#13.4 Peace Revolution Podcasts 31 thru 40

Episodes 31 through 40 – Critiques of modern education and more applications of the course.

2011-6-5: #31 Connect the Dots, See the Big Picture / The 5th Anniversary of Project Constellation: A Root-Cause Analysis of our Culture of Fear

 

This 3 and a half hour episode contains the entire first release of Grove's Project Constellation. Herein, Grove identifies his unique perspectives on 9/11 and other related matters.

Homework:

Burton Hirsch- The Old Boys; The American Elite and the Origins of the CIA
James H. Billington- Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith

2011-6-12: #32 How College Subverts Students / Dumbing us Down for Profit and Power

 

This episode begins and ends with statements by educator, John Taylor Gatto. Then a lengthy lecture / interview of Norman Dodd by G. Edward Griffin from the 1980's. Dodd's experience goes back to just before the crash of 1929 and its aftermath. College Conspiracy then supports the thesis presented here. There is more. The whole episode is something like 2 hours and 43 minutes long. By the time you are half way through, you should begin to recognize some very dangerous signs that higher education, as with everything else, has been ruined by the influences of the banking community and government policies such that it matters now whether you decide to “get educated” to chance joining the shrinking corporatocracy and ending up as debt slaves for the rest of your life, or face reality and prepare for a post corporate world by gaining basic craft skills instead. We hope that among those who decide not to go to college, there will be those who will take up reading and research so that they can get an education they can use throughout their lives. We note that by just under 2 hours through this episode, an idea is mentioned that I saw more than 15 years ago; that there would be a confluence of education, entertainment and computing via the internet. It's how education will be done in the future. Gatto's assessment of Darwin and his influence in all of this is close to my own; that evolution is more theory than fact and rests on many pseudo-religious ideas that are made to deliberately benefit some at the expense of others.

2011-6-18: #33 Educational Initiations of Self / Integrity Starts with You

 

This episode builds on the last one and aims at increasing personal awareness of a need to acquire a useful education. It contains Manly P. Hall's commentary on native American Indian ceremonies of initiation into manhood and other related comments dealing with a critique of modern education and then finally to the idea of shared responsibilities. All of which he describes needs to be considered in as many aspects as humanly possible.

2011-6-26: #34 How the World Really Works / Cause and Effect vs. Our Beliefs

 

First, Richard Grove tells us about how he was able to get Gatto to interview (episodes 41 thru 45 covered in our #13.5). Grove then makes some important definitions for future use including the notion that under certain circumstances, people will become “fascist” in their attitudes toward others featured as “inferiors” or guided by certain kinds of “authoritarian” leadership styles. Microcosmic and macrocosmic illustrations then follow; Larken Rose (http://www.larkenrose.com) and then Carroll Quigley himself from an interview in 1974.

Homework:

W. Cleon Skousen- The Naked Capitalist
Gary Allen- Richard Nixon, the man behind the mask

2011-7-17: #35 The House of Rothschild / The World’s Banker

This episode starts with Alex Jones interviewing Jordan Maxwell. I note that Maxwell, like everyone else, mispronounces the word “teutonic”, a minor point, but much of what they discuss may be half truths or blind alleys as regards research of real history. The 1934 motion picture, The House of Rothschild is featured as an example of propaganda. Bill Still is one of the narrators of segments which follow.

Homework:

Niall Ferguson-
Volume 1: The House of Rothschild / Money’s Prophets (1798-1848)
Volume 2: The House of Rothschild / The World’s Banker (1849-1999)
Douglas Reed- The Controversy of Zion

Eustace Mullins- Secrets of the Federal Reserve

Moses Hess- Rome and Jerusalem: The Last Nationalist Question (1862)
(Video) Prof. Chengiah Ragaven interviewed by Richard Grove (on YouTube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu3HZKc_G1w

2011-7-24: #36 The Global Ruling Class / Meet the F*ckers

 

Rothkopf presents a realistic view of the current world system. In this series, we have heard portions of this address before. Here we get the whole thing.

Homework:

David Rothkopf-
Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World they are Creating
Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power

2011-8-14: #37 Justified Sinners / The History of Eugenics in America

 

The episode begins with Bilderberg to demonstrate how it is possible for people with certain interests to meet secretly and keep their moves from the rest of us; literal conspiracy. Eugenics is the subject; bionomics, playing God, denying God, other myths are laid bare. James Corbett's words against utopias could be my own and should be seriously considered by all. Much of what follows concerning eugenics and contemporary issues and politicians (especially Webster Tarpley's presentation) needs to be considered as grammar to be treated through logic to produce a concise and effective rhetoric and I might add all this is of crucial importance to any real solutions bearing on formation of (the or an) VEN.

011-9-4: #38 The High Cabal / Lessons in Foreign and Domestic Policy

British East India Company Flag

This episode features a wide ranging interview of Col. L. Fletcher Prouty, specifically highlighting the oil wars, the role of transportation to hold up oil prices, etc. He tells us that we know next to nothing about the histories of other people outside our own ethnic / racial groups. Prouty's discussion of groups and how they operate and have operated down through human history is probably one of the most significant points in the whole series as it relates directly to an alternative economic system as proposed in the formation of (the an) VEN. Col. Prouty uses an example from military training involving the building of a bridge. The discussion then ranges into the JFK assassination with Prouty developing obvious proofs of a wide ranging conspiracy and the reasons why Kennedy was killed. Prouty describes “gold key clubs” (other people have called them “gold badges”) which draw upon resources / people regardless of apparent government agencies in order to carry out special missions. The rest of the episode is about the CIA's atrocities around the world as they are supported by those who intend on profiting from terror and the imposition of dictatorial power abroad to secure for those in the developed world both resources and markets.

Homework:

L. Fletcher Prouty- The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United
States and the World
L. Fletcher Prouty- JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy
Peter Drucker- The End of Economic Man, the origins of totalitarianism
Foster Rhea Dulles- The Road to Teheran
Michael Sayers and Albert E. Kahn- The Great Conspiracy
The works of Joseph Needham- Science and Civilization in China (many volumes)

2011-9-11: #39 9-11 Backdraft / Examining the Evidence Ten Years Later

 

9/11 is the subject. These professionals are telling you that your government is not what you thought. The implications are profound. Murders were committed, killed on purpose, in cold blood. There is no statute of limitation on murder. Someone was responsible. Who? Meanwhile, people are in denial. It's a problem.

2011-9-25: #40 Consumer Kindergarten / How Corporations Prey on Children

This episode spotlights public education (schooling), it's origins, history, intentions, philosophical roots, etc. The key concept of “buying the public” is explained. The role of children as economic resources is then discussed; purchasing power and influence, the role of media blitz. You'll find out how getting ads in front of kids is big business. Meanwhile what exactly are children learning? Then about 2/3rds of the way through the episode the issue of the advertiser's “rights” vs. those of the children is looked upon from the metaphor of a corporation acting like a psychopath. These are issues which would directly affect the rules under which any IE would have to operate; there are obvious business ethics issues involved.

INTERMISSION

#13.3 Peace Revolution Podcasts 21 thru 30

Episodes 21 through 30 – History, realpolitik, money and more of the course.

2011-3-16: #21 The Occult History of World War / A Veil Lifted

This episode is almost 4 hours long, but it is very important. History is basic grammar; a thorough presentation of the history of World War I, a crucial subject in modern history, is basic material to the course. The speech / lecture forming much of the second half of this episode dates from 1961. This speech is loaded: Benjamin Freedman, a Jew who converted to Catholicism, develops themes that precede the best disclosure of the same information by Arthur Koestler some 15 years later. He also indicates that he probably agrees with Arab Semitic anthropology, a controversial subject. Nevertheless, basic grammar, grist for the mill; you just might learn something.

Homework:

Arthur Koestler- The Thirteenth Tribe. The Khazar Empire and its Heritage.

2011-4-4: #22 The Best Enemies Money Can Buy / The Arch which connects 2 Pillars

This episode is approx. 2 and a half hours long. It continues with basic grammar; Antony Sutton's work is as important as Carroll Quigley's. Then “team B” the neocons and various other cabals are referenced. Edward Bernays and others are reviewed. It concludes with a humorous interview of Donald Rumsfeld.

Homework:

The works of Antony Sutton-

Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development: 1917-1930 (1968)

Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development: 1930-1945 (1971)

Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development: 1945-1965 (1973)

National Suicide: Military Aid to the Soviet Union (1973)

What Is Libertarianism? (1973)

Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution (1974, 1999)

Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler (1976, 1999)

Wall Street and FDR (1976, 1999)

The War on Gold: How to Profit from the Gold Crisis (1977)

Energy: The Created Crisis (1979)

The Diamond Connection: A manual for investors (1979)

Trilaterals Over Washington - Volume I (1979; with Patrick M. Wood)

Trilaterals Over Washington - Volume II (1980; with Patrick M. Wood)

Gold vs Paper: A cartoon history of inflation (1981)

Investing in Platinum Metals (1982)

Technological Treason: A catalog of U.S. firms with Soviet contracts, 1917-1982 (1982)

America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones (1983, 1986, 2002)

How the Order Creates War and Revolution (1985)

How the Order Controls Education (1985)

The Best Enemy Money Can Buy (1986)

The Two Faces of George Bush (1988)

The Federal Reserve Conspiracy (1995)

Trilaterals Over America (1995)

Cold Fusion: Secret Energy Revolution (1997)

Gold For Survival (1999)

You may find that some of these titles are rare books as they have been suppressed, nevertheless Sutton from his vantage point and access to original sources is indispensable, so much so that we actively encourage any means of disseminating his works to the general public, something he certainly would have wanted.

Edward Bernays- Propaganda

 

2011-4-4: #23 How to Free Your Mind / The Occulted Keys of Wisdom

Richard Grove, lecture of the course describing “learning by identity.”

2011-4-22: #24 Logic Works because it's Rational / How to Teach Each Other

A group discussion on the course, including a very important discussion of the “Zeitgeist movement” which is uncovered and recognized as just another repackaging of the same old status quo; a message to the masses to accept the present leadership, goals, world government, etc. At this point we formally distance ourselves from these movements as they run completely counter to the ideas of E. C. Riegel and the peace revolution. Also somewhat of interest is that many apocalyptic dates promulgated in the popular press, such as 21 December 2012 as a Mayan prophecy for the end of the age, etc. turn out to have been deliberate frauds.

Homework:

Shlomo Sand- Invention of the Jewish People

2011-4-30: #25 A History of Media in America / Education for your Edification

This episode is slightly over 2 and a half hours largely consisting of the reading of several chapters from a book; Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, written back in 1985, but still pertinent (consider that it was written before the arrival of the internet). In it one would be placed on notice that abstinence from print media (typology) and reliance on visual media (motion pictures and television) reduces one to understand only the ideas these frames of reference communicate through visual stimuli and whether recognized at the outset or not, places a limitation on what can be comprehended or used to build really comprehensive solutions to mankind's modern and pressing problems. Rational typographic comprehension as it was known widely in past epochs, is these days fairly limited to those practising among the professions, especially law, which explains in large part why most decision makers at this point in history are lawyers, whether they read thoroughly whatever it is they are called upon to act upon, or not.

Therefore I admonish all who read this to continue reading, to those who do not habitually read, it's time to understand the singular difference between masters and slaves. The former can read and write. It is no accident that the Latin root for the words “book” and “liberty” are the same. If you have ever wondered what difference exists between a “learned” person and one who is a “primitive” in any sense whether ancient or modern, one need not stray farther from the simplest distinction; the former is formidably armed through reading and writing, while the latter is veritably at his mercy. Since not all time has run out, if you have never though of yourself as a reader of books, for whatever reasons, perhaps it's time to change your habits, making more time for reading. Better yet, get yourself a small book with blank pages and in it record all the books you read from cover to cover (those you stop reading are never counted). Only record their titles, authors and the date you completed reading them.

The outstanding contribution Postman makes is largely in the realm of the obvious; people develop other means of communications which actually changes how people learn and think. Marshall McLuhan, who Postman acknowledges, was not the first or only one to see the obvious in an age when recognizing the profundity of the obvious was often a source of ridicule by much of the academic community, who probably wished McLuhan had not pointed out the obvious or given them such wide public awareness, which even today few people really understood.

For the rest of what Postman tells us about television, you'll have to read the rest of his book.

Homework:

Neil Postman- Amusing Ourselves to Death, Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
Marshall McLuhan- Understanding Media

2011-5-8: #26 Exposing the Folly of an American Theatre of the Absurd

 

This episode is about Osama bin Laden functioning as the centre piece of a huge, essentially theatrical operation of the powerful forces beyond the government. Dr. Steve Pieczenik, someone claiming to be an insider and someone loyal to George Bush Sr. is interviewed by Alex Jones (You also get to hear Jones interview James Corbett). You'll hear a lot of rhetoric with some basic grammar. A lot of what is “disclosed” is already familiar to many researchers. This was all fresh and new in 8 May 2011, but where has it gone since then? Late in his interview, Pieczenik prognosticates that Obama will manage to get re-elected, etc. Pieczenik closes with Ad hominem pronouncements against public officials. Such matters are just grist for the mill rather than supposed to be automatically accepted as viable or relevant, for as far as I know, anyone who would claim loyalty to Bush Sr. wouldn't possibly be a friend of truth or the American people.

2011-5-14: #27 DIAMONDS: The Jewel of Denial / Outgrowing Stockholm Syndrome

 
More history; basic grammar. This episode focuses on diamonds as at the heart of many overt and covert political and military operations, the founding of De Beers and the beginning of the Cecil Rhodes trusts, their influence, etc. from 1888 onward. Diamonds (as is the case with most of the silver and gold bullion commonly used in trade), have blood on them, either in the mining of them or in their uses to fund wars. The reference to the Stockholm syndrome is that those who unwittingly support the trade in diamonds are supporting their captors.

Stockholm syndrome is basically defined as when a hostage develops a bond with their captor, usually with some trauma, abuse or torture involved. It's a phenomenon that can occur on many levels, from the personal to the group or national. It has many applications as a metaphor in situations involving international relations as well as domestic disputes. It should be better understood.

2011-5-21: #28 How to Spot the Lie / Kung-Fu for your Mind

 

Another group discussion of the course focusing on recognizing logical fallacies and common forms of deception. Near the end, the group comes close to asserting that the root of corruption in the capitalist / socialist system is usury, which of course is exactly what the E. C. Riegel position would be. The hubris demonstrated by the few in regard to devising rules of conduct for the rest of humanity to live under, by FORCE, and with their consent (Stockholm syndrome), is also discussed.

2011-5-28: #29 Metaphors of Liberation / The Wisdom of Gullible's Travels

 

This episode largely concerns Manly Hall's lecture on Gulliver's Travels. The heart of it seems to be the concept of a person becoming a “unit of integrity” which becomes the font of value in human society. It will be understood, as I'm sure it was to Richard Grove and his friends, that Hall was among other things a writer interested in the esoteric, occult and Masonic, so Hall's lecture is presented as basic grammar on the subjects involved; one's implicit belief or acceptance of anything in this lecture is never required. This is merely more grist for the mill, but the subjects addressed are important.

Homework:

Jonathan Swift- Gulliver's Travels

2011-6-4: #30 The Fire of Corruption in Education / John Taylor Gatto and Henrik Palmgren

 

Henrik Palmgren (Red Ice Radio) interviews well known educator, John Taylor Gatto and this serves as an introduction to Gatto and his ideas. #13.5 includes Gatto's weekend seminar/interview with Richard Grove and his friends. While some out there would not have the patience to weather Gatto's aged and unglamourous style of address, there are kernels of data to be gleaned here, especially concerning education and the school systems operating right now around the world.

INTERMISSION

#13.2 Peace Revolution Podcasts 11 thru 20

Episodes 11 through 20 – Applications of the course; reportage on current Issues with historical background:

2010-12-2: #11 Human Resources / Social Engineering in the 20th Century, a film by Scott Noble

2010-12-2: #12 Origins of Money / A Virtual Round-Table Discussion

Homework:

Stephen Zarlenga- The Lost Science of Money

Edward Mandell House- Philip Dru Administrator

http://www.fullbooks.com/Philip-Dru-Administrator.html

Zbigniew Brzezinski- The Grand Chessboard

 

2010-12-2: #13 Psywar / The Real Battlefield is the Mind / a Film by Scott Noble

2010-12-4: #14 The Premiere of DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Mitch Schultz

2010-12-4: #15 Compassionate Communication / How to Mitigate Conflict in our Thoughts

2010-12-30: #16 The 7 Arts of Freedom / Living in the Light of Value

2011-2-13: #17 Non-Violent Solutions for Everyday Situations / An introduction to Non-Violent Communication

Homework:

Marshall B. Rosenberg, Ph.D.- Non-Violent Communication: A Language of Life

2011-2-23: #18 A History of the World in Our Time / Origins of Tragedy and Hope

This is largely a lecture on the substance of Quigley's work by Dr. Stanley Monteith.

Homework:

Carroll Quigley- 
Tragedy and Hope, A history of the world in our time
The Anglo-American Establishment
Evolution of Civilizations

2011-3-3: #19 Autodidactic Self-Liberation / Outgrowing our Misperceptions 

First part: Gnostic Media Podcast 105 with Mark Passio, an angry/disgusted Catholic becomes a Satanist then discovers his brand of Satanism (dark occultism) is the real religion of the elites (out of which he notices that certain people with certain traits are selected and promoted), whereupon his conscience kicks in and informs him he's on the wrong path, so he quits. Passio lists 14 mind control methodologies, money and the monetary system among them. Last part: General discussion concerning current issues and ultimate aims.

Homework:

Mind control methodologies
http://whatonearthishappening.com

Referenced New World Next Week item from 4 March, 2011:
http://peterbdunn.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/experiments-exposed-cloning-closed-conspiracy-shows-new-world-next-week

Robert Anton Wilson- The Cosmic Trigger

2011-3-5: #20 An Illegal Cure for Cancer / Who Benefits from its Prohibition?
 

Homework:

Endocannabinoid system

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocannabinoid_system

Cannabinoid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocannabinoids#Endocannabinoids

INTERMISSION

#13.1 Peace Revolution Podcasts 1 thru 10 and Introduction

Introduction: The Peace Revolution Offers A Real Education

The Peace Revolution podcasts (audio transcriptions) provide the basis for a real education that will be demonstrated as inevitably and inextricably related to any realistic future development of any VEN. These podcasts are largely the products of Richard Andrew Grove, who has created a wide range of audacious audiovisual educational presentations, many series on controversial subjects of our times, etc. But particularly germane to our purposes is his main series of Peace Revolution podcasts starting right from their very beginning.

This page provides a kind of syllabus which can be pursued by any student, just as presented, and of course we encourage everyone to do so, especially the young who have most of their lives ahead of them, though attend to it at your own pace. Each podcast is listed in episodic order preceded by the dates they were released. After each ten podcasts, I have inserted an INTERMISSION as a time to break away from these podcasts, perhaps to do something else, perhaps to discuss them with your friends and family (if interested) and otherwise reflect on how the material in these podcasts affects your perception of the world around you. There will be particular podcasts on this list that will be indicated in red as particularly relevant to the particular subjects of this blog.

As a presenter, Richard Grove is clearly someone, who by vantage of his background and experience (Grove was a Wall Street whistleblower and nearly became a victim on 9/11), demonstrates his competence to embark on what amounts to a welcome transformable approach to basic thinking. These podcasts (and many others that are appearing on the internet) present us with a new medium of information transfer, a portable audio presentation of information which we predict will be found to contain the seeds for any definitive positive improvement in human society and for real human progress. (Yes, we are intentionally backhanding the so called “progressives” for being nothing more than the dupes of the elites. The so called “populists” only receive less of our majestic ire out of our recognition of their obvious ignorance of both history and money.)

This education is directed at serious students, people who are adults first and foremost, or at least those who are emotionally mature, as we admonish beforehand that many of these podcasts do contain profanities, obscenities etc. I mention these as they may offend some; foul language or crude colourful metaphors are prevalent among some of us as a badge of toughness, for whatever reasons, none of which particularly bothers me, especially considering the contexts in which these words are used to bracket ideas with genuine emphasis. There are times when people need to be allowed to express themselves freely and forcefully. Any real education implies a growing up process, and as it has seemed to me for a long time, more need to grow up to reality and stop being sissies. All that said, although I am largely in agreement with the views and topics covered in this series, their perspectives and opinions do not necessarily represent my own.

So then, how best to use and absorb this material? Might I suggest that as some of these podcasts contain basic and useful information, the basis of the course, that one would best be served by listening to them a number of times, until the concepts, the tools and the information are easily grasped.  I have decided to divide up this material in 10 episode chunks (5 episode chunks after 13.5) for easier digestion.  As episodes are added, their links will be added, but in any case they will form extended instalments of #13 of this series of posts. Constructive comments, though of course they will be moderated, are certainly welcome. Notes as they appear on these pages are mine.

 

David Burton

The First Ten Episodes – Presenting the course:

Points of contact for the origination of this material are:
http://www.tragedyandhope.com
and:
http://peacerevolution.podomatic.com

2009-12-17: #1 The Great Conversation

Homework:

Gnostic media podcast #49
Gene Odening interview, Part 1 – “The TRIVIUM Method” – #049 (+ video)

Gnostic media podcast #50

Gene Odening interview, Part 2 – “The QUADRIVIUM” – #050 (+ video)

Gnostic media podcast #51
Gene Odening interview, Part 3 – “The Qabalah and the Mystery Schools” – #051 (+ video)

2010-1-20: #2 The Million Dollar Education

2010-2-15: #3 20/20 Hindsight CENSORSHIP on the Frontline / A Wall Street Whistleblower Proves Money Never Sleeps )

2010-2-14: #4 Exploring Media / Educating Ourselves to Live vs. Amusing Ourselves to Death

2010-5-18: #5 OVERSTOCKED / How Naked Short-Selling and Counterfeiting Stocks Create Cascading Economic Failures / an Interview with Dr. Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock dot com
 

Homework:

Market Manipulation and Capture

http://www.deepcapture.com

2010-8-13: #6 The Intellectual Elite vs. You / The Resurrection of Critical Thinking
 

2010-10-3: #7 How to defeat the New World Order / A Root-Cause Analysis Leading to Freedom

Homework:

Logical Fallacies, etc.:
http://www.triviumeducation.com

#145 You Are Being Gamed

Eugenics:

TheOiling of America

2010-10-10: #8 PARRHESIA / A Curriculum for Intellectual Self-Defense

2010-11-8: #9 What You've Been Missing / Exposing the Noble Lie

2010-12-2: #10 Cognitive Liberty / A Virtual Round-Table Discussion

Homework:

Education criticism.

Charlotte Iserbyt, The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America PDF

INTERMISSION

#13.5 The Ultimate History Lesson with John Taylor Gatto

Links to the following five podcasts are presented here as a prerequisite to discussions concurrent with the ideas of E. C. Riegel who was himself an autodidact (self taught). John Taylor Gatto (1935- ) is introduced here in a five hour interview, with expanded discussions every 15 minutes so that most details are covered, as an experienced teacher with worldwide experiences which should be part of a foundation for some of the other papers that are currently in process.  These are part of the Peace Revolution podcasts and in their order they represent #41 thru #45.

UPDATE: 20 November, 2012  Many have noticed that John Taylor Gatto sounds impaired.  He is 77 and has been affected by stroke.  His health was deteriorating until some of the friends he made through contact with Richard Grove have come to his rescue.  He is now attempting to regain his health and is now getting nutrition and physiotherapy.  His mind remains clear and active.  He wants to continue.  Those interested in helping John can contact Richard Grove at Tragedy and Hope.com  http://www.tragedyandhope.com   

Ultimate History Lesson 1
Ultimate History Lesson 2

Ultimate History Lesson 3
Ultimate History Lesson 4
Ultimate History Lesson 5

The Odysseus Group with John Taylor Gatto

#0 Tom Greco at Public Banking in America conference, Philadelphia, April 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mszZ_dwpxg&feature=player_embedded

Posted here without additional comment.

#12 A Timely Rebuke to Statists and Statism

A survey of the written or collected utterances of statists might turn up any number of quotations that reference the same ideas, however this particular quote from Cass Sunstein illustrates many of the main points for our purposes.

“In what sense is the money in our pockets and bank accounts fully ‘ours’? Did we earn it by our own autonomous efforts? Could we have inherited it without the assistance of probate courts? Do we save it without the support of bank regulators? Could we spend it if there were no public officials to coordinate the efforts and pool the resources of the community in which we live? Without taxes, there would be no liberty. Without taxes there would be no property. Without taxes, few of us would have any assets worth defending. [It is] a dim fiction that some people enjoy and exercise their rights without placing any burden whatsoever on the public… There is no liberty without dependency.”

Cass Sunstein goes on to say,

“If government could not intervene effectively, none of the individual rights to which Americans have become accustomed could be reliably protected. This is why the overused distinction between 'negative' and 'positive' rights makes little sense. Rights to private property, freedom of speech, immunity from police abuse, contractual liberty and free exercise of religion—just as much as rights to Social Security, Medicare and food stamps—are taxpayer-funded and government-managed social services designed to improve collective and individual well-being.”

Breaking it all down:

“In what sense is the money in our pockets and bank accounts fully ‘ours’?”

The short answer is that we know that none of the money currently in use is ours and THAT's the problem. The longer answer to Sunstein's first question is answered with the following irrefutable facts;

1. All “money” that anyone ever uses in the modern world is created by private institutions (central banks which masquerade as public organizations, but are not) and hence all money really “belongs” to them. If you are allowed to hold any of it for your own purposes, they consider that a privilege they have deigned to grant you as a temporary expedient to what they want; an endless return on their loans, usually created out of thin air (not backed -collateralized- by any assets worth buying). All this money was created as loans demanding the payment of interest, which itself was not created. Since much of this debt also includes compounding of interest, which is usury on steroids, an endless stream of income is produced for at the most the service of clearing trading transactions. Nothing of any real value is added and claims against things of real value (money) are kept artificially scarce to benefit those with access to them.

Those who have not seen the mathematical anomaly in usury will tell you that they expect the interest to be covered through increased value created in the economy. But they still have not seen that every last farthing of any money currently in use to buy the goods in any economy and by which any value intended is to be recorded by the monetary system, still has interest attached to it. So, ever paying it off completely is an impossibility. This actually forms an invalid contract (a subject explained here) and therefore is fraudulent to begin with. Realizing this truth opens up a number of inevitable consequences.

2. The loaned money is “created” for the purposes of the buyer purchasing something at the time the loan is made, the money with which to pay the interest is NOT created and never will be. This anomaly, the artificial scarcity of money thus enforced, causes everyone (including governments) to go into debt to the “creators” of all money which have their special relationships with governments guaranteed as a monopoly.

3. The vast majority of all these loans are to governments which spend the money into the economy the way they see fit, not the way their citizens, subjects or peoples see fit. This is a key point to which I want all those who seek a return to money as defined in the Constitution to consider. This key insight is directly tied back to E. C. Riegel's incontestable observation that one person or organization cannot determine what another person or organization might buy with their own money (which they call into existence by their own will as every single individual has an INALIENABLE right to do).

4. The interest payments on all current forms of money are on the lives, property and personal intentions of each individual human being under the jurisdiction of these governments. The system, as it is presently designed, makes this public debt unpayable and this debt thus becomes a perpetual noose of slavery on everyone. Liberty and slavery are hardly the same thing, Cass.

Sunstein asks rhetorically, “Did we earn it [money] by our own autonomous efforts?”

Actually Cass, a few of us did, by making the decisions to freely associate ourselves with others in trade or some other remunerative activity and taking the risks involved with our decisions as a matter of mutual trust. Some of us unfortunately have spent our lives living off the rest of society. There are three broad groups of such socioeconomic parasites:

1. Those who owe their livelihood to government: It doesn't start or stop with those who are pensioners or welfare recipients, because those people were forced into these social welfare arrangements with governments, for these governments had deliberately intervened on behalf of special interests which distorted normal economic processes such that were governments not to decide to take care of these people, they would easily and quite quickly face revolution or a coup d'etat. Were money the people's to create as they needed it, there would soon be no need for any of these welfare government programs.

This then is our direct answer to state imposed socialism, to give each individual human being the right to create their own money and spend it as they see fit. Much then of what Sunstein views as beneficial products of government; “Social Security, Medicare and food stamps ... government-managed social services designed to improve collective and individual well-being,” exerted through the FORCE of taxation and the indebtedness to the present money creators, turn out to be subsidies to special interests to ostensibly provide services to the public.

As all the world knows, nothing really ever turns out well once the government gets involved. There are the usual inefficiencies and irresponsibility to scale, which the statists and their supporters (who all love the vast idols of bigness they have created and imagine themselves important by association therewith) would prefer simply to ignore. They have foisted one sort of bureaucratizing nonsense or another on humanity for the better part of the last 200 years; “scientific” management, the Soviet, etc. and still no one who deals with government ever believes they are dealing with just other members of their own local community, but rather the fronts for a cold heartless and corrupt machine. The bigger any enterprise gets, the more inefficient and tyrannical it must become because control begins to matter more than command; where the latter becomes impossible, the former becomes a desperate imperative. But hubris brings any fool down eventually, though it may take centuries for foolish ideas to reach the same fate.

2. Those who work for foundations, non profits, etc. are essentially living parasitically off of the rest of society. Not-for-profits, are essentially granted this status by the state, which henceforth regulates their activities. Seen another way, all these foundations are set up as tax dodges for the rich. The best solution for all concerned would be to force them all to shut down, because we do not want or need any overarching advice or management (a Soviet) to socially engineer things, hence we regard much if not all of it, as the audacity of peculiar groups of people who have never demonstrated they have the best interests of any but themselves in mind.
 

3. The last group who deserve to be considered social parasites are those who already have plenty of money who refuse to live from their wealth, but rather insist that their idle split-barter money deserves a reward. This too will be a subject for future discussion.

“Could we have inherited it [money] without the assistance of probate courts?”

Those familiar with George Orwell realized from the top that Sunstein was talking newspeak. The honest response to this is, “you've got to be kidding!” No folks, he isn't kidding. Probate courts are the creation of creditors, especially governments, to make sure they get paid before everyone else in matters of inheritable estates above a certain nominal money value. These courts are interlopers in the inheritance process and steal estates for themselves and their cronies as is well known. Sunstein places the state's corruption through these courts above the will of every single human being. Under the present probate tyranny these issues are settled by FORCE upon the natural inheritors of the donor who is prevented from passing his wealth along to whomever he/she wishes.

“Do we save it [money] without the support of bank regulators?”

Saving money is as usual not what everyone has long believed or been taught to believe. First of all one has to jettison all notions of gaining return on idle money by the usual means of sharing the taking of unlawful interest (from funds which were never created in the first place). Only increasing genuine value counts as a means of making honest money.

An individual (a class A member of a VEN by definition) or an organization (a class B member of a VEN by recognition of all class A members in that VEN or by its elected representatives) may be rewarded for any increases in value they produce and exchange with other productive members. Perhaps Sunstein believes, as has been proven incorrect by recent events, that bank regulators are responsible, or are even capable of being responsible, to savers for the safety of their savings from the machinations of bankers. Such is clearly not the case and there isn't any real likelihood that confidence, such as Sunstein wishes the public would all share, should return any time soon.

What honest savings, in money terms, has always meant, is literally the taking of money out of circulation and putting it away, stacking it up, for that time when one has enough to make larger purchases. That's all savings has ever been. Anything more is strictly speaking, a scam. Any bank will hold your money for you and pay you something for holding it; a savings account. In this way they have built up their reserves against which they may write loans many times greater than their actual reserves; what is known as fractional reserve banking, the legally enshrined fraud at the centre of the present rotten system. In this way, many banks are already technically bankrupt, but you are supposedly protected from any banker scams by what is called “deposit insurance.” No VEN account will EVER need to be insured, because financing under an VEN will simply not be permitted to operate relying on usury. This too will be the subject of a future paper.

“Could we spend it [money] if there were no public officials to coordinate the efforts and pool the resources of the community in which we live?”

This too is some fantasy of statists that nobody with any sense believes anymore. The fact is that under the present monetary and financial system, these decisions are exercised by those who have acquired their positions and influence, not through the scrupulous hard work they'd like us to believe, earning the confidence of the people with genuine unselfish concern, but largely through deceit, treachery and the assistance of those who have already acquired such prominence. Brown nosing and other forms of obsequious behaviour are well known to this author and typified in such institutions. The desired attitude is sold to the public as “political correctness” which takes most matters of serious controversy off the table as a form of social censorship. Nobody, or not too many anyway, yet seem to realize that this is a direct infringement of another inalienable right; to free speech.

The fact is that since the prevailing system is built on frauds, fallacies, follies and outright lies, all that has been built up by the system are institutions and organizations which are perforce rendered inevitably illegitimate. The clearest example is the ubiquitous corporation's waiving of unlimited liability for damages under prevailing laws regarding the organization of such businesses. Legitimate business springs naturally from individuals engaged in trade or who are growing or making things in expectation of selling them and in return obtaining the SPLIT-BARTER money with which to provide what they want and need.

Many perhaps most vast international corporations such as we see today are masquerading as productive (and even profitable) because all the costs of damages to the environment or to customers are rendered unrecoverable; contrary to what the public may believe, most corporations do not pay their way, they bribe their way in and take from the communities they serve by threatening to close down if certain costs of operation aren't reduced. Were the scale of businesses smaller and made to conform to the rules of nature, which do not allow for any limited liability, much that contributes to social and environmental degradation would soon be things of the past.

The notion of a benevolent public servant alas dies hard, because we would all prefer to believe that someone above us actually knows better and cares for us and has our best interests at heart when this is demonstrably not the case at all. When the scales fall from the eyes as they have for many, and more will come around to seeing it this way as time permits, the public will tend to view most government officials as pernicious troublemakers whose advice and counsel is not wanted, contributes nothing of value and impedes human progress. They will be revealed as the parasites they are; more who prefer taking by FORCE what does not belong to them and returning “services” many may not need or even want.

E. C. Riegel admonished that no government ever has anything worth buying if we had a choice and therefore they were disqualified PERMANENTLY from ever being legitimately allowed to create money. (See #9 Why Proposed Constitutional Amendments Will Not Work and Other Matters)

Then we come to certainly the most audacious bursts of Orwellian newspeak in this entire quote:

“Without taxes, there would be no liberty. Without taxes there would be no property. Without taxes, few of us would have any assets worth defending. [It is] a dim fiction that some people enjoy and exercise their rights without placing any burden whatsoever on the public… There is no liberty without dependency.”

No liberty, property or assets worth defending without taxes? This is like saying that when a robber comes forth to steal what belongs to you, they are doing you a favour. Better include in there when a government comes along and takes your sons and daughters (whether they volunteer because the economy offers them no employment or they are drafted) to train them to kill other people overseas and they often get killed themselves into the bargain. Please folks, re-read Sunstein's words above and remember them well.

There are many conceited dupes out there who actually believe this stuff. We on the other hand postulate something quite different. Liberty, property and assets are what belong to each of us based on our own abilities to add value to society through GENUINE free trade, unregulated by any “authority.” Moreover, each human being has an INALIENABLE right to acquire by honest means, such property and assets as opportunity and need permit and to pass them along to whomever are deemed worthy by the donor, regardless of what anyone else may say in the matter.

Furthermore, it is accepted and granted as among the inalienable rights of mankind to personally be willing to defend what property, assets and liberty one has honestly acquired by force of arms if necessary. That too is what the Sunsteins of this world are about; for then, they can make their lies appear to be truth by monopoly of FORCE. Consequently expect that they will seek any means necessary to deprive you of your right to self protection by keeping and bearing arms.

In closing we notice how Sunstein twists sentiments and words in order to make subservience to government authority seem noble and civilized when it is in fact weak and snivelling. But what could one expect from one who might really honestly believe that liberty is slavery and the state is God?

David Burton