Love them.

I’ve studied ancient Rome and Greece on my journey to knowing myself.

It seems we have always been plagued by the tyranny of the one, the few, and the many.

The Plebeians have always had the Oligarch foot on their neck.

Making a fortune granted one access to power. 

But once, the best served the city and nation, but the traders gained the upper hand and they took control of this world.

Yes, they are our masters. 

One has to awaken to the reality that they are a slave, which is very difficult to accept.

Why is it there is no organized persistent resistance against the Oligarchs?

I had a dream that I organized many groups across the US to attack city halls with red paint and drop huge signs saying RESIST THE OLIGARCHS.

I suppose this was inspired by the recent youth movement protesting climate change by gluing themselves to major works of art.

My dream was youthful folly, but there is truth in it.

Powerful movements against the Oligarchs are quickly squashed. 

They do this best by having folks turn on each other and through patience.

Emotionally led movements will fade.

It is almost impossible to resist the Oligarchs directly.

Almost.

They can’t get inside your head and heart unless you let them.

One must quiet the storm around them first and then they have to learn to listen and see clearly.

This is one reason I study the ancients and practice the spiritual exercises they bequeathed to us.

The Oligarchs have thousands of years on their side, which has allowed them to organize and dig in. 

They have an iron grip on all of us.

It pissed me off. 

I feel stuck in a world I don’t recognize or want to accept. 

This doesn’t feel like home. 

This is far from the Garden. 

I just feel to get back to the Garden, but I know I can’t.

I think the sixties Diggers had it right and that bioregionalism is one of the best ways forward.

https://diggersdocs.org/2020/09/16/peter-berg-of-the-san-francisco-diggers/

Some of the Oligarchs want to reduce the population to a manageable size. 

They are monsters and anti-human.

They are behind most of our current divisions.

They know how to take advantage of our weaknesses.

Did I say this pissed me off?!

You really can’t believe a thing out there unless you can sniff out the gold. 

The gold is real and it is out there and in here.

It requires us to become golden to see it. 

The real gold is within ourselves.

There has rarely been a leader who truly served the polis, the people, who resisted the Oligarchs, who could trick them, but if you look with golden eyes, you can see them.

I confess that everyone has a price, even me. 

That I have compromised myself. 

It wasn’t until my 40s I woke up to love and then it was too late to resist. 

I have written for the last 5 years here and there, which has been a kind of resistance, but to no attention really.

I saw how distracted most were and I held my line. 

And it was a good line. 

And it has born fruit in my life and in those around me.

I realized I couldn’t get back to the Garden now, so I’d cultivate a verdant garden wherever I went.

I became a walking garden.

I think Philip K. Dick had something.

He was able to cross borders.

He wasn’t insane, well, he was at times.

He was a seer and prophet.

He questioned the nature of being and was deeply suspicious of power.

He could guess the plans of power and they didn’t know how he did it.

Seers walk the line of insanity and may often even cross over into it.

To wake yourself up takes extreme focus and commitment to know thyself.

You ready to go?

I’m ready to go. 

Part of me hated this world, despised it’s deception, wanted to burn it all down, but instead I saw I hated myself most, my limitation, so I burned myself up into a pile of ashes.

I self immolated myself to know my self.

In doing this I was born again and gained a freedom of a kind.

The best part of me says, love them anyway.

Love this world and you redeem it. 

Love yourself and the least of us as yourself. 

Only then can you overcome power’s hold on you, by overcoming yourself.

It is counterintuitive to not fight those who enslave you.

He who is free is never alone. 

When we are young, we have the power and beauty of the gods, only for the briefest time. 

The war is for their attention.

They are the prey they feed upon. 

Old farts like me are ignored. 

But sometimes us old ones can reach the young ones. 

I am always on the look out for human beings, as Diogenes was. 

And when I find one, I give them all I have to offer, which is just a finger pointing back at ourselves.

That’s my destiny. 

This is just a cry from an ole smelly goat into the night.

Who has heard me?

Father! The sleeper has awakened!