©William Kentridge

"[...] the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you [...]" Character V, from V for Vendetta

Yes, V is right. There is something terribly wrong with this country - and this could be referring to almost any country on the globe, since Pathocracy has taken global control. It actually makes sense for psychopaths to act as they do as such is their nature. But what about the rest of us? How is it that "fear got the best of us", and why is it that a paralyzing fear descends upon us when we consider resisting? Why is it that thoughts of "them" coming for us and locking us away, overshadow our truest human desires for Freedom, Love, Truth?

How can anybody be sure of anything in this day and time when the world seems to have gone mad and we find ourselves collectively in the position of the hero/heroine of the horror movie who hears a noise. Indeed, the audience can see that the monster is lurking in the bushes (no pun intended) just outside the door, the soundtrack is heavy with ominous portent, and with innocent naïveté and a handy flashlight, the star of the movie puts his or her hand on the doorknob. The audience groans with the agony of knowing and collectively shouts "DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!" But, unfortunately, the movie world is not connected to the world of the audience, and no warning can cross that divide.

In the old days, movie heroes and heroines generally always survived such mistakes by dint of clever scripting. In more recent years, you can never be sure anymore: the hero or heroine is likely to die - reflecting real life - because of their stupidity.

©unknown

Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition

I happened to catch the hilarious Monty Python sketch from the 1970s and its famous catch-phrase got me thinking. With all that's happening in the West today, is nobody expecting another Spanish Inquisition, or something like it?

©Doug Mills/The New York Times

Reading the news lately, there certainly appears to be an unusual amount of activity in many different spheres of power and influence. The Principle players seem to be moving in unison and orchestrating events in rapid succession, as if following a schedule.

They may think they're doing it slowly enough that no one will notice (knowing the lead time they have) - and they're almost correct - most people don't notice - but then there are those who do notice... those keeping the sott.net lighthouse lit.

So, it seems that, at this present moment, it has become necessary to try to block the lighthouse beam with internet search engine suppression and myriad other tricks such as silly lawsuits - good thing that light is rather like water in that it will always find a way out of enclosed places - the smallest hairline crack is all that's needed; and once it's out, you can't get it back in.

Let's see what light filters through the cracks once we begin to connect some interesting recent dots...

In response to my last article, Letters From The Edge, which included a recent missive from Victor Clube, author of The Cosmic Serpent and The Cosmic Winter, I stated:

We aren't talking about a giant asteroid here that is going to create a global wave of firestorm destruction like the movies depict! It's not Planet X or Nibiru! It's NOT the End of the World (at least not for everybody, but certainly for those who aren't prepared and happen to be in the line of fire!) But yeah, it might be somewhat like the Black Death with the loss of half the population of one or more continents, or the great Chicago Fire or Tunguska or even all of these rolled into one; but all of those events were survivable had the victims been informed and prepared. Yes, there are those who, even had they been informed and prepared would not have survived in any case, but we choose the optimistic path: Knowledge Protects. And we are trying our hardest to give you that knowledge.

One reader commented on the article as follows:

What I've picked up so far is that the formation of true community where people share perspective, information, knowledge and material resources such as pooled labor and the fruits of such (cash) is one of the main ways that persons can create the situation where they can survive such a cosmic disaster. Knowledge of what's really happening being another--which among other potential benefits, prevents paralyzing fear and panic--enabling persons to Think in real time as some thing happens. Therefore, sharing and spreading knowledge of what's really happening to encourage greater awareness and the formation of such community groups being another.

Would you please write an article/articles where you share other ideas/suggestions on how to survive such a possible/probable cosmic event as described?

Needless to say, we all need to help SOTT stay online for such an article to come out.

I'm trying to get there.

Today I'm going to write a letter; a letter to all our readers. I'm also going to include a transcript of a very interesting letter SOTT.net has received from Prof. Victor Clube. I hope that these letters will change your life, your future, and mine as well.

Here at SOTT.net, we have been pretty busy working on our legal defense, as if you couldn't guess! I'm sure that everyone notices that we are nowhere near our goal for having enough funds to cover this expense. All of you just remember, if 1,000 people can donate $100.00 each, we are in the clear. If 2,000 people donate $50 each, we are in the clear. And certainly, with over 10,000 of you reading this site every day, we ought to be able to do that!

Just keep in mind what you would be missing if we were gone! Who else would spend days, weeks, months and even years digging down to the deepest levels of our reality to bring you reports and analyses of what is really going on? After all, it is not just a matter of the political chaos out there; there are cosmic reasons for that chaos and historical cycles demonstrate clearly that times such as these generally manifest other symptoms that we all need to be aware of. For example...

The archetypal Palestinian father and child - courtesy of Israel

3rd of March. Palestine. Occupied territory. Another day of carnage and Israeli atrocities against Palestinians.

Another day of trying to keep the emotions of outrage below the neck, because judging from acquaintances' responses and comments to Gideon Levy's article in Haaretz, "self-hating Jews" like us are "the cancer of the state that weaken Israelis from within until they are finally destroyed" and should be tried for treason, found guilty and shot by a firing squad. Interesting to notice that this is a typical deviant behavior: to accuse others of what you are yourself.

It is dangerous to express sympathy toward Palestinians when the whole country is intoxicated with murderous solidarity and calling for a complete annihilation of the "devious and heartless animals who's mothers send their children to act as human shields, while Israeli children wet in the bed in fear of hearing another 'Color Red' alert". Poor Israeli babies and Ashkelon citizens, who suffer from anxiety attacks while Palestinians die like flies. Because clearly their lives cost much less than the lives of the brave and moral residents of the "only safe place for Jews".

©Signs of the Times

My last contribution to the Blogosphere must have been pretty scary. Geeze! You shoulda seen my mail! People going bananas and writing "what to do? what to do!?"

Well, this one's not going to be any better. But let me say in advance that today's particular collection of items will lead us to a certain point of hope which I wish to elucidate at the end.

The UK government is desperately trying to rescue a large UK mortgage lender while the Federal Reserve is secretly funding US banks to keep them afloat. The collapse of the international banking system is imminent. For the elite it will be a bonanza while for the rest of us it spells a return to servitude in a feudal society.

©Unknown

Noble Martyrs were likely just Uppity Women

Communicative Behaviors, Witchcraft Accusations, and European Women in Late Medieval and Early Modern Periods

Abstract
This literature review investigates the relationship between a woman's communicative behaviors and the likelihood of her being accused as a witch in various regions of Europe from 1350 to 1650 a.d. This paper uncovers how women were expected to communicate during this period and what sort of deviation from this normative communicative behavior was present in those ultimately accused of witchcraft. The environmental and socioeconomic changes in Europe, as well as religious factors and the history of witchcraft that influenced the communicative behaviors of women in this period are reviewed.