on 9/11 and created a critical thinking project on the official story of 9/11. The project certainly revealed to me on the deepest level why students are fearful of knowing the full extent of the evidence regarding the event, and in the process, I also learned how fearful some instructors are of being accused of being labeled nut-jobs for questioning the official story.
So I would say, use my book and tear it to pieces, but use it!
In conclusion, thank you Jason for giving me this opportunity to share more of who I am and what I do.
Carolyn, on behalf of those who will read this piece and myself, I thank you for taking the time to provide such insightful commentary.
I also want to express appreciation for your stalwart efforts to enlighten people.
While food is fairly abundant here in the United States, many of us suffer varying degrees of chronic spiritual malnutrition. Truth is essential to the well-being of our souls, yet it is woefully scarce in the lives of US Americans.
Carolyn, may you continue to follow the noble path blazed by the Religious Society of Friends in the 18th Century as you speak truth to power.
And to the rest of us!
End Notes:
(1) [link] 0595395864
(2) [link] Present/dp/0060528370
(3) [link] imperial-bully-why-im-smiling-by-carolyn-baker
(4) [link] 0806502398
(5) [link]
(6) [link] 1566566592
(7) [link]
CAROLYN BAKER, Ph.D., is an adjunct professor of history, an author, and former psychotherapist. Her lastest book is U.S. HISTORY UNCENSORED: What Your High School Textbook Didn't Tell You.
Jason Miller is a wage slave of the American Empire who has freed himself intellectually and spiritually. He writes prolifically, his essays have appeared widely on the Internet, and he volunteers at homeless shelters. He welcomes constructive correspondence at [email protected] or via his blog, Thomas Paine's Corner, at [link]
And now that your on it; have fun!
[link]
http://holocaustnow.blogspot.com/2007/01/mad-rip.html
/// Astrid
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Category: Articles
17 comments
20 Jan 2007 @ 22:19 by : On bushy's request of Proof
I will provide him with some, so I do it here, now, cos I don't want to go on here on NCN much longer. It feels too much like an energy zapping Rabbit hole!...
If you have any comments to the article above, pleas feel free to comment.I will go through them and then after that I'll meet (some of) you in Cyber Space privately, eh?
This is all from b's blog; the article called "NCN Gold" in the beg. of last April.
You might want to go in there and read ALL the comments to really grasp how sick and utterly stupid some people chose to make the whole thread; never responding to legitimate questions, never expanding any idea, etc, like normal a little more mentally/emotionally healthy people tend to do!...but no.....
The bashing and trashing with some tidbits shown here, was absolutely Outrageous, UNBELIEVABLE,in its own Glory of STUPIDITY! I can for my life not fathom this kind thinking!/// Astrid
Here, bushy, here's some Proof, not taken out of their contexts, but the whole statements and responses to them.... by no means ALL there is to be found, but I will only show the grossest ones written by you, bushy to me, and this might give some people, enough to see a trend in your way of interacting, especially when added to your keen interaction with Steve these last few days, bushy your way of doing "a two-way, intelligent exchange of Info and sharing point of views as you claim doing"... ; )/// Astrid
8 Apr 2006 @ 18:20 by blueboy : "All truth
goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."-- (Schoepenhouer)
Thank Goodness,Bushy, that Ignorance is a Bliss -to the Ignorant, him/herself, eh? ; ) /// *!* [Edit]
8 Apr 2006 @ 18:50 by bushman : Hmm
All things must go thru transitions, this what is the flaw with Darwins work, because nothing just becomes what it is, from something else with just one movment, its more about stages, not about jumpping backwards, to go back to that place where it all went wrong in the past, and take a different path. We can't go back. What kind of mentality would sit back and watch 90% of the worlds human population die off, and then be happy about it? The New Civ Community is about transition into a time, that we can teach the people conciousness, and show them how it could be, and still keep those 90% useless consumers and eatters alive. The ones that you hate Blueboy, have just as much right to be here as you do. It's about education, not destruction. Why would souls even come here to be born, if there wasnt a reason for it? :}
8 Apr 2006 @ 20:05 by blueboy : That's exactly why I said:
"All truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."-
You know that cliche-like statement about "leading the horse to the Water, but not being able to drink FOR the horse" ... that is so true! Keep on keeping on -and smile : )... coz I have really no clue WHAT you're talking about/insinuating here!: ( "All things must go thru transitions, this what is the flaw with Darwins work, because nothing just becomes what it is, from something else with just one movment, its more about stages, not about jumpping backwards, to go back to that place where it all went wrong in the past, and take a different path. We can't go back. What kind of mentality would sit back and watch 90% of the worlds human population die off, and then be happy about it? The New Civ Community is about transition into a time, that we can teach the people conciousness, and show them how it could be, and still keep those 90% useless consumers and eatters alive. The ones that you hate Blueboy, have just as much right to be here as you do. It's about education, not destruction. Why would souls even come here to be born, if there wasnt a reason for it? :}) ????? -or are just projecting your own 'awareness'???
You are certainly NOT having a two way interaction here, giving Feedback to my comments!...
I'm sorry... (you're obviously )talk(ing) for yourself. Not only that, but you are shooting yourself in the foot, as the saying goes!...
The closer we are to eachother on our Paths, the easier we can
communicate and understand eachother. That's what the concept of 'Kindred Spirits' is all about.
Good Luck to you. We are all -SOMEWHERE- on the Path!
Sustainable Living IS of/theee HIGHER consiousness, hence the more loving consciousness = ALL-INCLUDING consciousness than is (your) Survival ( "of the fittest")consiousness!... To raise ourselves from there, is what we all have had to do. Eventually everyone will walk that same Path; the Path of ONE. [Edit]
8 Apr 2006 @ 23:03 by b : Blueperson
I take it you do not want to live in a newciv model community and be part of starting new things to have a better life. Your life is fine for you and Members don't do what you say. Right. Also you can not invest so you deplore profit.
Hey, some people in a discussion take their information and leave because they do not know what they want. I just hope there are enough pep[le of the membership who want to see a better quality of life and more who want to have it. It can be done with change. I present this opportunity.
8 Apr 2006 @ 23:25 by bushman : I dont agree,
All our paths are not enevitably one and the same path, I personaly am not and never will be part of the hive. Many paths to the same place/goal, is how I see it. There is no feedback when there is no rational application for it, what are you doing? Wheres the action? All I see is your dream of utopia Blueboy, people living off the land in thier beat up van, or cardboard shanty towns like there used to be in Tijiuana. Its fine for those that have decided thier path ends where you are. In reality our paths never end, therefor mankind can't sit and stagnate. We are explorers, once you reach your place, the fun is over. I'm not ready to sit in my rocking chair and rest. Im going for the day, sustainable liveing means food replicators, free energy, free communications, the end to all sickness. Im not one to leave it in Gods hands. It's not like you have to participate Blueboy, if it goes against what you beleive is true, then why even say anything at all? Other than to push your beliefs on others, with no real solutions. Diversity is what it's all about, not being in some wacked-out lazy collective. :}
9 Apr 2006 @ 00:09 by vibrani : Bushman
I love your last several comments - right on!
7 Apr 2006 @ 22:51 by blueboy : See, bickering, bickering!....
Why? (in MHO ) because the CARROT offered was GOLD!... NOT starting a new Cicilasation/World; Better for ALL!!! To help heal all Soil , so severely injured /poisoned today, is done by creating Black Gold, which Yellow Gold never can replace!!!
There's TONS of people out there who already has started a New Civ.; some of these communities decades old and booming & blooming like there's no tomorrow, as the saying goes, so what 's all this bruha 'bout????
To anyone who is the least serious about wanting to start a new(civ) Community to check out [link] Read their Mission Statement, about their Local Food System, their Community Land Trust, Local Currency..... heck, read it all! : ) an' know that this is just one of the many wonderful Places who are already successful in doing all you SAY you want to do!.... Incidentally NONE of them has digging gold on their Agenda!... Now.... YOU guys figure out what role not working on digging gold might have to do with their succes and flourishing Life!....
and yes, these communities are contributing seriously in bringing forth a New MORE LOVING Civilazation AND a Happier; HEALTHIER PLanet Earth!!! After all: Health unites all life!...into one happy family, you could say. [Edit]
20 Jan 2007 @ 22:21 by : Until later
Sorry to hear that, Astrid. But I understand very well what you mean of course.
I hope that a bully-proof system can reveal itself some day, without it just being another hierarchical system where one authority decides who's in and who's out.
21 Jan 2007 @ 05:23 by : Understanding And Hope
Isn't that touching? But how about DOING something? The fact is NCN is precisely a hierarchical site in which Supreme Highness decides whether there are improvements or not. And these are improvements that MING has suggested and promised...for years. Nothing happens though, except the bon vivant continues to schmooze around looking for the big break. The excuse always is given that unknown ninja warriors are trying to take over the place, so it is best merely to sit in the shadows of our individual caves and toss another stick on the fire. Pathetic and such a waste! The membership list here is uniquely international and made up of some of the most beautiful people ever to sit down at a computer. But a horrible inertia at the TOP and the same, tired, unhelpful, wise-ass comments at the BOTTOM (in Chats, Groups, Logs) drive those members elsewhere. Those of us who stay admit we use the ragged platform for completely selfish reasons. That's the network of a New Civilization. I'm surprised Bush and Rove haven't joined.
21 Jan 2007 @ 09:21 by : Comment by Shreepal
I feel sorry, really. Why be pessimistic, blueboy, after all? The world is the way it is: cruel, given to its waywardness, unsympathatic to new truths, damn care attitude. But, then, why should we expect more. Should we not be brave enough to face the truth? We are here at NCN because we cherish the very idea of a new civilization, which would be something new in ideas, ideals, established truths etc. Please remember the truth: We were not there in this world before our birth and would not be there after our death. People come and go. The only thing that is within our power is to do and do the best way a thing that we feel is correct, proper and justified. We should simply enjoy the thing we do.
21 Jan 2007 @ 09:38 by skillz : Very sad
Needless to say how i feel. But even in my short time of beeing hear things have changed. I joined up because i thought it would be discusions of real truth. Some cases like your articals and comments Astrid have been exactly what im looking for and have given me great hope and encouragement and hope the i have done the same in return. NO BULLSHIT is my policy, you cant solve problems with bullshit, we never have done and never will. Im also saddend to hear the you feel you have been pushed out by some. If this IS a site that has been overrun by idiots then maybe the site name should be changed ( something like crapchat.com) and a new site be started. Or just kick off the idiots.
I will definately be staying in touch, you have been a great inspiration to me, and a friend.
All the best babe
Steve x
23 Jan 2007 @ 12:47 by : Thanks Ming!
Yeaah, when you accept my ( re-)registration, in the Become a Member -zone of NCN, which I filled in almost year ago ( and then after appr three weeks of waiting wrote a private letter to you asking how long it would still take for the membership Registration-request to take before activated; you never responded (to that either?...) I will open my own Work-group, by Invitation Only.
So Ball really has been in your court, Ming, as the saying goes. ; ) ... : ) *!* /// A-d
23 Jan 2007 @ 12:54 by : I am very sorry you feel this way BB
And as you already know, I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART blueboy. May I add that everything we see that is acted out by so called 'others' that we are activated by... is in fact *our own mirror* because you see, our reactions depend entirely upon *our own interpretations* of said 'others'. You know me dear one. I always speak the truth...well ah huh, except when I too am activated. I LOVE YOU. And I truly appreciate the whole NCN network for better or for worse. We are a reflection of the best part of this world/culture, in my own opinion. I will to share my 7th ray decree for this week here and (tee hee) *it don't come in stages* it is manifest in the NOW. here goes: "The Highest GOOD & OPTIMUM HEALTH of every atom of every being externalizing as this *whole collective creation* here & now."
MAH Gii KAH OUI NCN people,
Brenda in Idaho USA Earth & Beyond...
23 Jan 2007 @ 12:57 by : Thanks Shreepal, for your kind
efforts to pour some oil on the water! : ).... but you know, it has taken a lot of introspection, tears and studies and more to finally come to the place where I realized that allowing somebody's justifications to dictate our lives and be some Autority for us, as if they had any true Life Merits and Intrinsic Goodness in them was NOT TRUE at all and indeed did NOBODY any good at all!
Justifications are just that: EXCUSES out from response-ability of the one who spits them out in other people's faces, in an effort to make their own EVILS somehow RIGHT!!!
You do know the classic Bully "rule nr One" "All Excuses Are Equally Good"!
With this in mind: listen to all the Crooks!!! What do they do "best" but excusing themselves and their evil actions/words if /when put on the Spot!
This is the mistake the part of Humankind who are NOT Bullies have done through the ages -and sadly still do far too much: Give credence to EVIL when the perpetrator of evil offers a stupid JUSTIFICATION; the word manufactured for "making the Wrong to LOOK "right"!!!! DSoens't work! Has only worked togeter with constant htreat to one's life and limb these bullies always have held over Humankind's heads -and in BILLIONS of cases actualized! by them, the bullies!
I personally have learned the Lessons of and from History. I have a few Truth Articles about History today on dkill's blog, so go there and pick up the links and see where Justifications will take us ONE MORE TIME -unless we say: Stop, the BS stops right here, right now!
Thanks Shreepal//Astrid
24 Jan 2007 @ 05:24 by : Bullies Online
Generally folks around here poohpooh complaints about bullying comments at NCN. Coincidentally I received a printout at school yesterday, I presume from the principal, about online bullying as it affects adolescent development these days...especially at sites like MySpace. The article points out there is a major difference between the bully on the playground and the character at his computer keyboard with a glass of Scotch in his/her easy chair. That difference is whether or not the bully has to face consequences for his abuse. On the Internet, he/she doesn't really and therefore can become truly licentious. At NCN, after years of agitation, there finally came to be some sort of mediation facility but I don't know whether it's ever been tried.
24 Jan 2007 @ 14:49 by : The BULLY -
really is Humankind's only REAL Problem -together with that one factor that the bully mask is hiding -or keeping imprisoned; an emotionally very starved and/or tormented Infant!
Bully behavior among Kids has been so accepted Norm in our Society, simply because the Bully-kids were themselves MADE to bullies by their -usually- "Hoidy-Toidy" /Bully-parents, who in their turn were bullied until they chost to became Bullies and this has been a big problem "forever"!
In schools it went on as "hazing" and was/is considered as some sort of Right Of Passage into ever more "Inner Circles; another way to say opening the doors for them who accepted to be bullies into ever "higher" Power Positions in the Societal Hierarchy Ladder.
By now it isn't just people in the higher Echelons of Society who are bullies. This mental/emotional dis-ease has now infected even the people on the so called (sc) "Grassroot" level.
States of Mood are thee most contagous 'Things" in the World.Just think about it; You walk into a room where five people are laughing their heads off, having a good time. You WILL start laughing even when your face is a big Question mark wondering what in the world are they laughing about! The same can be said about Fear-states: It affects you the second you walk into the room!
The Bully HATES the Non-bullies, because s/he is so DEPENDENT on them -and their Life energy! S/he hates them with such a passion that s/he wants to just KILL them -if it wasn't that s/he NEEDS them so much! So, s/he came up with the best Idea Under the Sun: S/he destroys them as soon as they are "Of no Good Use any longer! And believe me: s/he NEEDS to destroy them as soon as s/he sucked them dry and then the Bully goes on to the next and the next Non-Bully -until finally s/he him/herself dies! But how many people has this pattern of Social Structure not destroyed?!?
Well.... Jazzo, I know you can see the Greater Picture of "Evolution' that our Society/Western Culture has gone ever deeper INTO! ...This IS the reason why & how we are where we are -in terms of Political State of Affairs; near total annihilation of ALL in one big fast Swoop, so to speak. Forget doing it one at the time!...or even one Nation at the time: "DESTROY them ALL with ONE SHOT"
The ONLY way to deal with this Bully's NEED to destroy the Used Ones is by healing the Bully -or to obliterate him/her- and then -and ONLY then- will Humankind be free to go on co-creating with Mother Nature & 'Universe what is called Heaven-On-Earth!
It isn't just NCN, where this bullying is extensive, but by the nature of Cyber Interaction it becomes very Laser-like and hence extremely powerful destroyer of Non-bully people, if they don't know what's going on. (... and "Mediators" on NCN is a joke, -especially when most of the "Mediators" are the NCN Bullies! At least it used to be that group.)
But The Sum of the Cardamom heh heh (Summan av Kardemumman) is that NON-Bullies NEED to choose a better way of dealing with the Bullies, where ever they are at any given moment and put an end to this Door Mat mentality where one just takes the shit from the Bully all the while feeding and feeding and feeding and feeding the Bully!... well, you get my drift.
We don't have the luxury to be "good Christians"; the way the Church Nonsense has taught that Non-bullies should be/have. If we do; we'll willingly be the Proverbial "Sacrificial Lamb". What good does it do -and to whom? Really. Nobody! Not even the Bullies!
24 Jan 2007 @ 16:32 by : Astrid
The reason I didn't respond to that signup was that I generally have frowned upon multiple accounts for one person. When it has slipped by, it has often been used for people who play games with each other, pretending to be several people, and has sometimes then been upsetting to others. I haven't checked the accounts very well recently, but I did notice yours of course. So, when it is somebody I know, I'll usually either send them a discreet notice to hear what they had in mind, or, if I'm busy, I might just leave it there undecided, like I did with yours.
24 Jan 2007 @ 16:44 by : Don't You Just Love Comments That Start
out with your name? Are we trying to get our attention (as if we don't read comments at our own Logs)? Or are we to expect a scolding from some sort of hierarchical magnificence? Or is it simply so very condescending?
24 Jan 2007 @ 18:23 by : Richard
Be a good boy now!
25 Jan 2007 @ 05:14 by : OK
.
25 Jan 2007 @ 11:53 by : Dear Ming, thank you for
your Explanation. I can see your point - though it really didn't really make sense, since I have never impostered, represented myself as someone else or played any other such chameleon games. (How could you not know that about me !?!?!?) I'm not... ahh, well, you know the members here, who have no better things in their lives than do "hiding-behind" & play pretending games. I can not remember ever doing that, certainly not in cyberspace.
I asked for re-registration as me, Astrid Ware: no hiding, pretending in that as far as I can see.
But we all have our own Logic to initiate and then to support our actions... No need to dwell on Old Things, that won't make sense to both of us, eh?
Now that you know that I am still Astrid Ware and not only that, but asking for my re-entry to be in my own Same Ol' Name; Astrid Ware, why don't you just go ahead and complete the registration and then I can have my own blog/workgroup, which ever, -without feeling intruded upon by...... so many "nameless" MEMBERS. It will give me the freedom this public blog doesn't give; selecting the ones I want to interact with for instance.
That is also the time when I will be happy to send you my part of the financial support for all your costs and efforts.// Thanks again, Ming! //Astrid
"24 Jan 2007 @ 21:32 by ming : Astrid
The reason I didn't respond to that signup was that I generally have frowned upon multiple accounts for one person. When it has slipped by, it has often been used for people who play games with each other, pretending to be several people, and has sometimes then been upsetting to others. I haven't checked the accounts very well recently, but I did notice yours of course. So, when it is somebody I know, I'll usually either send them a discreet notice to hear what they had in mind, or, if I'm busy, I might just leave it there undecided, like I did with yours. [Edit] "
25 Jan 2007 @ 12:19 by : Explanation
Sorry, I didn't really mean to imply that you had any sinister intentions, or that you had done anything wrong. Yes, the account was straightforward as Astrid Ware, and you even sent me a message stating your intention with it, to have your own blog and workgroup.
So, the problem was more that I didn't know what to do with it, in terms of having a consistent policy, and I didn't get around to taking the time to figure out a solution. See, in the past, for other people, it has been that situation sometimes that somebody tried to make a second account for other purposes. Like, there have been some who went as far as posting glowing comments and ratings about themselves. Other times merely as a way of being playful, or maybe of keeping a low profile. Previously I tried to be consistent, by not letting that go through, and it might become a problem if there are different rules for some people than for others. I mean, in terms of whether we consider blueboy and astrid two accounts for the same person and if that's a problem. I should have discussed that with you, of course, and it might have dawned on me that this blog here is set to be publicly editable, and you needed something else.
Anyway eventually I just approved the account, back on November 2nd. Maybe you didn't catch the automatic mail that would tell you that, but the account is active.
25 Jan 2007 @ 18:07 by : Thanks, Ming,
you're a Peach -as the saying goes! Only one more problem; by now I don't remember what Username and Password I applied under *!*..ooopsss.... Can You help me with that? If so, would be so kind and send them to my private e-mail adr.That would be so cool! : )
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