25 January 2011

Truth vs. Conspiracy

from  C a t S c a n: the newsletter of Cougar WebWorks Alternative Culture Magazine online - http://www.alternativeculture.com/ - Celebrating Nature, Culture and Spirit

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"Today, conglomerates have bought up most [mainstream] news sources; and the number of major news sources has been reduced to six! These six control all the news reported in America and much of what gets reported in the UK and Europe."
-- Paul J. Balles: Weapons Of Mass Deception

"Don’t connect dots without evidence. Don’t turn away as soon as the words ‘conspiracy theory’ are uttered, especially if the evidence does point away from what the power-wielders want us to believe."
-- Richard Falk, Interrogating the Arizona Killings from a Safe Distance
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18 January 2011 - IN THIS ISSUE: Alternative News

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The mainstream news channels, whether it’s Fox or the Huffington Post, do not stray far beyond relatively narrow conceptions of appropriate political discourse.  Criticism of Israel is verboten; so is discussion of 9/11 as an inside job.  UFOs?  We get to watch “The Event” instead (see my review athttp://nowickgray.blogspot.com/2010/12/event-review.html ). A few trusted sources are given the quotes and the editorial guidelines to broadcast at large as the truth, and the rest is consigned to “conspiracy theory.”  Later history reveals such “false flag” events as Hitler’s Reichstag Fire, Pearl Harbor, the Gulf of Tonkin, and virtually every high-profile “terror attack” of recent years--except, of course, those officially sanctioned acts of terror such as the invasions of Iraq, Afqhanistan, Palestine, Lebanon, and that’s just the Middle East...  Facts of conspiracies such as Watergate and the Iran-Contra Affair occasionally hit the headlines, and then carry away, on the outflow of the brief wave of truth, one set of conspirators to make way for the next.  The Greeks and Shakespeare knew how tragedies functioned, among the rich and mighty.  So does the Mafia - from the city block protection racket to the big stage.  Which is why it’s interesting that David Wilcock in his latest article refers to the notorious U.S. assassination squad, Murder Incorporated...

If you are brave enough to connect the dots of information freely available in assorted story lines, you have the makings of a dangerous story, on many levels.  If it gets too high-profile you’re even considered a “threat to national security.”  If it’s talk at the barbershop maybe everyone agrees the government’s a pack of con-men. But if you run in suburban circles, academic establishment, bureacracy, retail mall world, commercial TV, chances are you buy the company line, at least in what you use to construct your world view, your notion of what goes on in the world.  Keeps it simple, to just get it from your “trusted source.”  And the best part is, then you don’t have to think about the outrages that have been committed in our name. 

But no worries anyway, mate, if you believe David Wilcock’s take on it.  White Hats to the rescue!

Still, it’s not like we can all just make David Wilcock, or Kerry Cassidy, or David Icke, or Gordon Duff, our one “alternative” trusted source and be done with it (though for some folks, that’s just the ticket). To some extent the alternative news media is so interlinked that it’s no more or less monolithic than the mainstream press. It’s like a new Cold War of the information age, pitting the Globalist Corporate State (read: New World Order) version of truth, against common sense skepticism mixed with tireless investigative research and courageous whistle-blowing. 

To construct a final unquestionable version of truth may be a tempting ideal, as well as a political tool, but as every child knows, one person’s version of the truth often diverges from another’s. The Buddha might add, it’s all subjective. In the meantime, I believe the best we can do is to start with quality and quantity of information content and sources. Then we can judge for outselves what is meaningful and real - not as an absolute article of faith - but according to what makes sense.  We can, in effect, construct our own story, our well-informed version of reality. (For a more personal version of the result, see my latest blog entry, “The Story of Story,” at http://nowickgray.blogspot.com/2010/12/story-of-story.html ).

Is there no hope, then, for such a thing as a new “consensus reality”?  I would say that whole concept is suspect, defined as it must be by the standard channels of information flow and processing (mass media, academia, government, corporations) which act as the manufacturers of such a fiction, because it perpetuates the status quo within controlled limits of acceptable discourse.

If there is to be no single voice or vision of this alternative “revolution” (just as there was not in the 60’s, until Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Kennedy each aspired to lead--oh wait...) that’s a good thing, especially as it avoids the standard assassination trap. It’s good also because the “single voice of truth” is itself a falsehood.  Perhaps there is some single true narrative to be exposed someday about Roswell, about JFK, about 911.  More likely not, in which case we are left to make sense of it thinking with our own free minds and the information that resonates with us; and by sharing openly with others concerned about events from the perspective of “full disclosure.”

To that end, I have assembled my own favorite links of illuminating research across the alternative media spectrum, and share them in a new condensed menu at http://alternativeculture.com/news.htm

The page offers quick links under the following categories - with my “pick of the week” included here as a sample of each:
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Breaking News
Tunisia and US Geopolitics
from Cryptogon - http://cryptogon.com/
“As the imitation of American ways gradually pervades the world, it creates a more congenial setting for the exercise of the indirect and seemingly consensual American hegemony.” - Zbigniew Brzezinski
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Geopolitics
Geopolitics 101: Creating an "Arc of Crisis": The Destabilization of the Middle East and Central Asia - The Mumbai Attacks and the “Strategy of Tension” 
“The International Financial Institutions (IFIs) often create the conditions for political instability, while covert Western intelligence support to disaffected and radical groups creates the means for rebellion; which then becomes the excuse for foreign military intervention; which then secures an imperial military presence in the region, thus gaining control over the particular region’s resources and strategic position. This is the age-old conquest of empire: divide and conquer. 
...
“Indeed, where Al-Qaeda is present, the US military follows, and behind the military, the oil companies wait and push; and behind the oil companies, the banks cash in.” - Andrew G. Marshall, GlobalResearch.ca
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US Fascism
CIA Insider Susan Lindauer - Extreme Prejudice: The Terrifying Story of the Patriot Act and the Cover Ups of 9/11 and Iraq
“Besides launching an illegal war and ongoing occupation of Iraq, the Bush/Cheney administration did everything in its power to cover up their illegal and treasonous tracks--which began with the 9/11 cover up itself. The alternative press has been aware of this for years but has lacked the confirming voice of a credible CIA insider such as Susan Lindauer.” - Alan Roland
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Wikileaks
Wikileaks' Assange arrest, CIA trap, Hillary Clinton, and UFO disclosure
... some rather juicy dots to connect: thanks to Michael E. Salla, PhD
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9/11
The 911 Chronicles Part 1 - Truth Rising
Documentary follows young street activists working for truth and justice for families of victims and first responders, confronting the talking heads.
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Chemtrails
Another Angle: Contrails Show Effects of Atmospheric H-Bomb tests in 50s and 60s
Some you may have already made up your minds from earlier reports that chemtrails are being used secretly for weather modification (Google geoengineering, and don’t be surprised to find good old BP), military use, to combat global warming, or to dumb down the population with nasty chemicals and heavy metals.  Well, here’s a whole new angle...
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Assassination
Recent attacks on Arizona congresswoman Giffords and Judge Roll, and top cyber-war official John Wheeler, leave large questions unanswered - bigger, darker questions than the standard political mudslinging on the main stage. 
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False Flags
History 102: 33 True Conspiracies
Required reading for anyone wanting to discuss conspiracies - from either side.  Only the facts, please...
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UFOs
David Wilcock covers a lot of territory, as he usually does, and now gives an update connection of dots supporting the ever-closer approach of ET-disclosure.
“The tragic mass shooting appears to have been a poorly planned 'rush' job to create a massive tragedy that would dominate the headlines for weeks by using a mind-controlled 'lone nut' assassin.
“...This appears to have been intended to distract the public from the massive, worldwide use of HAARP shields, which are causing birds and fish to die in mass numbers.
“The HAARP shields appear to be defending against a positive ET campaign to eliminate the threat of a lethal and utterly fake alien invasion -- by destroying a massive arsenal of classified military assets worldwide.
“All of this is prelude to an open Disclosure of the reality of extraterrestrial human life -- and a welcoming of Earth and its people into a truly Galactic family, which apparently has been planned to occur in December 2012.”
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links
My most “trusted sources” for alternative news!
Conscious Media Network
Project Camelot
AlterNet
Red Ice Creations
Half Past Human
Veterans Today
Natural News
Global Research
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And of course for an even more diverse palette of links across the spectrum of “Alternative Culture” see new entries on the home page at Alternative Culture Magazine, http://alternativeculture.com 

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Djembe and Dunun Rhythms
for West African Drumming and Dance

The Seeker's Manual
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Flutes Jam - http://flutesjam.com
scale charts for improvising on flute or pennywhistle

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best wishes,

Nowick Gray

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21 December 2010

The Story of Story

Not from the beginning; from now. This story has been told before, but is soon forgot in all the stories that come after.

This one, for instance, began with a shadow hunter on a candlelit ceiling. Then, a ceiling fan. Finally, a computer. And yet, there is always more after the finally is finally done. So now we come back to this story of story again.

What happens, you ask?

What comes next?

It could be over in an instant. It could be delivered by the good grace of the spirits or the Great Spirit Self of all separate selfs, known not selfishly as the Universe. Or perhaps in the naming, distinguishing, we do gain that distinction, self-ish, through self-distinguishing, the opposite of enlightenment, self-extinguishing. After all, the language is made that way. To identify, discriminate, divide and thereby conquer. The earth, that battleground of human will to grasp.

Some would say the story has ended as of this moment, 10:31 PM Hawaii time, with full lunar eclipse tonight before Solstice day. Some, that is, who interpret this event as the actual "end of the Mayan calendar," instead of the usual target of 21/12/2121. Some say that means "the end of time" - either the apocalypse version, or just a cosmic stopwatch punching out "no time." Some say it'll be just more of the same, bigbiz as usual, which means of course "apocalypse now, middle east remix." And I know one guy who would take the numbers and work out a cool djembe beat, g d P T g d g d P d g T.

So we come down to the nitty gritty: what is your story? What is mine? I'm sure we'd both rather hear about yours, so why don't you start?

While you're thinking about it, I'll just type some thoughts here on the subject of psychology. The story, the story goes, is just a story, and we can let it go, in the dark of this full moon at the dark of this year.

If I delve, for instance, into my own story now, it becomes a journal, and I might be inclined to nurse its tenuous existence offstage, if I don't like what I'm feeling now, shrinking from concern over how I must appear ... though Little Grandmother Kiesha Crowder and the great Abraham Maslow agree, that the first principle of self-actualized people is to have no concern for the opinions other people have about you, for those too are only stories, and not even ours. And likewise you don't judge them by your own story, but accept that they too are learning just as we all are, all faces of God, who chose to be here for this difficult learning. David Wilcock in his October Surprise radio interview echoes these sentiments in his conclusion, pointing to our higher self becoming available when we still the mind of its normal chatter, not striving however for some perfect Zen garden or abstract void, rather to create an opening for higher self to come through, to speak, to manifest.

Whether the higher self is identified with angels or demons, aliens or space sisters, God in his Darwinian beard and Charlton Heston brow, or the well-padded earth goddess herself, it comes to clear the air of the TV-grade stories, the propaganda news, gossip and hearsay, grief of the past and fear of the future, caught in the middle, reasons why, if only, she said he said, then what? Something new, imagine that. But of course, if I sound cynical, despite my highest wishes, it is because my tool is the dull hammer of the mechanical age, glyphs on virtual parchment, ants of logical construction yammering across the page as if to trace whole murals of truth.

In tonight's dance class teaching, we are called to center in the body. A couple inches below the navel, will connect us also to the earth. A center in the heart, to all beings. And in the mind, our center connects us to all parts of creation. (Note: that's natural creation, not trash, which Little Grandmother reminds us is something only we careless selfish humans create.)

The stories go on, because that is the function of language, to create stories. You might say that language is the earth, its geology, and stories are its form of life, its biology. Or to switch academic departments, linguistics studies language, literature studies stories.

It is interesting to note in today's media world how so many kinds of stories now are hybrids. Half the Maui Film Festival's offerings this winter are pegged in the brochure as "dramedy," a term I'd never heard before. Of course it's been a noticeable trend in film for a decade or more (a real film buff could nail that down for you, or perhaps a couple of minutes of my time either now or later, googling and doing a bit of research, but I'd much rather continue this conversation with you) ... But wait--I realize now my error. You were preparing your own monologue, while I pursued this other trail for the most part assuming a listener, which is to say reader, but the only one available was you, and you were busy, so the whole exercise ends up being just that, an exercise.

Now see, in the time it took me to type the above, I might have departed into that other storyline - or you might say, followed the central thread instead of digressing, yet at the time it felt like digression; so how to tell, at any given moment, which is which? - for a quick consultation of Google, and so all right, since you insist ... hummpf. The article discusses literature (19th-century drama - Chekhov, Ibsen, Shaw) and TV (1969, advent of comedy-dramas) but not film. The thread stops here, apparently.

The reference to the dramatists, however, strikes a note of connection to theme, if not storyline itself: the stance of irony. Irony is the mode, after all, of discourse when our story discusses itself, or pretends to discuss itself, or merely silently offers its opinion in the form of the clothing, the coloring, the style, the selection of story elements it chooses to present. In this light, you might call any author ironic. True, there is a mimicking of creation - no, an enactment of creation - in any, well, creation. So there is the thing itself, presented in particular definition provided by the eye of the beholder who is the author; but then the reader has your own interpretation; and the author smiles whether benignly or sarcastically, and even on occasion may have a word to say edgewise. Or even, on rarer occasion, steal the whole show, shoo out the audience, kick back and light a cigar to watch the premiere all by his Orson Welles lonesome.

Coming back to the higher self, where did it go? When last seen it was hiding in the center of the mind. Then suddenly, as if sucked into the stargate at the center of the capstan (for all you sailing buffs), it vamoosed back to the mother ship complaining, "Jeez, X98&$@f, these po mo fo's a piece a work!"

So here I put off dark-night's sleep, intending to write a serious tome or at least reverent epistle but instead manage only this garbled transcription of a shoddy demo tape of an ancient lecture on dramatic irony when really, the clearest insight to come out of it all is the wikiquip about the Greek model (and they should know, because didn't they invent language, or at least philosophy?), to the effect that all stories are about either movin' up the ladder (comedy) or down (tragedy). Now so as not to end on that sour note, I leave you with - what, a homily? A joke? No, jokes go at the beginning, to get them on your side. You don't want to end with "The joke's on you, sucker." No, you end with appreciation, and inspiration, and motivation to do that meditation, and invite that higher self in ... you see, some can preach and mean it, they can use the good word as the Bible intended, the Word of God, that can be trusted, and that alone, because it comes from the Highest Authority, and so on. In the Beginning, after all, I mean before all, was, I mean is, the Word.

So is the user of language doomed to intentional (political) or unintentional (religious) obfuscation, or exiled to the inherent irony of fiction?

The question brings us back to the hybridization, the melting pot, the unified field of film genres, of TV shows, of news and documentaries, of fiction, nonfiction, drama, journalism, theatre and politics, puppet show and circus du jour. Reality TV has been replaced by Reality Reality, where events are orchestrated and spun at the highest levels of power and influence, at the expense of truth and justice and common sense. Trouble is, common sense is out the window when the man and woman and children inside stay glued to the box, the screen, the flashing pad.

"Must we always stray into the political?" complains the bourgeois art critic. "Must you in fact use that odious word, 'bourgeois'? The word itself reeks of politics."

And so it does. Easier to disguise one's politics in fiction, I suppose. Just ask the White House Press Corpse (absent Helen Thomas).

If there is a point to all of this, it is this: Life is a story. Our life is a story, is full of stories. Our story is being written every minute - not just one but multiple plot lines, simultaneous variations on what we hoped might be a single theme. And always these pesky interruptions, keeping us from what we intended, and still intend, to do or say. So now that it comes down to saying it ...

It comes back to that vertebrate legacy, the spine. I danced tonight with backbone all curvy, until I realized how snakelike, I mean, how feminine it really was, and so changed my stride to more of the yangmaster strutting around shirtless with arms stiff and fists clenched. So my personal story on this new moon solstice end of the world, casting behind what does not serve, is about becoming a new man, dedicating this practice to my tragic good soldier fallen angel father, for his braveness in the genocidal turmoil and tarnished hopes of a generation, and with forgiveness for his weakness of spirit against the onslaught of collective karma. I was the lucky one, for his sins set me free to emerge into whatever form I might be.

Yet still I demur. Except to stake this modest claim: storyteller (damning epithet of Dad and Mom, who warned me of the consequences, the whipping house; but hey, what do they call someone who doesn't speak at all? Dumb). So it appears, at first glance, a lose-lose proposition: Remain silent and enjoy no fully human identity; or risk falsehood in every word, every remark and opinion, every belief and claim. Ah, now we are set up for the heroic - to accept the silence and from that grounding take the risk: a mission worthy of any reader who may have just woken from his or her nap in time to catch this conclusion, before I lay me down to sleep on the longest night of the year, while the new world births.

Take the risk - we have nothing more to lose. Or everything to lose, and thus finally open to the universal energy we crave to bathe in, the larger story wanting to tell itself anew in our own voice:

Tilling soil, planting seeds, clearing weeds, tasting fruit.
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03 December 2010

Maui Time

Two months in Maui this time around, and once again life feels more or less normal here, after the initial month or so of settling in, reorienting to a new residence and neighborhood, reconnecting with previous friends and new acquaintances.

The logistics of the move this year fell into place effortlessly, with a single email to a former drum student landing me a comfortable suite for reasonable rent, and a wider mailing to local friends yielding a reliable low-cost car.

This year I face none of the hardships of high-altitude living, all too similar to high-latitude living, in the nightly dive of the thermometer. Every day I see the scoreboard on my desktop with the lopsided tally (23-2; 28-7; 23- -4, Celsius) reminding me why I'm here.

The island's best beaches lie waiting every morning just minutes away by car, with extended walks between and beyond the resorts of Wailea, down to the wild reaches of Makena and La Perouse. I have snorkeled just once this time, gone on one long ridge hike, seen no turtles or whales yet. The daily routine of swimming and walking is enough, I find, to connect well with the place, the land, water, air, and beloved sunshine.

During such outings I often, as in Victoria summer outings, carry materials to multitask on various creative projects: editing, writing, reading, music selection, rhythm study, flute and drum practice, planning.

Opportunities for drumming continue in various forms: Haitian and Brazilian dance classes every week, and less frequently, West African dance; Afro-Cuban jams with traditional rhythms and songs; informal workshopping with fellow drummers; private lessons to teach; and of course, the ever-inspiring Little Beach jams every Sunday afternoon, tending more or less to the West African style.

This year I have pared down my usual slate of other events including groups meeting for spiritual practices and teachings, yoga classes, and 5-rhythms dances. Living here on the "sunny side" means a longer drive to such events which happen most often on the rainier, which is to say cheaper, which is to say, more alternative region of the island. Still, I have sampled the laying on of hands (Deeksha), the toning of the sacred sound "Hu," Sufi dancing ("Zikr"), and attended a weekend workshop for writers. In general, though, when it comes to the cornucopia of possible events being offered, I continue my discoveries on the path of "less is more."

I spend most of my indoor time at home on the computer, engaged in a variety of creative projects, editing work, ongoing research in world affairs, and periodic indulgence in televised events: first the baseball playoffs, and lately the TV series (via Internet archives) The Event. The primary project occupying my attention has been work to edit and revise a novel of the Canadian North, inspired by the three years I spent in Arctic Quebec in the 70s. The other major focus has been to edit, select and compile, from a vast amount of raw recordings, several CDs worth of music from the Victoria-area improvisation group Strange Moon.

Just released are two albums featuring my flute music, largely recorded in Strange Moon jams. Coming soon are albums featuring E. Neptune on flute, Axel on keyboards, and two thematic compilations, Strange Yoga and Strange Funk. For some sneak previews, check out the slide presentation "Wailea," more flute tracks available for free download, and assorted Strange Moon selections at MySpace, Facebook, Reverbnation, and the Strange Moon website. Send me an email if you want to make sure to hear about it when these new albums are released!

With all of this enjoyment of what life offers on this beautiful island, and taking advantage of my opportunity for creative projects, I have also enjoyed connecting with old and new friends from further north, the first wave of the annual snowbirds who come to dip their toes in the surf and sample the local vibe which goes simply by the name, "Aloha." For those who cannot hop across Pacific Pond so easily, I hear that leg warmers, wrist warmers, and abdominal scarfs can help beat the icy blasts. Bon chance, mes amis! A la prochaine...

 

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