Photo by Mohammed Ibrahim on Unsplash
Freely speaking truth to power, is one of the biggest strengths of this hive blockchain to my mind. If I were to submit this article to a load of magazines/newspapers in my home country, apart from being able to stock my compost bin with the vast supply of rejection letters I'd probably be ratted out as a person to watch to some arm of the intelligence agency.
Because the truth of the matter is that the 'Terrorist' Boogieman has nothing to do with why our western governments stay in countries they occupy save from wicked despots, they stay because these places are of strategic importance.
This is no more so true as with the FACT of the continued support by western governments to help maintain Israeli expansion tactics as an ever-increasing border stronghold between what they would describe as 'dangerous Islamic fundamentalist nations' such as Lebanon to the North.
The Spring 2021 Lebanon Economic Monitor found that Lebanon's economic and financial crisis ranks among the worst economic crises globally since the mid-nineteenth century. Nominal GDP plummeted from close to US$52 billion in 2019 to an estimated US$23.1 billion in 2021.
Source: The World Bank (a highly suspicious source as they're intrinsically involved with the IMF to control the balance of poverty vs abundance. If you've ever heard the term debt slavery, then these are two of the organisations that help to facilitate western governments in loaning money to 'so called' 3rd world countries.
However, the same governments are friends, 'can I get a 'Hip Hip Hurray' with one of the most fundamentalist Islamic nations like Saudi Arabia, with human rights violations committed on a daily basis - but other countries are considered full of 'mad Arab maniacs determined to undermine democracy' all sporting the latest in Armani Suicide bomber jackets (to those who are unfamiliar with sarcasm this deep dive is going to be difficult for you). Why this love of the Saudis?
One work: Oil.
IMO, You can't get a more anarchistic rapper than Lowkey 🔼
Half British/half Iraqi, he proudly stands up to inequalities and Apartheid like-regimes that are backed by Western government states such as the USA and the United Kingdom, as well as many others.
During Barack Obama's term in office Syria was interfered with to a large extent by an American Security organisation that rhymes with Obey... fck it I'll just say it... the CIA... there I just said it!
They also attempted a coo in Ecuador under the same administration.
Now I'm not saying that Barack Obama consciously chose to do all of these things, as the CIA, and other American intelligence agencies, has carte blanche to do whatever it takes to maintain the American empire. As stated in the speech below the speaker points out that the defence secretary didn't change with the new administration under Barack Obama. Here is a clip of a speech by Tariq Ali that I find hilarious because all senators in the US knows these truths, that the Empire is the first priority
"There has been of course been a change in the presidency, and we can't complain to much about that. There is a new vice president also in the united states, and we can't complain to much about that. But the defence secretary is the same, that's the guy who sits in the pentagon and organises wars and the reason he was kept on was to show that there is, there are, both elements of discontinuity at the top and very strong elements of continuity. And the reason for that, is that if you were Caesar's clothes... you have to behave like Caesar."
The truth is that as the late, great Bill Hicks once said "All governments are liars and murderers."🔽 This is built into the system we live under, the richer nations shit all over the poorer nations by keeping them in debt slavery, and take land/natural resources as collateral when those countries can't pay back the loan.
All the while the $$$ money printer is kept on 24/7 and inflation goes through the roof making life difficult for the citizens of the 'so called' 1st world nations as prices rise, but this is nothing compared to the effect this particular iteration of 'consumptive capitalism' has on 'so called' 3rd world nations inflating their countries money until it becomes virtually worthless. Examples of places like this would be Ecuador in South America and Namibia in Africa, but I know of many other countries in Africa that accept US dollar every time over their native currency so I'm not sure how much I trust this source of worldpopulationreview.com.
However, there is a trend towards countries getting off the 'Dollar Standard', which is an essential process for people in those nations to claim back control of their countries. I want to make it clear at this point that I understand the realities of the (seemingly) essential nature of 'debt slavery' in our current system, that’s just business.
I'm saying change the system... and fast before we destroy our planet, while causing misery, suffering and death to millions worldwide. More about that below.
Clip used to underpin my point, fair use. Watch from 4,28 to hear some truth from one of the first people I ever heard speak truth to power without fear. Bill Hicks is a large influence in why I'm an anrachst and it is well worth listening to the whole set I shared above.
In the case of the current Israeli government, and their expansionist agenda displacing people from their homes and stealing land, is a simple one - there happens to have been a far-right government taking what they want and killing many civilians in the process all over a strip of land about the size of the island of Cyprus.
The reason?
Jerusalem is right at the heart of Israel and right near the border of the West Bank, a city that is at the heart of the three dominant monotheistic religions in the world today.
And before I get too many people in the comments on this post saying "You're an anti-Semite or a racist if you criticise Israel. I'll simply stick these two fingers ✌️ right in your face and point out that Israel is a country made up of a less than a third of the world’s population of Jewish people."
This has nothing to do with the Jewish faith, and everything to do with geo-political power struggles.
I am neither anti-Semitic nor racist; I have never been either of those two things. And it is not anti-Semitic to disagree with the current government of Israel (a country which makes up only 30% of the world's population of Jewish people).
Explanation below 🔽
Statistically:
As of 2023, the world's "core" Jewish population (those identifying as Jews above all else) was estimated at nearly 16 million, 0.2% of the 8 billion worldwide population.
Two countries account for 81% of those recognised as Jews or of sufficient Jewish ancestry to be eligible for citizenship in Israel under its Law of Return: the United States with 51% and Israel with 30% (including the West Bank with 2%). An additional 16% is split between France (3%), Canada (3%), Russia (3%), the United Kingdom (2%), Argentina (1%), Germany (1%), Ukraine (1%), Brazil (1%), Australia (1%), and Hungary (1%), while the remaining 3% are spread around approximately 98 other countries and territories with less than 0.5% each.
Source: Wikipedia
This means if my calculations are right, 70% of the world's population of Jewish people live happily outside of Israel, and many of them look at what the current Israeli government are doing in the Gaza strip as a heinous act of violence. Many don't, but this is what Religion breeds across the board, an Us vs Them attitude.
Do not get me wrong, I have exactly the same level of contempt for any act of violence carried out in the name of a made up deity (all of them), parables and stories invented during portions of history that are so far removed from modern day reality, as a means to both control populations, legitimatize rulers as part of the 'divine provenance' (another political act most often justified in the name of religion) and finally to liberate people of their fear of death which is a powerful tool for any ruler/leader.
Let me make one thing very clear from the outset - the amount of suicide bombers that have destroyed human life from extremist groups in Gaza, will never outweigh the amount of innocent lives taken by Israeli soldiers in the Gaza strip.
Photo by Timon Studler on Unsplash
Four major military assaults on Gaza in 2008-09, 2012, 2014, and at the time of writing in 2021 have killed nearly 4,000 Palestinians. During the Great March of Return in 2018, Israeli forces killed over 180 unarmed protesters at the Gaza-Israel border, and injured 23,000.
Source: caat.org.uk
I am not biased against any one particular religion, I see the atrocity committed in the various names of their 'one true god' e.g. various Christians factions implemented 8 separate crusades to try and take 'The Holy' lands in and around Jerusalem. Murdering ten's of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people, not just soldiers - civilians in cities under siege in medieval times starved or died from diseases the same as the soldiers.
Crusades to the Holy Land (1095–1291)
- First Crusade. ...
- People's Crusade. ...
- Crusade of 1101. ...
- Norwegian Crusade. ...
- Venetian Crusade. ...
- Crusade of 1129. ...
- Second Crusade. ...
- Crusader invasions of Egypt.
Source: wikipedia.org
And there have been many acts of genocide from both Jewish and Islamic factions down the millennia as well, too many to list.
So, let's get back to something that could actually be changed, the current government in Israel.
I have a Rabbi friend who drinks in my local pub, and he generally doesn't like talking about politics, but when I asked him his opinion about the whole subject around the Gaza he responded by telling me about traditional Passover seder, where Jewish people recite a declaration of an “open house” policy of hospitality: “Let all who are hard-pressed come and eat. Let all who are in need come and share the Passover sacrifice.”
In simple terms without saying the words he told me that he, as a Rabbi, was against violence of all kinds and further explained part of his religion which sent me a clear message about how he felt about displacement of people from their homes, or Israeli state sanctioned murder in Gaza.
And in my own research, reading through the 613 Commandments (Mitzvot) I found a lot of stuff that is simply not relevant in the modern-day world, which is just as true with the bible or the koran. But I did come across this commandment fairly early in the list:
- Not to oppress the weak.
And I also learned that within the 7 Noahide Laws Jewish people have to follow strict rules that encourage good behaviour:
Judaism does not believe in proselytizing to non-Jews or encouraging others to become Jewish. Each and every human being (indeed, every single creature) has a part in the grand chorus of life.
Source: www.chabad.org
But it seems that the Israeli government disregard what doesn't suit their agenda, and as national service is essential in Israel, conditioning to see other humans as subhuman can begin nice and early.
This is what basic military training is all about, breaking people psychologically so that they can kill without thinking about the moral right/wrong of what they're doing by taking this human life. They're programmed to just follow orders.
And to Quote L0wkey...
["This is not just a war over stolen land,
Why do you think little boys are throwing stones at tanks?
We will never really know how many people are dead,
They drop bombs on little girls while they sleep in their beds,
Don't get offended by facts, just try and listen,
Nothing is more anti-Semitic than Zionism,
So please don't bring bad vibes when you speak to me,
I know there's plenty of Rabbi's that agree with me."]
Lyrics used to underpin my point, fair use. Check out his music on YouTube!
I can back this up from personal experience. As explained above I have a friend who is a Rabbi who I have known for over 15 years... his best friend is a Muslim. He simply said to me, what is happening in the Israel, is a result of politics, not ownership or religion.
He completely understands the difference between THE FACT that there is an extreme right-wing government in Israel that is brutalising Palestinians as Israeli soldiers slowly make space for Jewish people to occupy the Gaza strip, which was never agreed upon as part of the land brokered as a country for Jewish people after the atrocities of the 2nd world war.
In November 1947, the United Nations recommended the partition of Palestine and the establishment of separate Arab and Jewish states. On 15 May 1948, Britain gave up her mandate. The British Army departed from Palestine leaving the Jews and the Arabs to fight it out in the war that followed.
Source: www.nam.ac.uk
Here is an original 
It's massive hypocrisy for a nation of people
so brutally persecuted in the preceding century,
to burn with hatred, and slaughter their neighbours
in a land assigned as an Arab state in living memory.
And what the fck does this have to do with me sitting in the UK, in my comfy PC chair typing away?
Photo by Mohammed Ibrahim on Unsplash
Firstly, I have visited Palestine as a young man and have seen the reality of how people live. I felt no threat from any of the people I stayed with, they let me into their homes, shared their food with me and we played basketball. I did however feel the constant tension and danger from a very active presence of soldiers who harassed myself and my mother daily about why we were in Gaza.
The reality of the wider global situation is that we were all made slaves to monetary policy when the same institutional monetary entities forced the US and other governments to remove the gold standard, and they still retain a monopoly of power to this day, and they play this world like a game of fckn risk, except territory isn't what they're moving on, it's natural resources.
Why do you think the American government are firmly nestled under the sheets canoodling with Saudi Arabia? But they support Israel in displacing a whole group of people over a territory of land roughly 75km/250km!
It has nothing to do with religious affiliation, it is one hundred % about rapidly reducing natural resources that increasing evidence points toward being the biggest polluters of our planet.
So, fuck the atrocities against women and the undeniable extreme fundamentalism of Saudi Arabia, because they've got a huge percentage of the words oil lying under their land. But yeah, let's fund Saudi Arabia, cosy up to them and hopefully get some military bases on their land so that we can strike attacks against our enemies with a secure base of operations in the vicinity of say, for example, Russia.
In the analogy of 'a game of risk,' there are no plastic battleships or counters that represent Palestinian armies. Just the odd suicide bomber, and kids throwing rocks at tanks.
Increasingly, in the final ideological evolution of capitalism what we're seeing in Israel is state-sanctioned murder of a certain set of people using the excuse of their religion, in this case.
And the UK is the sickest of the economic empire builders, after all, it was us that were instrumental in the first mass exploitation of human life as a commodity.
The first to descend on Africa to take slaves by the millions to work on our newfound colonies at the time, or serve as a curiosity butler in some of the more twisted aristocratic families.
We're also huge funders of Israel as a country through trade and imports:
In the four quarters to the end of Q4 2022, total UK exports to Israel amounted to £3.6 billion (an increase of 36.0% or £944 million in current prices, compared to the four quarters to the end of Q4 2021).
Source: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/
Not to mention one of the larger supplier of arms to
The UK has consistently sold arms to Israel, in spite of its illegal occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem since 1967.
Source: caat.org.uk
I am going to finish up this post with a very singular fact. something I have learned through years of meditation. Faith and understanding is all well and good, but it only brings people to a place of peace if they have a personal relationship with the focus of their faith.
Priests, Imams, Rabbis all have their own interpretations, and not all of them are good or sympathetic people. It is only when people get to the root of what has been written and write off a huge amount of what was very obviously written after the fact for political reasons to do with control, and perpetuating conflict.
After all, kings are made and kings are slain in battle. War has been a way for the elites in most societies on this earth to steal/appropriate wealth for many thousands of years, and so it remains today.
I'm not a Buddhist, although I learned basic meditation at a Buddhist centre near where I used to live. Now, after so many years of self-practising meditation, I've got to the heart of what the practice brings, which is also what prayer should do if done as a one-on-one relationship with a deity, it sublimates the ego.
This sublimation allows you to stop your thoughts for a time, and when you come out of the meditation there is a clarity as if new-born to this earth but with all your memories, experience and the opinions born out of those experiences. Mostly what I see is that opinion/debate etc is a construct of the ego to strengthen its self. A way to fortify the castle of ideas you've built around yourself as you've grown up, but these ideas are just that... as solid yet un-fluid as the stone in my metaphorical castle.
When you blow down the walls of the castle of ego, you're not as easily manipulated or pushed one way or another around the 'perpetual hamster wheel' of argument that humankind engages in, and which sociopaths use to their advantage to try to keep the balance of power in their favour.
This is why I am an anarchist.
There is no political system or party yet invented that fits with my core understanding of how the world can prosper without exploitation, they're all in opposition in one form or another. From the ravages of capitalism on our planet (which we will destroy unless we figure out a new type of ISM), or the failure of communism not to be exploited from the top down by despots disguising themselves as leaders, or revolutionaries... I see no clear choice for me that makes sense in the context of history.
Therefor we need a new ISM!
A system that works in harmony with our natural environment, while removing vast wealth gaps that afford sociopathic elements within the elite their power.
As a final nod to Lowkey, a poet and rapper that I wish I could match, this song points out the whole sordid affair of how wars are manufactured and it is very big business for some large manufactureres.
The song begins with a quote from Bill Hicks who I mentioned and shared a sketch from at the beginning of this post, describing some of the new technology developed during the Iraqi war.
"Weapons for all occasions, and everyone got excited about the technology and I guess it was pretty incredible watching a missile fly down an air vent, pretty unbelievable... but couldn't we feasibly use that same technology to shoot food at hungry people?"
I don't know what the answer is, perhaps I'm not intelligent enough. Maybe we'll end up living in a utopian world largely run by AI-driven systems of manufacturing and development. Who knows!
I'm just glad I'll be dead before the planet gets too hot to sustain life as we know it.
Thanks for reading 🙂🌿
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