I don’t read much anymore, or better said, I don’t find much worth reading anymore. I love reading. It has been my morning activity for decades, the reason I come bounding down the stairs after awakening at ridiculously early senior citizen hours. (For any who wonder, I am 67 and in excellent health, still able to do all of the very hard work involved in living in a mountain home. Every year my wife and I look at the future and wonder how much longer we can keep this up, and the answer is always … five more years.)
But what is there to read? You can take every book in the current events or history section of the library or at Barnes and Noble and have a bonfire, and nothing of value except paper would be lost.
However, there are people of insight out there, people who know to write around subjects rather than hitting them directly, and I search for them. When I find them I read slowly, as I want the book to last. Such has been my experience with The Outsider by Colin Wilson, originally released in 1956. I have the 1967 version with a postscript. I think of myself as an outsider, but not in that self-serving way that puts someone above it all. I think of it as just the way I am, the way I have always been. It was not easy in younger years. Now I live a happy and rewarding life, and refer to a poem in the book by Robert Blake that pleases my senses:
I have mental joy and mental health
And mental friends and mental wealth
I’ve a wife I love and that loves me
I have all but riches bodily.
I hope for all our readers here to have that too, as events like the fake Las Vegas mass shooting tend to separate us from the herd. That can be distressing, to see the ease with which the herd is alarmed into stampede, believing every word and image passing down.
What follows is a passage from Wilson’s 1967 postscript that strikes me as being not true, precisely, and yet true enough.
“In the Korean War the Chinese discovered that they could prevent the escape of American soldiers by segregating the “leader figures” and keeping them under heavy guard, and leaving the others without any guard at all. The leaders were always precisely five percent of the total number of soldiers. And it so happens that this figure holds good for most species of animals too. The “dominant majority” is always five percent.”
I doubt any such thing happened in the Korean war, as I know that the supposed brainwashing techniques being studied by the Koreans Chinese at that time were far more likely to be of Western origin, applied successfully, and then blamed on them. So that story was probably misdirection of that era.
Still, I remember back in 2000 ,when I was supporting and working for Ralph Nader (probably controlled opposition, but I did not know the concept back then), that it appeared that only five percent of the population was mentally astute enough to see through regular politics. Wilson above merely affirms that perception.
Which brings me to another author, and another concept. Mr. Mathis, in his latest paper on the Bush family, deviates toward the end into a subject I have wondered about, reincarnation. He believes in it. I wish it were so, but take no stand. I comfort myself with this: There is no harm to come from believing it. If true, zounds! What joy! If false, we will never know.
So I read books by Michael Newton, the first of which is called Journey of Souls. He writes about lives between lives and past lives, and I wonder if he has ever taken the trouble, when a patient claims to have a past life, to go and locate the records of that person to verify the claim. Of course it cannot be done with ancient lives, but for the later centuries forward is certainly possible. As far as the books are concerned, he does not write of such research, but others say he has located a soldier who died in the First World War and returned as a patient. I would focus on that rather than blandly accepting the words of each of entranced patients as true. So his books are not scholarly tracts, but more pleasing speculation.
In Newton’s world, we are given assignments in this life of self-improvement, to make ourselves into better … not people, but souls. We are given hurdles and difficulties, tragedies and soul mates who reappear in many lives as spouses, siblings and friends. How comforting! And at a certain point he says that most of the souls who inhabit the planet earth are “young souls.” They are not conceived in a wise state, and have to stumble through many lives low in awareness and unable to control either mind or body. They are working towards perfection, and Earth appears to be a hard testing ground.
Those who come to him, he said, are often wizened, and “see too deep and too much,” a phrase I am grabbing not from Newton, but Colin Wilson.
Newton has been ostracized from the psychiatric community, a very good thing for him or anyone. Is he correct in his assertions? Is he just another psyop? Who can know. I don’t.
I write all of this because I sense in reading the comments these past few days that there is a feeling of futility as events like Las Vegas are run. It was crudely done and easily falls apart on close examination, and yet it works … on the ninety-five percent. The herd is so easily managed. J.S. Bach wrote a song centuries ago called Sheep May Safely Graze, a lovely tune and true then and now. The sheep are grazing in the paddocks, safely surrounded by fences, never wanting or even thinking about escape, like Wilson’s soldiers who did not even need guards.
So what is left for us in the five percent? I am going to grab one more passage from Wilson’s postscript, and let it sink in on both me and the readers. At first it made me think of someone else I know to be a genius. On reflection I think that it applies to all who have commented these past few days who see too deep and too much:
… I got used to working completely and totally alone, and not expecting encouragement. Later on reviewers and critics were outraged by what one of them called “his stupefying assurance about his own genius.” But it would have been impossible to go on working without some conviction of genius – at least, of certainty about the importance of what I was doing, and the belief that it wouldn’t matter if no other human being ever came to share this certainty. The feeling of alienation had to be totally accepted. Luckily, I’ve always had a fairly cheerful temperament, not much given to self-pity.
I make no claim of genius. Far from it. I stumble from rock to rock, and revelations only come to me via the hard work of pounding on a keyboard, and certainly not at first attempt. But I know I am above average, and if you have read this far and understand that we cannot do a thing to help the sheep in the paddocks, so too are you. The sheep need safety above all, and don’t want or need the excitement of discovery. That is reserved to us. (Something else I have discovered about those in the ninety-five percent who even bother to read … they will read the opening paragraph above, the closing one below and then skip to comments. They will not read these words. It is safe to mock them.)
So Vegas will fade into the background. The next event is in planning stages, as are others. They are being done for the sheep in the paddocks, and not for us. Planners know about us, the five percent. We are safely isolated from the herd, and do not threaten them.
So be of cheerful temperament, and glad you have found the company of others like you at this blog and so many other places. Life is a fun journey.
Piece of Mindful 
Thanks Mark for this comforting and eloquent summation. Very moving. Dare I admit I shed a tear?
I like to read too. But now it’s people like yourself, Miles, Josh, Vexman, and most of your astute commenters. Certainly not those mainstream, promoted scumbags.
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I have a lot of questions, but here’s a handful. Is the Vegas hoax another ploy to distract from the REAL news? A ploy to get guns from citizens? The media want us to hate Muslims, is it simply to get the oil in Syria? A company of Rupert Murdoch is drilling on the Golan Heights by permission of the ISrael already. How come Russia have the only accurate weapon systems in fighting Al nUSrA? Didn’t they get all their technology from the west?
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I wonder quite a bit about the “why?” of all of these things too. I’m not even sure if these terror-inflicting events (for lack of a better term, because I can see that they terrorize many of those around me, still entrenched in the matrix as they are) are necessary at all.
As far as I can tell, most people are so distracted by football, Games of Thrones, politics, Facebook, etc. to pay any attention to what’s going on, much less present an actual threat to the controllers. Personally, I believe that evil exists, and so I view them and everything they do in light of that construct.
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In my limited understanding because I’m probably not able to see the whole picture, it seems “THEY” want to take down America and have specific plans to do so. Things had been stepped up recently because “THEY” understand people are waking up. However, it feels to me that with this latest LV stunt more people are realizing deep, deep inside how they are being controlled. Those controlling these stunts may have forgotten how powerful the heard is once aroused from slumber!
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sorry….I meant to spell HERD!!
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ya the morning read died awhile back…i lament at reading anything much these days…the internal experience is too potent, too personal, too impersonal, too interesting compared to our shadow games…
you can’t believe me, i know, it is the way it must be – but One, bored enough perhaps, filled with exceptional desire to SEE-IT, may be permitted a glimpse and One may exit the body for a brief moment – in that exit, will be the door to perception spoken of by those who came before…
everyone (in the public) is an agent for the (private) principal source creator – granted by the supreme law, that of allowance (good “parent” we have) – shoot every messenger, but examine resonant frequencies, ALL of them – no matter the source…
i’ve slipped out a few times (i’ve actually made it to the two D room that exhibits the 3D structure – its strange!)…this IMO was the ancient secret of the “great pyramid” in that “kings chamber” was effectively what robert monroe discovered – inside a pyramid, at a certain space-time, one could project out of the body quite easily and gather information less degraded by the five sense organs of the human vessel…(the round vs flat earth discussion is an argument about our eye shape for instance – as soon as we use external tech – that “inorganic” image contradicts the “organic” one)…
that ability (to experience one’s fuller self), let alone KNOW-ledge, is not acceptable in an age such as pisces, on the grand calendar the romans emulate, poorly at that…
in lak’ech!
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Mark, you have a good grasp of this. The universe is quite simple. We are immortal beings who spend most of our “time” in the spirit realm. We come to the material venue to experience, learn, grow, or – sadly – regress. The key is that we choose to come here, knowing beforehand that it might be a tough slog. We can remain on the spirit side, where there is perfect freedom – no one “moves your cheese.” Spiritual maturity/immaturity is a continuum which travels in the directions either of loving regard for others or self-absorption, potentially to the gradations of evil. Earth-life is a bit like the bumper cars in an amusement park, only with real cars. Thank you for all you share with us.
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Mark, Thank you so much for this article this morning. Being awake can often be a lonely path! So glad I found your blog. Have a happy day!
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Thanks for sharing your well thought thoughts , Mark ,
My name is Dave and I’m a book-aholic .
“I have wondered about, reincarnation. He (MM) believes in it. I wish it were so, but take no stand. I comfort myself with this: There is no harm to come from believing it.”
Has anyone ever murdered or been murdered fighting for the cause of reincarnation ?
Reminds me of the Bradbury short story about a man who builds an Abe Lincoln robot
to celebrate a future anniversary of his assassination , only to find another man
has built a John Wilkes-Booth robot that then ‘assassinates’ the Lincoln robot .
That’s what started my book love , my dad’s sci-fi and paranormal collection ,
at age ten being hit by a car and then in a body cast for eight weeks .
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I tend to let most of what I read find it’s way to me , thrift shops , my public library
has a – no-card needed/bring back if you want – section that is nice for gleaning .
Here is an author that magically appeared twenty years ago and I’ve read almost all his output .
( two are ebooks only , so I guess I’ll have to buy a ‘devise’ ) , anyone else refusing to be
electronified with books ?
They are short simple thrillers that make you root for an unlikable guy .
This one has two charlatan characters , one who cons people into transferring
their wealth ‘to the other side’ . Heart of Gold by Russell H Greenan
His book Bric-a Brac Man features a man who has an identical cousin ,
his fathers twin married his mothers twin , now that I see that , could that be a
theory for The Batch , identical twins or triplets breed with another set of
twins/triplets making perhaps as many as thirty offspring
sharing almost identical features ?
http://www.russellhgreenan.info/index_files/RussellHGreenanBooksGallery.htm
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Thank you!
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great essay. i can relate to it in so many ways.
let me share you my story and how it affected me your essay in a positive way.
i have my own business, no employees, work alone. I do everything. I sell, ,marketing, do paperwork, prepare orders. i do it all
make really good money, but i feel really weird inside. like im going something wrong. everybody has a regular job, doing something normal. i make my money with good business idea, don’t work that hard, it doesn’t feel right.
your 5% essay explains it, i should read this essay every time i feel incongruent with what i do
thanks
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You and I know the secret – that self employment frees up time to read and think. Working for others, two (and more) bad things happen. One, emplyees tend to adapt their thinking to that of those with power over them, and two (I think Thoreau talked about this, if not him, somebody famous) people get dulled down by incessant repetitive activity, and lose their mojo, creativity, and restless energy.
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Well said Mark.
One suggestion for reading is the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. He wrote a lot about the “solitary individual” and was one himself. He saw the coming of “mass man” and the rule of number over human individuality.
His book, “Either/Or” made him a sensation, and there is something magical about it that is hard to describe. “Two Ages” is an interesting look at the way people were changing in the modern world. “Works of Love” is a magnificent discourse on Christian charity. He is the only author I’ve read who is like a close friend or mentor or soul brother. Widely misunderstood and misrepresented, he will either appeal or you’ll find him unreadable!
As for the psyops, what is interesting is that each one they add to the pile makes it easier for the whole house of cards to tumble down. Like the job foreman who kept trying to get a lazy union worker fired. When asked if he was frustrated that the worker kept winning at each hearing, he said, “No. I’ve only got to win once. He’s got to win every time…”
If only one of these can be exposed to the light of day, it won’t turn everyone, but will make a serious dent. It’s almost like the criminals who keep doing more and more daring robberies, secretly or unconsciously wanting to be caught, or like a misbehaving child craving the boundaries of parental correction. Maybe that’s the agencies working at cross purposes.
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Thank you for this, Mark.
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Thank you Mark, very thought provoking! I have recently become more and more reclusive and, being a worrier, I worry that there is something wrong with me….psychologically…but since I know the DSM ( Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) is total BS….I try to keep it all in perspective.
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It is very easy to feel out of it when living in a world where (at least) 95% of the population around you was born without necessary bullshit detection equipment. I mean, 32nd floor, rooms 135 and 137??? No one has ever been in a motel or hotel that numbers its rooms that way – if for no other reason, for emergency personnel to be able to locate someone in trouble.
“I am in the Maladay Hotel, and I think I am having a heart attack!”
“OK, what room are you in?”
“137.”
“OK, we are on our way, That is first floor, room 137, right?”
“No, I am higher up that that.”
“Higher up? What floor are you on?”
“I don’t know. The room key doesn’t say.”
“OK, please stay on the line … OK, I just talked to the front desk. They said that Room 137 is on the 32nd floor. We will find you.”
“Please hurry!” Also, my son is staying here too. He is in room 6. It is just down the hall.”
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Thanks Mark!! You are so fortunate to have your health and your family and your ability to write the articles on this wonderful blog. I get so frustrated interacting with neighbors and family…I feel like an outcast and have given up trying to help people understand why I believe what they consider nonsense. I have Skype friends and blog friends to converse with but have been in such a funk, I haven’t been talking with these like-minded people as often as I did in the past… But, it’s fall….my favorite time of year, and I feel my mood lifting.
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Strong piece, Mark, congrats. It feels good to be able to converse with critical thinkers here, where the usual hostility of online forums or “yeah, yeah I hear you” polite rejections in real life are absent.
I have a contact now who is awakening, which is a very rewarding and comforting sight. Happy to assist him in the process. Sometimes it can be lonely as “5 percenters”. Lonely but not alone.
I compare the awakening of the lies by the Media Church, with their priests (whorenalists), disciples (news junkies as I think many of us have been before, like me), altar (the TV and now Twitter, Facebook) and opposition against disbelievers with becoming atheist (or agnost) in a religious community. The outcasts, heretics, deserters.
Not that I have a problem with religious people per se, after all nobody can know “where we come from” and “the Universe” is unmappable, but the reactions of the 95% Disney Land folks against those who left the religious indoctrination of before are eerily similar; rejection and ridicule.
I wanted to share some other thoughts with you but was not able to find an email address on your blog. You have mine, feel free to contact me if you like.
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It should be there, don’t know why not, mark at mpthct dot com.
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Thank you Thank you Thank you. Can’t say how privileged I am in reading your blog. The time you spend eloquently piecing together your thoughts and research give me a feeling of a ‘piece of mindful’ (I am sure u have heard this before!!). I live outside of the USA however the world is such a small place when you understand the deception around us. Luckily for me I have a few friends who are awake and part of the 5% you mention.
Keep up the amazing work and enjoy your beautiful health and life.
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Greetings: Many years ago, I read a series of books, “The Michael Teachings” which started with “Messages from Michael” and mentioned the soul level and Life lessons concepts which Michael Newton proposes. I discovered later that the “Michael” author, Chelsea Yarbro, was also a sci-fi writer, so I ditched the books, chastising myself for being stupid enough to buy any of the Michael stuff…since it was obviously fiction…or was it? Some of the concepts resonated with me, particularly the soul levels and the different “job classes” (all I can remember is “artisan” and “slave”), and so does reincarnation. It makes no sense to me that Life is just a one shot deal, with the “if you don’t believe in (fill in the blank), then you’re doomed to (fill in the blank) forever”. What about those who live in remote places who’ve never heard of (fill in the blank?) Are they doomed because of circumstances beyond their control? No, I think Life here is just another step along the Way.
The closest thing to a deja vu experience happened to me the first time I went to England. I had the oddest feeling that I was coming home, yet as far as I know, I have no English roots and had never been there before.
Like Robert Blake, “I have riches beyond belief” to borrow a line from Moody Blues song. We all do if we remember that the most important things aren’t things. My recent hurricane experience showed me that.
Just some thoughts which materialized while I was reading your post. Thanks for letting me ramble.
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I’d like to give a shoutout to Clint, a thinker, writer and researcher of extraordinary ability. His book Strawman: The Real Story of Your Artificial Person is unique, dense, and meaningful. Clint has a blog: https://realitybloger.wordpress.com/ If reading isn’t your thing, he’s on Gnostic Media (See: Mark’s blogroll) this week. Worth a look, IMO.
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Thanks for the link steve. I read and browsed some pieces and don’t know about this “Clint”. His post about the Flat Earth BS was really good, putting forward some of the arguments I came up with too.
But then his piece on “anarchy”. One big wall of bullshit and false allegations.
I was an anarchist before becoming a truth seeker (not “truther”, as that would claim I know “the truth”, while truth seeking is the constant growth and asymptotic path towards something that may be true, stripping away untruths). But, after starting this process of awakening, I cannot imagine a truth seeker NOT being an anarchist. I mean, how can you support the ridiculous violent idea of statism when you’ve just learned how many lies, hoaxes and indoctrination has been produced by it.
An anarchist is simply someone who does not believe in the concept of statism, I like to use the term “stateist”, or “state atheist”. As an atheist does not believe in the concept of “God” (and as a result all the man-made priests attached to it), an anarchist does the same with the concept of a “State” (and as a result the violence, stealing and other non-voluntary interactions between humans).
This “Clint” doesn’t address that and goes on a rant about all things unrelated, using the word “anarchy” (which is a state of chaos) instead of “anarchism” (a philosophy, rational, based on principles) and other non-sequiturs and other fallacies.
That while in other posts he claims to be rational and destroying strawman arguments. He is not true to his own self then.
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Gaia, you apparently didn’t read the entire article. I have been following Clint for years and know him personally. His journey has been outlined in his blog and he has written excellent articles on many subjects. He considered himself an anarchist at one point. Below is a quote (rather long segment) from the article in question…by clint richardson
“Note here that government cannot recognize a religious man. This is because a religious man lives a spiritual life, and cannot appear in legal fiction. A religious man simply has no need for a fictional person, needs no citizen-ship, because the religious man requires nor is in want of any benefit from the State. A religious man is invisible to legal, commercial law, except in his recognition that he is self-governing. More to the point, an anarchist is not and never will be considered by government as a free religious man.
Is this religion? No. Is this a recognized status? YES! Fiction cannot touch a man who is self-governing under GOD’s law of nature. But government will not recognize a man who claims some anarchical version of a redefined “natural law” as the same status as a religions man. And so I stand here today with utter confidence that anyone claiming anarchy will never be free from man’s government of them. This is because the claim of anarchy will never be accepted by government as a reason to not be governed by it. To attempt to profess to government that anarchy means anything but what government defines it as is an exercise in futility.
We must be clear here that citizenship and anarchy cannot exist together, except to say that the governing of anarchists is considered as a necessary endeavor by governments around the world. These words are in battle. If you wish to follow the natural law as the law of nature, you must be recognized by the state as a religious man, invoke a civil death (loss of rights, privileges, benefits, and obligations of citizenship), and then actually live your life according to that law of nature in spiritual life. Spiritual living and civil person-hood do not mix, and an anarchist will never be allowed to be free. Only one state of being can exist at one time. Fiction kills nature, as Cain killed Able. For the legal law makes moral actions illegal without permission and license.
Is this Clint’s opinion? No. Clint is not a statist. This is the result of many years of study and due diligence from a once foolish man that used to claim himself an atheist and anarchist because it sounded cool and because gurus told me it was cool. In fact, it is utterly ridiculous, immature, and is a guarantee of being oppressed by government.
An anarchist simply cannot show that they follow a higher law than government creates. A man without higher law must be governed by the lower. This is the disposition of government, not Clint’s statist opinion.
With this understanding, we may read historical quotes with new light, comprehending them not just as religious or political nonsense, but as the key to escaping the tyranny of man’s legal subjection:”
–=–
“Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.”
–William Penn
entire article may be found at the following link:
https://realitybloger.wordpress.com/2015/06/18/anarchy-a-non-sequitur-non-compos-mentis/
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Rather than dismiss out of hand, why not contact the person you have a disagreement with directly. Perhaps there is a simple misunderstanding, or misinterpretation. Perhaps you are right. Isn’t it worth finding out? And, may I add, if you’re looking for absolute conformity, or perfection, in another unique human being, any human being that has lived, like we all do, in this highly controlled, hyper-consumer/materialistic culture for decades, well, that may be beyond the odds of looking for a needle in a haystack.
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Clint’s contact information is available on his RealityBlog website (pasted below)…he enjoys a lively discussion!
TemporaryInsanity4848@yahoo.com
You may also find me on “SKYPE” with the name:
TheCorporationNation
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Thank you. Above comment was a reply to Gaia, above. Don’t know how it landed where it did. I think we’re generally in agreement on the (high) value of Clint’s research. My apologies for any confusion.
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Thank you Steve and Ann, for the opportunity to contact Clint directly. Steve, you’re right, we do not need to agree on everything. It would become a tiny cult, in already such a small sphere we move in, if we’d need to, as seen in parts of Cluesforum and especially Fakeologist circles, not what I aspire to.
For now I will take the good links to Clint as reading material and as an option to discuss anarchism with him.
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Hi Steve, not sure this reply is falling where I intended…there wasn’t a reply link available under your most recent comment. All of Clint’s Corporation Nation Radio Shows on RBN are on his CN youtube channel available at this link.
https://www.youtube.com/user/cnrarchives
Unfortunately, they aren’t in order. My favorites are the episodes with Patrick Jordan of vaccinefraud.com I’m into the weaponized medical aspects of this crazy world we find ourselves in. The 1st couple with Patrick are #70 and 78 from early 2014…they discuss prion diseases.
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Many thanks.
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as a passionate reader myself I may make some recommendations. If you like stories and enjoy reading good novels try David Mitchell. I read all of his books with great joy twice. They are slightly connected through some common characters. The order doesn’t matter. It may surprise you, but “The Beach” supposedly written by Alex Garland is an excellent read. Or try “Thank you for smoking”, which is a bit different than the movie and also a very good and eloquent read. It will surprise you how good it is. I also liked “Little green men” by the same Christopher Buckley. If you have the time, try James Clavell. I enjoyed all of his books a lot. The order also doesn’t matter. And if you don’t like stories, read Carroll Quigley’s famous “Tragedy and Hope” or also very interesting “The Evolution of Civilizations” There still is a lot of input in there.
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I’ve been lurking for a while now but had to comment after this lovely post.
I, too, have struggled with finding reading material that I connect with. Interestingly enough (to me anyway), I did not “wake up” as a result of reading “conspiracy” literature. What woke me up was finally tackling the work of Vladimir Nabokov when I was 40 years old. His vast vocabulary and often abstruse historical and literary references intimidated me, but he was the first (and so far only) author that I found comforting to read on a Kindle. I could just highlight and look up any word I didn’t know — and there were lots. I could run his occasional untranslated French passages through Google translate and even if the translation was garbled, I at least got a sense of the meaning. (It was through doing this that I discovered that the character name “Quilty” actually means “Took her” — a fun fact I haven’t found in any scholarly works on Lolita.)
Nabokov famously fled Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution, having been a member of a prominent and wealthy political family in Tsarist Russia. Reading between the lines of his history, I suspect that when he came to America, the CIA moles in academia assumed he would either be down with their agenda or easily manipulated into acquiescing to it — but he wasn’t. Late in his career, he had a very public (and deliciously nasty) falling out with Edmund Wilson, who has basically been his sponsor and most vocal advocate when he emigrated to the U.S. Wilson’s attacks on him were bizarre to say the least, and having gone down the various rabbit holes you and your readers have plunged through, I now think Wilson was pissed that such a famous and well-respected author not only wasn’t toeing the American fascist line, but was actively working against it.
Nabokov was a genius, and he was particularly brilliant at “writing around a subject rather than hitting it directly.” He strove to bring the Russian concept of “poshlost” (a term he Americanized as “poshlust”) to the U.S., but it did not catch on, and we can see why: Poshlost is the greatest mind control tool our leaders have, and they know it. I highly recommend Nabokov’s Paris Review interview (Issue 41, 1967), in which he explains the concept of poshlust in great detail. When it’s mentioned at all in America anymore, people summarize it as being the Russian term for vulgarity or crude art, but it’s actually much, much more than that. If you and your readers are not familiar with the term, I think learning about it will be a treat. And when you realize that all of Nabokov’s novels can essentially be seen as the author playing a game of chess with the evils of poshlost, well, his novels become so much richer, more inspiring and edifying … at least for me.
Anyway, thank you for this post and this website. I’ll go back to lurking now. 🙂
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where do you have it from that Quilty means “took her”. It comes from Quilt, which is a warm and cozy piece of clothes
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My bad. Haha. No, when I first read the book, I noticed one of the characters — writing a letter to Lolita — used a phrase … I think it was “qu’il ty” … and used it in a sly way that made me curious. When I ran the whole thing through Google translate, “qu’il ty” translated as “took her.” Of course, now when I run the phrase through Google translate, it does not give that translation at all, but I’m sure it did back then because I ran the whole passage through several times and isolated the “quilty” sounding phrase and got “took her.” Sadly, I don’t speak French. I also have no reason to trust Google translate, so I could be totally off. Seems like a weird coincidence that I would have gotten that hit, though. shrug
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I like that reading, and wouldn’t dismiss it. Google translate gives qu’il l’a tirée for that he pulled her, so I think you’ve got a point. Also, if only for the reason that Nabokov was a Jocyean, some kind of pun in the names is almost inevitable. Further, Quilty’s prenon is Clare, or claire, which might be crude, the pornographer, unlike poetic Humbert.
Another reading might be Clearly Guilty.
A final point is that almost inevitably Nabokov, and particularly Lolita, will be part of The Project.
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Don’t know if you are proficient in any other language than English (“Adios, Compadres” doesn’t count as fluent in Castellano), but there is some great literature out there in languages other than English. There are no worthy american authors this or last century. Dare I recommend a contemporary foreign writer? Arturo Perez-Reverte. How about some from the distant past? Ambrose Bierce and Ivan Turgenev. Also, something to read and think about in plain English… http://postflaviana.org/was-shakespeare-jewish/
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Your mention of J.S. Bach proves that good propaganda can be enjoyable too. Nothing wrong with that. Good Ol’ Johann was just another conspicuous servant of Leviathan’s Hobbes. The longevity of the con is vast.
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