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The Strange, and Very Political, Death of Hope
Hope is indispensable in public and private life. I don’t mean brainless optimism in the face of facts. I mean hope that finds a way to persist in honest awareness of how bad things are.
Take the economy. Everyone knows that the disaster of 2008, which has clearly not gone away, had nothing to do with excess government spending. It had/has to do with other things: loss of good jobs; wage stagnation; jumps in consumer debt to cover the losses; “financialization”; fraud; greed; lack of oversight — blah blah blah. Any rise in deficits came mainly from bailouts to banks, or needless warmaking. The point is: The catastrophe had/has no connection to government social or economic spending. Yet the only solutions proposed everywhere are public spending cuts.
Ordinary people know, or sense, that this is stupid. Even in the U.S., a poll this year found only 20 per cent thought deficit reduction validated cuts in pensions or medicare. Only 25 per cent would reduce education spending to balance the budget. Even public support to the arts had majority support. They have their heads screwed on; they know where the real problems are and aren’t.
But — and here’s where hope comes in, or flies out the door — governments slash anyway. Not just in crisis cases like Greece, Portugal and Spain. But in the U.S., U.K. and here, as we’re told to expect in next week’s budget. Please note that in many cases these pointless, unwarranted cuts are made by “left” governments. The three European governments all have “socialist” in their names. Barack Obama has joined the attack in the U.S.
What will the effect on people be? Cuts that they know are unjustified, and probably damaging, and which they often explicitly voted against — will be made. What is the point of voting, or even bothering to think about these matters? This is how hope in public participation dies, or is killed off.
Let me note a special Canadian role in this hopicide. I’m thinking of Paul Martin, finance minister in the Liberal Chrétien government of the 1990s. The Liberals rose to power promising to reconsider free trade, end the GST and give the country universal child care. They did none. Instead they focused obsessively on ending the deficit by slashing public programs. Martin went from year to year and program to program like one of the manic unsubs on Criminal Minds. At the end there was no hope left for government activity. When he finally became prime minister and tried to compensate with a bit of child care, it was hopelessly late. The voters turned him out.
Recently the Mercatus Center in the U.S. hailed Martin a hero and urged their own leaders to emulate him. In case you aren’t familiar with Mercatus, it’s a right wing think-tank funded by the far-right Koch brothers and dedicated to ending government activity wherever possible, including limits on truckers’ hours and on arsenic in drinking water. This will be Martin’s legacy: verbal monuments erected with right-wing U.S. money to the death of public hope.
Where do people turn when leaders and parties that promised to do what seemed to make sense, betray them? Either to despair or to themselves. That often means: into the streets, where the battles for democracy and justice frequently began. Take the encampments of “los indignados” in Spain. Who are they indignant at? The greedy rich, obviously. But also their gutless, lying, “left wing” politicians. Their manifestos basically demand that those parties do what they said they would: protect workers and academic freedom, extend social benefits, use non-nuclear energy, create proportional representation, etc.
What are their odds of success? Well, Spain does have a great anarchist (i.e., leaderless) tradition with many achievements. But eventually, at this stage of human evolution, you probably have to turn back to institutions of government, flawed as they are (like other flawed but seemingly unavoidable institutions: medicine, teaching, journalism . . .) Still, as a way to go, it beats those alternatives, apathy and despair.
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Show AllIt's all very well to ask what became of hope, but I find I need a deeper view of the situation, and very few people have given me one, with the exception of Derrick Jensen. He says "Fuck hope". Until we get over the limited, naive view that something other than direct democracy is going to give us what we need, this is just more hand-wringing about leaders who have never intended to serve anyone other than their benefactors in the first place.
So you have hope that direct democracy is our only salvation. That and nothing else. It's a lot to hope for.
zeofredo seriously need to familiarize himself with the well proven and practiced theories of Bernays and Lippman. Becasue, assuming the corporate media consensus-manufacturing industry remains intact, direct democracy would be an unmitigated disaster.
The author writes: "unavoidable institutions: medicine, teaching, journalism" as of journalists are essential today. Likewise, pjd412 talks about the control of mass media turning any kind of direct democracy into a disaster (because the demos has been poisoned by commercial propaganda).
If our demos has been poisoned by propaganda, why insist that this same toxic industry will be with us any longer than nuclear power plants or ocean-floor oil drilling?
We can only go extinct once, so I doubt these things will be around in two generations... for whichever reason - citizen action or socio-political collapse.
"...as if journalists are essential today." Okay qatzelok, how interesting. It's either journalists or its the rumor mill. I'll take vetted information anytime over rumor and blather. In my neck of the woods we have two newspapers and only one journalist...one journalist. The guy is overworked and his "to do list" is beyond next year. He is the only source of accurate balanced information in the county, everyone else speaks for their own self interest, just like most bloggers do. I don't know what area of the cave you live in but in our area we appreciate a hard working local journalist.
I have to change my name with Common Dreams because I don't think democracy is really what we need. Under democracy 49% of us have no say. The majority rules. And many of our citizens are poorly informed and easily swayed by TV to vote as directed. Our votes are not correctly counted. We vote on computers that can be (and have been) programed to give false results.
We have way too many laws and way too much 'security' (police force) We have lost our freedom. There really only needs to be one rule of behavior. Treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. We need a moral and ethical revival in our nation. Money is not the measure of all.
Our problem is really economic. Our Constitution says the money supply and the value of the money shall be in the control of the Congress. Instead of that, we have the Federal Reserve (a group of private for profit banks) in control our our money. Our government has to borrow money from these bastards and pay them interest. In the years since the Federal Reserve Act was passed (by a very few Representatives late on the last day before the Christmas holidays); the wealth of our nation has been taken by the bankers. They own it all. The people only have debt.
The collapse of our economy was caused by the bankers. Now these bankers will buy up everything left and the working people will have nothing. With these ill gotten gains the bankers have already purchased our Congress. What passes for 'democracy' in Washington D.C. is really against the wishes of the vast majority of our citizens.
In my town a family of four was found dead in their home. Both parents had lost their jobs and were in debt and were being foreclosed on. Not able to face being homeless, they chose death.
As long as the Federal Reserve controls our money supply we will all be in danger of facing that choice ourselves. We need Congress to follow the Constitution on this matter of the money supply and on who has the power to declare wars.
The bankers are in charge of everything and this must be rectified. I fear that we can not do this through our elected officials. They don't heed our voice. It is time to rebel and change our government. We must rise up and force this change. No body can do it for us. We must rise together and fight back against the bankers.
I have to change my name with Common Dreams because I don't think democracy is really what we need. Under democracy 49% of us have no say. The majority rules. And many of our citizens are poorly informed and easily swayed by TV to vote as directed. Our votes are not correctly counted. We vote on computers that can be (and have been) programed to give false results.
We have way too many laws and way too much 'security' (police force) We have lost our freedom. There really only needs to be one rule of behavior. Treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. We need a moral and ethical revival in our nation. Money is not the measure of all.
Our problem is really economic. Our Constitution says the money supply and the value of the money shall be in the control of the Congress. Instead of that, we have the Federal Reserve (a group of private for profit banks) in control our our money. Our government has to borrow money from these bastards and pay them interest. In the years since the Federal Reserve Act was passed (by a very few Representatives late on the last day before the Christmas holidays); the wealth of our nation has been taken by the bankers. They own it all. The people only have debt.
The collapse of our economy was caused by the bankers. Now these bankers will buy up everything left and the working people will have nothing. With these ill gotten gains the bankers have already purchased our Congress. What passes for 'democracy' in Washington D.C. is really against the wishes of the vast majority of our citizens.
In my town a family of four was found dead in their home. Both parents had lost their jobs and were in debt and were being foreclosed on. Not able to face being homeless, they chose death.
As long as the Federal Reserve controls our money supply we will all be in danger of facing that choice ourselves. We need Congress to follow the Constitution on this matter of the money supply and on who has the power to declare wars.
The bankers are in charge of everything and this must be rectified. I fear that we can not do this through our elected officials. They don't heed our voice. It is time to rebel and change our government. We must rise up and force this change. No body can do it for us. We must rise together and fight back against the bankers.
Derrick Jensen on hope:
"But it isn’t only false hopes that keep those who go along enchained. It is hope itself. Hope, we are told, is our beacon in the dark. It is our light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. It is the beam of light that makes its way into our prison cells. It is our reason for persevering, our protection against despair (which must be avoided at all costs). How can we continue if we do not have hope?
We’ve all been taught that hope in some future condition—like hope in some future heaven—is and must be our refuge in current sorrow. I’m sure you remember the story of Pandora. She was given a tightly sealed box and was told never to open it. But, being curious, she did, and out flew plagues, sorrow, and mischief, probably not in that order. Too late she clamped down the lid. Only one thing remained in the box: hope. Hope, the story goes, was the only good the casket held among many evils, and it remains to this day mankind’s sole comfort in misfortune. No mention here of action being a comfort in misfortune, or of actually doing something to alleviate or eliminate one’s misfortune.
The more I understand hope, the more I realize that all along it deserved to be in the box with the plagues, sorrow, and mischief; that it serves the needs of those in power as surely as belief in a distant heaven; that hope is really nothing more than a secular way of keeping us in line.
Hope is, in fact, a curse, a bane. I say this not only because of the lovely Buddhist saying “Hope and fear chase each other’s tails,” not only because hope leads us away from the present, away from who and where we are right now and toward some imaginary future state. I say this because of what hope is.
More or less all of us yammer on more or less endlessly about hope. You wouldn’t believe—or maybe you would—how many magazine editors have asked me to write about the apocalypse, then enjoined me to leave readers with a sense of hope. But what, precisely, is hope? At a talk I gave last spring, someone asked me to define it. I turned the question back on the audience, and here’s the definition we all came up with: hope is a longing for a future condition over which you have no agency; it means you are essentially powerless.
I’m not, for example, going to say I hope I eat something tomorrow. I just will. I don’t hope I take another breath right now, nor that I finish writing this sentence. I just do them. On the other hand, I do hope that the next time I get on a plane, it doesn’t crash. To hope for some result means you have given up any agency concerning it. Many people say they hope the dominant culture stops destroying the world. By saying that, they’ve assumed that the destruction will continue, at least in the short term, and they’ve stepped away from their own ability to participate in stopping it.
I do not hope coho salmon survive. I will do whatever it takes to make sure the dominant culture doesn’t drive them extinct. If coho want to leave us because they don’t like how they’re being treated—and who could blame them?—I will say goodbye, and I will miss them, but if they do not want to leave, I will not allow civilization to kill them off.
When we realize the degree of agency we actually do have, we no longer have to “hope” at all. We simply do the work. We make sure salmon survive. We make sure prairie dogs survive. We make sure grizzlies survive. We do whatever it takes.
When we stop hoping for external assistance, when we stop hoping that the awful situation we’re in will somehow resolve itself, when we stop hoping the situation will somehow not get worse, then we are finally free—truly free—to honestly start working to resolve it. I would say that when hope dies, action begins."
New slogan for the Obama reelection: "The Death of Hope"
Good one, how the truth hurts!
As someone said last week, the slogan is likely to be "it could be worse" and Obama will re-elected not because people have hope (yes, that's dead) but fear of the worse (which never seems to die).
Maybe the new Obama campaign slogan should be "This is as good as it gets, America." And the fear of the greater evil has always been with us. From the bear in the cave to the shadows in the night, so we invent fire. The first thing needed is light. Lots of light to scatter the cockroaches and sterlize the area is a good thing. Take advantage of the freedom of information act and get as many documents as you can from local, state and federal governments. Let the sunshine in.
rhb
Lets be careful not to leave our spiritual, mental and psychological welfare to the government as well as our physical welfare.
Remember they can take our lives, but not our freedom. Hope is not something that relies on food and shelter and health, food, shelter and health relies on hope.
Hope is a belief and a commitment that you will do all you can to provide these needs to yourself and those in your community not matter the odds.
The odds, oddly enough are that the government is now going to try to take these needs from us to govern rather than secure them for us to govern.
They are making these decisions based upon their community, the ultra greedy wealthy, the ultra greedy corporate, and all their people in the world. We the people they are going to take from to do this should never place our hope in them. It is never a natural law to do this. Don't even think about it.
I have all the hope in the world for us, the people and it has nothing to do with the government that is not at this point in time behaving as a part of us nor securing our welfare, as was their sworn solemn duty, any more.
We, as history has proven, must secure our welfare again for ourselves and we may not need to put a new government in place ever again. Times have changed, it's time to change.
Yes they can take our freedom. They already have. Many rights like the 1,4,5 are gone. And you should look at the executive orders and see how much more they can take. FEMA CAMPS.
"Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always To be Blest."
-- Alexander Pope
I don't recall which poster has made the link between the failure of nations, of all political hues, and the CONTROL of, by, and for capital. In other words, whether we term it socialism, capitalism, or any other ism, MONEY rules.
Thirty years ago one could purchase a nice home in the U.S. for about $50,000 (plus or minus). Generally one income covered the family's expenses. Cars could be gotten for about $6000. Today, all of these items have more than tripled, while incomes for most have not. Thus many are in debt bondage, and most families send both parents off to work in the attempt to make ends meet.
Add to this fiscal equation the rising costs of fuel, medical services, and increasingly, food, and the scene is set to give MONEY inordinate power over all of our lives. Humanitarian objectives used to mitigate this factor... not much anymore! The ending of welfare, the upping of the ante on militarism, the huge numbers of persons employed by the MIC, the "tough on crime," programs, and "Zero tolerance" programs, and YOY message relayed through media, 24/7... it all has intentionally broken down the social web (or networks) of much of what was beginning to move towards a more just and cohesive society.
Europe, dependent on loans from the same nefarious institutions lending to the U.S., has also become beholden to what the big money interests want... in spite of their more splendid recent socialistic histories and public programs.
Chris Hedges has written about what in his view constitutes the sell-out of so-called liberal institutions. It is important to recognize that as costs continued to rise parabolically, each of these halls of academe, was forced to make some deals with the (corporate) devil.
Systems like the universal time bank, barter, or even state owned banks (and a national one, to replace the Fed), might help to work around the otherwise diabolical choke-hold that capital maintains over individuals, and nation-states, alike. Until humanity can transcend rule by Mammon (and Mars), regardless of the political system in place, the love of money--as the root of all evil--will work its deadly wonders.
Nicely stated, Siouxrose.
Money rules?!? I thought you always said Mars rules! But you make the case well here. Way back when a subset of the hippie-radicals, the Diggers, tried to advance a no money way of life, but it was hard to sustain without a source of income. It was a nice idea and a lot of us tried our best to go along with it as much as possible, but like hippieism itself, it couldn't sustain.
The commercialization of everything that can possibly be commercialized (can a "breatheable air use fee" be far off?) is at the heart of the big picture problem.
P.P: Follow my logic IF you can come along for the ride.
In the Chinese I Ching (one of the oldest prophetic oracles), it all begins with the first kua (a/k/a hexagram), referred to as the Supreme Yang. Number one, numero uno, etc.
So #1 in the I ching, Yang, is actually completely resonant with the first principle in astrology, which is Aries, the sign of spring (and life awakening) and ruled by Mars. The zodiac's "numero uno," with an ego to prove it!
VERY often I speak of the need for balance, of the intended HOLY and equally holistic Divine partnership as written into the heavens. "As above, so below" style. It is built upon a balanced relationship, true partnership, between the archetypal expressions of Venus and Mars. They are reflections of life's DNA and quintessential blueprint.
The I ching's 2nd hexagram happens to be Yin: The Supreme Feminine. And this, too, parallels the logic behind astrology as the 2nd sign is Taurus, a feminine/Yin sign that's ruled by Venus.
The pairing of Yin and Yang, Venus and Mars, signifies the sacred conjunctio; and through the union of both, life arises and retains the means to sustain itself.
What happens when Mars lords power over Venus, rather than accepts her as a partner? In my view, that first break in the fabric set forth the conditions that gave way to all other forms of hierarchy.
Often in this forum I have explained that the inversion of Mars, instead of acting as the intended partner to Venus and PRESERVER of life, becomes its destroyer. That's where US militarism and my chant, "Mars rules," comes into play. The priorities behind the U.S. budget lends plenty of evidence to that contention.
I have also explained that the reciprocal inversion of Venus--as ruler of Taurus, the Zodiac sign of real estate, money, and banking, brings to mind the dangers contingent upon the love of money. Therefore, the inverted Venus expresses as "Mammon rules."
Our society, and I have pointed this out on C.D. on various occasions, bears the result of this UNHOLY marriage. Both principles have been inverted in service to destructive, to the point of diabolical ends. Distortions of Divine Law lead to, as Yogananda termed it, dissolution of the very fabric of life, i.e. the living world. We certainly ARE experiencing those ramifications now. Can it be turned around? Is there enough higher consciousness at play? This is where the inversion of the 3rd principle, Mercury, and control of the presses to relay so much false information, also comes into play.
WAYNE & TONY V: If either of you returns to this thread, this explanation might shed some light on the earlier question relevant to life's continuity.
DONNY DON: Thank you.
"When hope is lost, there is still revenge."
Aragorn
hope is not needed for success.
perseverance is.
William the Silent
your translation is likely more accurate - mine was a lazy paraphrasing from memory.
I've since looked it up:
'hoop is niet nodig om te volharden'
'hope is not needed to persist'
I save my hope for the weather.
Turns out that when you vote for "Hope!", that's what you get - and all you get.
I'm more concerned about the powers corporate America is amassing, thanks to the Citizens' United decision of the Supremes. Meanwhile, companies like GE haven't actually paid a cent in federal taxes for years.
Thus, the new slogan might be: "No representation without taxation."
If we're going to let them openly buy elections in this country, at least tax the hell out of the bastards.
A more appropriate phrase may be NO REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION. Those corporations provided protection by the Pentagon protection racket scheme of fund US, the Pentagon, for protection or else. The purpose of the Pentagon is to secure and protect the worldwide resources and assets of the CORPORATE WELFARE KINGS, many of which pay no USG taxes and are still protected. Al Capone would not provide protection to those that didn't pay for it. Al was an ethical gangster. The Wall St., Wash., DC Axis of Evil,AoE, is a criminal conspiracy funded by the forced contributions, withholding taxes, by taxing labor and transferring it to the AoE. The funding is used for unethical gangsterism by the AoE against the world, including the USA. The USG is a criminal organization of unethical gangsterism.
Elected politicians do not do what voters seem to want them to do. The solution of course is that voters should change out their politicians and keeping doing so until this disconnect is fixed. Voters, however, do not do so. It appears that the minimal effort it takes to determine whether the actual policies that politicians advocate (as opposed to what they say they advocate) match up with our beliefs is more than most voters can be bothered with. People say, "But what can we do?" Simple: Vote, but don't vote for a Republican or a Democrat. Can you *imagine* the fear of the establishment if third parties got so much as 20% of the vote?
"The solution of course is that voters should change out their politicians"
Of course? Why not change to direct democracy and NO POLITICIANS?
"But what can we do?" Simple: Vote, but don't vote for a Republican or a Democrat. Can you *imagine* the fear of the establishment if third parties got so much as 20% of the vote?"
That would be great. Now get down off your cloud and give us a solution that doesn't involve getting thrown in a gulag.
It would be great and it has happened in places like Germany where the Greens emerged as third party and fought along, with or without hope, until they became part of a coalition government and, just recently, saw their struggle come to fruition: the nation decided to backpedal on its nuclear energy industry.
My plan for our general election is to vote out of power anybody who stands in the way of us getting healthcare (even the unsatisfactory one we were given by Obama, as opposed to the Single Payer Option he should have defended agains the GOPpies)
Hope and Change!
Was the election cry,
generic happy thoughts,
but now you have no hope of change,
aren't you glad of a country bought?
Death to the children,
death to the world,
power over all that's left is sought,
and they smile at you all the time,
aren't you glad of a country bought?
And when all is done,
after their lethal fun
with your kids and family,
they've just saved the best to last
as they come for you and me.
God save money,
god save oil,
god save coal and nukes and greed
welcome to the glorious age of sponsored non-thought,
aren't you glad of a country bought?
Hope has been completely bought off and there's no Change.
Hope is the premonition of regret.
I can't wait to see the Obama 2012 campaign slogans. Let me put on my Machiavellian thinking cap. Ah, here are some possible Obama talking points for the new campaign:
* "Four years ago, I said I was going to kill Osama bin Laden. And I kept that promise to you. Now, you'll just have to trust me 'cause I don't have the pictures to prove it. But what we did was we broke into his house, shot him in the face, burned the body and dumped the ashes in the Indian Ocean. Now if that isn't security and due process, what is?"
* "I promised you healthcare reform while continuing to put food on the tables of the families of our dear friends, the insurance companies. Now, I know some of you wanted that other kind of healthcare. I heard you. I heard you so much that I had to tell you to shut up about it (nervous laughter), but the thing that makes this country great is that we can all pull together as one great big American family - or one great big insurance company. This is America!"
* "You know FDR once said, 'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.' Words to live by, and you're living with them now as we speak. As I look out on you now - this sea of faces...I see the great diversity that is America. And our scanners see you too. Right now. Yes, right now your scanned faces are going though an FBI database to look for criminal elements, just like we did during the Superbowl, only bigger! And if you have nothing to fear, then there is no fear. Not only do we have visual and satellite records, receipts, supermarket checkout databases, drivers license fingerprinting, birth records, entire CSI labs looking through your trash, plus protest movement infiltrators, we've also tapped the phones across this great land without warrant. As Ben Franklin once said, 'Those who will give up a little liberty for security, well, they will get the best technology in the end.' And you've got it." (applause)
* It was not too long ago that I was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize by the august Nobel Committee in Sweden. And, you know, Alfred Nobel, the founder of that prize, well he was the inventor of gun powder. Imagine that. Well, you don't have to imagine much because I've sent our brightest and best to Afghanistan to curb Al Qaida and maybe kill Osama bin Laden when they get the chance to do so. And yes, thanks to you, the people of Afghanistan (and Pakistan) sleep better at night hearing our drones carve freedom zones over their children's heads. Look, I've said it before when I was a senator. I am not opposed to all wars. That's a fact. Not only am I not opposed to all wars, I am really really supportive of all wars too.
* Now, some of you are saying, 'Where are all of the jobs?' Well, I'll tell you where they are. They're in Mexico, Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam. And when I get through with this trade deal in Korea, there will be American jobs in Korea too. You see, Americans always have this hope and know-how to get through the tough times. Don't tell me that Americans can't out-compete the lowest paid Chinese worker caught in a suicide-prevention net. That's what makes this nation so strong. And really, if you wanted something different, you'd have to make me do it. Tell Goldman Sachs to get out of your way. I know we can do it, with a few American greenbacks. Yes, yes we can. Thank you. God bless. And good night."
"...Life begins on the other side of despair" (Sartre/Being and Nothingness.)
Sartre's existential summation about where Hope might lie sounds very profound, but since he never escaped his own pessimism (according to his diary), how would he know, really?
Obviously, he had to have some kind inner affirmation, however hidden from his daily awareness, to even pick up his pen and write .
I might even trust Sartre's self-shadowed Hope, had he not during the last quarter of his life lived mostly on and fed his brain largely by fatty French pastries and the inhalations of cheap Turkish cigarettes.
I can understand the fatty French pastries, maybe -- but the cheap Turkish cigarettes.were a big mistake.
Higher grade.and lighter French cigarettes probably would've meant a world of difference..
Next subject?
.
You know I read Being & Nothingness once. I never understood it though until recently. I had a massive heart attack two yrs. ago and my heart stopped and I had to be resuscitated with electrical shock. My Dr. a few weeks afterwards asked me if I saw or felt anything during that period and I said no. I had always believed in an afterlife and had even almost died once before and had to be revived by a shot of adrenline into my heart at age 9 when I had double pnemonia. That time I saw the proverbial light at the end of a long tunnel experience so many say they see and felt a sense of peace. Not the last time though. Just Nothingness, till another shot awoke me. If thats our fate why worry? You won't know about it anyway. Enjoy this dream of life in the mean time and try not to take it to seriously. I have feeling we all might be some kind of elaborate experiment some alien species is running or a very sophisticated program in some kind of huge simulation. Maybe, reality itself is just that a program being run by someone or some group. The very fact that we have never encountered any other life or had any known contact with any extraterrestrial life is of itself kind of odd don't u think?
I have hope.
Everything seems to be spiraling out of control. The powers that be, (TPTB) , have seemed to double down or triple down their efforts to take control - total control - of the masses (that would be us). Alas! But, there is always blowback. You may call it "what goes around comes around" or even "Cast your bread upon the waters and after many days it returns to you" Whatever.
It's like a rubber band stretched tightly. The more tightly it is stretched, the worse the rebound effect on the "stretcher" (whang). TPTB are about to be whanged. but good.
Our dear friend, Sioux Rose, has recently commented on a book which is high on my list: "Phoenix Rising" by Mary Summer Rain. - Hampton Roads
It is a book of prophasies from about 1982 given by an indian woman known as no-eyes that are as current as today's news.
I do not know what is going on here. Everything I try to write reverts back to something else I have already written. TPTB? I dunno.