Saturday, May 14, 2022

THE TALL SHIP AND THE SUBSTITUTE TEACHER - Part 3

 

by Ray Jason

 


QUESTIONS FOR THE WIND 

 

In Part 1, I meet the captain of a Tall Ship who runs a Semester-at-Sea program. He has just lost his onboard teacher for a couple of weeks due to Covid quarantine. It turns out that he is a fan of my Blog, and so we agree that I will be his substitute teacher for a while.


In Part 2, I deliver my first full lecture to the 16 year old sailor/students. When it is finished, I let them take a 5 minute break before we do a question and answer session. Part 3 is that Q and A dialogue. Here it is.


Welcome back, shipmates! I am delighted to see that all 15 of you returned. My worldview is pretty radical, so I worry about freaking out my new students. Especially, when I don’t have a full school year to gradually introduce you to this material. But because the societal changes that are being initiated right now are so dangerous to your futures, I feel a duty to alert you to them.

 

We’ll keep the format simple. Raise your hand, I’ll point to you and then you can stand and ask your question. Since we are aboard a Tall Ship, let’s keep the questions short and specific – in the same way that Capt. Andy keeps his commands to you simple and precise.

If the Malignant Overlords are so bad, why don’t they get voted out of office?

That’s such a good question that I will give you 3 answers. First, it doesn’t matter if they do get voted out since they are just puppets. Those who pull their strings are the true ruling power, and they are not subject to voting. They will just install new puppets who will do their bidding.

Second, there is a strange paradox when it comes to elections. All the polls show that politicians are one of the least popular occupations out there. And yet the incumbents tend to get elected time and time again. That’s because our hidden rulers, who I love to refer to as our Malignant Overlords, control the Media and Big Tech. So, they have a stranglehold on how the different candidates are portrayed. Just look at how President Trump was banned from Twitter during his re-election campaign and how the Hunter Biden Laptop Story was hidden from the public.

The third reason is outright theft. The same people who claim that the 2020 election was the fairest in history suppressed the Hunter Laptop revelations and ceaselessly pounded the Russian Collusion hoax.

For the latest information on the stolen election suspicions, you might want to Google up the new documentary called 2,000 Mules. It details how paid operatives were stuffing hundreds of ballots into the mail-in ballot drop-boxes. Oh, wait, Google will probably keep you from locating that film. So try Bitchute instead.

Your outlook for the future seems so bleak, and yet you don’t seem totally bummed out about it. What’s that about?

Capt. Andy, has probably shared with you an old sailor’s adage that was handed down to me decades ago. It goes like this: “Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst!”

My belief is that this beautiful ship, the HENRY DAVID THOREAU, is the absolute best survival platform for any catastrophe that might befall us in the near future. And likewise, my small ocean-going sailboat, is ideal for me to not just survive, but to actually flourish. Although she is small, she is tough and beautiful and READY.

Her water, diesel and propane tanks are always topped off. She has short-range and long-range radios. Power comes from solar panels and a wind generator. If neither are available, the diesel engine can fill the batteries.

Long-life foods are stashed all over the boat giving me more than a six month supply. If the emergency exceeds that, I have fishing and spear-fishing gear and shore-side foraging skills.

She has sizable water tanks and a very effective rain catching system. There are plenty of spare parts and tools. She even boasts creature comforts with a quality library, a music system and a selection of classic movies that I can watch on my laptop.

To protect my survival cocoon, I have what I call my silent persuader – a re-curve bow and dozens of arrows. I also carry considerably louder means of persuasion. I keep my skills sharp … and persuasive.

The enormous advantage that we have over the far-sighted land-based preppers, is that we can sail away from trouble. And we can do so without any need for shore-side assistance. Of the tens of thousands of miles that I have solo sailed aboard my little sloop, about half of them were done with celestial navigation, before GPS was even invented.

You do not have to be a Gandalf to master the sextant. It is the final piece of the self-reliance puzzle. I suggest that you learn it. It is also fun and you get such a sense of achievement when you succeed with it.

That is why I am cheerful; despite my belief that dark times await us.

Isn’t it true that what you you call technocratic tyranny is viewed by others as Progress. And everybody knows that you can’t stop Progress.

Capt. Andy told me that he anchored this fine vessel in the bay just below the majestic ruins of Tulum. When you toured that lost city, that lay hidden in the jungle for hundreds of years, did it occur to you that those people were certain that they were the apex of Civilization and that their culture would live forever? And yet … it vanished.

The same can be said for the great Pyramids of Egypt, the temple ruins of Angor Wat in Cambodia and many other colossal relics of supposedly eternal empires.

Could it be that Progress contains a flaw that contributes to its own destruction? Does Humanity’s overblown pride in its capabilities and achievements lead to devastating outcomes? The prideful say look at these amazing things that we can do. But a tiny group of doubters, who are usually scorned, question whether those things SHOULD be done.

If we could toss a question to the Wind and ask it whether it sees Armageddon just beyond the horizon, it might respond that there are at least 3 catastrophes lurking out there that could possibly destroy human life upon Earth. Those would be nuclear war, EMP attacks or a virus that actually is cataclysmic. And thus, in no time at all, our seemingly indestructible infrastructure, would start eroding into the mysterious ruins of some vanished civilization.

My conclusion is that Progress actually does stop - and even regresses. Then humanity advances again and then mucks it up again. “And this too shall pass…” as wise Elders have warned repeatedly.

During your lecture you said that we are not Evil and we are not Doomed. You explained that only a tiny percentage of people are control freaks and most are good and decent. But I can’t recall you explaining how we are not doomed. Did I miss something?

Ha, you’re right. I “spaced that out” as we used to say when I was your age. So, why do I believe that we are not doomed? Because we are SAILORS. We are learning “The Old Ways” that have served and guided mariners for centuries.

By harnessing the wind, navigating with the stars, and taking advantage of the tides we are utilizing forces that are enormous and elemental. They cannot be altered by elections or stock market crashes or pop culture.

Therefore, because we are self-reliant sailors, if there is some major societal crash, we can survive and possibly even thrive.

Let’s end today’s class on such a positive note. We only got to a few of your questions, so tomorrow I’ll begin by answering some more.


TO BE CONTINUED...