On Being Trampled Underfoot

Nowadays the individual feels about as empowered as someone waiting to be crushed underfoot by a dinosaur. See Figure 1 to appreciate that, once underfoot, the individual's fate is inevitable: crunch and grind. The dinosaur represents the power of the government and the trick is to avoid getting oneself into a situation where one is squished by an overwhelmingly more powerful adversary.

Figure 1: source

Communism by stealth is upon us and the jackboot of totalitarianism (to use a more 1984 metaphor) will quash all opposition. In Stalinist Russia and Maoist China, the citizens gave little thought to opposition and a lot of thought to survival. Stalin and Mao had no qualms about sacrificing millions of their citizens in the pursuit of various agendas and modern day governments are no different. Once that fact is accepted, survival strategies can be devised.

Our welfare is not the primary concern of governments, NGOs or health authorities. Our demise however, may be. There is no doubt that most governments would happily rid the population of anybody over the age 60 if they could get away with it. The global elite hope for an even greater cull of humanity. We should not assist them by complying with any of their directives. Run, hide, duck, weave and employ whatever measures are necessary to avoid compliance. Confronting the dinosaur head on will only lead to the situation depicted in Figure 1. 

The clearer our conception of the anatomy of the dinosaur, or power structure that confronts us, the better. It is important to maintain our equanimity and not give way to despair or rage. Despite our evasions, we may still get cornered and have nowhere to run. Then it is up to the individual as to how to react. Some will go down fighting and others will raise their hands in the air. The result will be the same. Ideally, we don't want to get cornered and knowing our enemy is our best defence.

The majority of our fellow citizens will do what they are told. Some will embrace their serfdom and assist the authorities in whatever ways they can. There is no room for dialog with these people and in fact it is best to cultivate a pretence of conformity in their presence, or at least a lack of hostility. Totalitarian regimes are expert at getting their own citizens to police non-conformists. 

This run and hide approach will not appeal to the more adversarial dissidents. So be it. I believe the battle is lost and maybe it was lost long ago when money lenders were allowed to charge interest on their loans. The increasing wealth of some versus the increasing poverty of the many led us to our present day situation where a tiny and enormously wealthy elite seemingly control the destiny of the planet. 

Let's return to our dinosaur metaphor. The dinosaurs, those mighty creatures that once ruled the world, are now extinct and so it will be with our mighty overlords of the present: BIG MONEY, BIG MEDICINE, BIG PHARMA, BIG GOVERNMENT. For now, as far as possible, we need to stay out of their way. What will lead to their extinction and when will it come to pass? Who knows? 

Figure 2: available at

When we do begin again, we must ensure that the so-called Sumerian Swindle does not gain a foothold again. It is probably in Sumeria that the practice of lending at interest began and the book referenced in Figure 2 gives a good account of that. I'm working my way through Volume 1 at the moment and it's proving very interesting. I don't know if Volumes 2 and 3 where ever written but I'll delve into that matter when I finish Volume 1.

Figure 3: source 

Twitter Alert

 I saw this article in my Twitter feed this morning. Figure 1 shows a screenshot.

Figure 1: screenshot from Twitter feed

I thought I'd follow the link attached as so I clicked on it, only to be greeted by the following Twitter warning shown in Figure 2:

Figure 2: screenshot of Twitter's warning

Knowledge is a dangerous thing and Twitter has recognised that if you go to this site you may become more knowledgeable! So what is on this potentially unsafe site? Here's the article's headline:

Land Dispossession and Imperialism Repackaged as ‘Feeding the World’

You can click on the link to read the full article but it concludes:

The web that global capitalism weaves in a quest to seek out new profits, capture new markets and control common resources (commonwealth) is destroying farmer livelihoods, the environment and health under the bogus claim of ‘feeding the world’. Those farmers who survive the profiteering strategies of dispossession and imperialism are to become incorporated into a system of contract farming dictated by global agri-food giants tied to an exploitative food regime based on market dependency and corporate control. A regime that places profit ahead of biodiverse food security, healthy diets and the environment.

There are some interesting links within the article: one is to a article in GRAINS, "a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems". The article is titled Barbarians at the barn: private equity sinks its teeth into agriculture. Here is an excerpt:

Private equity is only one class of investors taking control of assets in the food and agriculture sphere – from farmland to grain terminals to meat processing plants to food delivery – and transforming realities for farmers, fishers and workers. But it is a powerful class. Though its operations are opaque and barely accounted for, private equity as a sector has grown enormously since the 2008 financial crisis and is becoming more concentrated. It is also becoming increasingly present in the global South.

This trend is part of broader process by which the world of finance – banks, funds, insurance companies and the like – is gaining control over the real economy, including forests, watersheds and rural people's territories. This is called financialisation. Apart from uprooting communities and grabbing resources to entrench an industrial and export-oriented model of agriculture, it is shifting power to remote board rooms occupied by people with no connection to farming, much less local concerns, and who are merely in it to make money.

All of this is quite disturbing and part of an overarching plan to destroy small farmers and drive farmers off the land into smart cities or, if they remain, they remain as serfs. 

There is a good article in grain.org about the growing influence of RCEP:

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a proposed mega-trade agreement that involves 10 countries of Southeast Asia and six of their trading partners. If adopted, it will be the biggest trade deal in the world. RCEP will not just change rules on the export and import of goods and services; it will change how governments decide on rights to land and who has access to it. Therefore, it has the potential to increase land grabbing across Asia – already a huge problem in this region. The implications are far-reaching, with millions of farmers' and fisherfolks' livelihoods at stake in RCEP member countries where the population is struggling to feed itself.

Whether the mega-trade deal goes ahead or not, the trend seems unstoppable. The barbarians are indeed at the barn.