There
is a frigid clarity in the Far North. The question was - would it
benefit me or bedevil me? Along with the bone-numbing cold and the
unimaginable desolation, would there also be insights awaiting me in
the barren ice?
I
hoped so, and that is why I took two blank journals with me. One
would record the daily ordeal of pushing a 42-foot fiberglass
sailboat through the 5,000 miles of The Northwest Passage. The other
would help me navigate the Inner Voyage.
Throughout
my essays I have often spoken of the philosopher’s need for
solitude. Without such isolation, it is difficult to distance
oneself from the mundane and focus on the meaningful. But on this
expedition there would be a paradoxical irony for me in this regard.
On the one hand, I would be in a vast geographical area that was
almost completely uninhabited. But I would also be in a small
sailing boat along with four other people. And this situation was
quite difficult when one “needed a little space.” It was not
like you could just go for a swim.
After
a few weeks, as unusual entries started to fill my journal, I tried
to understand their genesis. Was it the glaring sunlight ricocheting
off the stark white landscape? Perhaps it was the lack of any
darkness, since we were in perpetual daylight? Or were my thoughts
quasi-hallucinogenic due to the unsettled sleep that accompanies
nights without nightfall?
But
eventually I realized that it was not just the strangeness of the
light/dark paradigm that was jostling my worldview. Instead, it was
the grip of the Primal. Our issues were not whether our smart phones
were fully charged or who won the NBA finals or did Kim have more
plastic surgery. Up there in the High latitudes, everything was so
basic and primitive and raw.
Fall overboard, and the Sea would
freeze you. Make a wrong decision, and the Ice would crush you. Go
ashore without the rifle, and the Snow Bear would eat you. In such
circumstances it was natural to discard the superficial and focus on
the truly elemental aspects of the Human Condition. Here are some of
my observations.
*******
Striving
to understand Life requires considerable Unlearning. My
college degree is in Political Science, so I should have at least a
basic understanding of how politics shapes our world. But almost
everything that I learned in the classroom was either a misdirection
or an outright lie. So I have dedicated the last several years to
self-study - using the Internet to travel where no textbook will ever
lead you. Here is a small sample of those hard-won lessons.
Lee
Harvey Oswald did not act alone. And the echo of those gunshots is
still heard today in the Halls of Power.
Those
atomic bombs did not have to fall from the sky and melt mothers and
fathers and sisters and brothers into human puddles. The Japanese
were already trying to surrender.
Twentieth
Century Socialism did not lead to a Workers’ Utopia. It heaped up
a Eurasian death pyre at least 50 million high.
None
of my professors told me that bankers underwrite both sides in almost
every war just as they do in almost every election. Nor did they
emphasize how obscene the profits are for these money movers.
And
certainly we never examined whether Democracy had been captured by
the Oligarchy. From its birth as a genuine attempt at empowering
ordinary people, it had been transformed into a system that
clandestinely allows The Malignant Overlords to rule and pillage the
everyday person.
Nor
was secrecy ever mentioned in the lecture hall. How could it be –
since it was a secret? Nobody ever whispered about the Cecil Rhodes
Round Table Group or the Council on Foreign Relations or the
Bilderbergers, who were already behind the curtain pulling the
geopolitical strings, during my college years.
I
could cite many other examples of incredibly vital topics that were
never presented to me in those Political Science classes. Subjects
like the Deep State, the echo chamber media, false flags, and the
CIA’s violent interference around the world, were never discussed.
*******
So
how is a normal person supposed to understand and respond to the
world, when the people in charge are deliberately deceiving everyone?
When political gatekeepers can so effectively shape our perceptions
of reality in order to further their insatiable desire for more power
and money, how can we possibly sculpt a brighter future for our loved
ones?
I
believe that the answer is Uncoupling. I have just tried to
persuade you that Unlearning is vital if you hope to break
free from the web of indoctrination that has been spun around you.
That brainwashing has been immense and intense, but you can escape it
through the other web – the World Wide Web.
When
I speak of Uncoupling, this is my vision. I believe that the
System is so profoundly corrupt that it cannot be repaired.
Therefore, your best chance at a joyous and meaningful Life is to
disengage from the so-called Real World as much as possible. Abandon
the main stream and quietly slide off into a little tributary.
You
don’t have to use an approach as radical as mine – sailing away
from the whole damned mess in a self-sufficient sailboat. But you do
need to disconnect as much as possible from an increasingly hollow
and vulgar society.
When
you perceive the education system as an indoctrination matrix, then
remove your children and home-school them. When the dangers of
Frankenfoods alarm you, buy your groceries from local farmers’
markets. When you want to push back against the Microsoft Monolith
choose open-source options like Libre Office. If you want to expose
your children to other cultures get online and find a caretaker
opportunity in some exotic locale. Ditch your mega-bank servitude
and join a community credit union.
These
are just a few examples of liberating decisions that you can make.
And if you stay mindful, you will recognize that almost every facet
of your daily experience can be altered significantly and positively.
Categories like transportation, communication and entertainment can
all be uncoupled from the usual status quo template.
*******
In
summary, my advice is to view this historical moment in this way.
There is no cavalry, camped just over the hill, that will come and
save you. Instead, you must to be your own cavalry. But don’t do
it with trumpets blaring and banners waving. Just quietly slip away
from the noxious, bellowing maelstrom that is the modern world –
and do so with a smile on your face!