The Whistles of Revolution

At the moment we have an evil witch and everyone knows she's evil but nobody dares to confront her. Edward Snowden's actions didn't only show the extent of the illegal American global surveillance but also clearly proved that the United States of America are not a partner of dialogue, instead they demand and the rest must deliver. This is exactly what happens when too much power is concentrated in the hands of a few, leads to abuses and corruption. Thanks to Snowden we know which governments bow down to threats and what governments stand up for their people and for principles like justice and liberty. Sadly the outcome is far from the expected one.

"On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic 'wheeling and dealing' over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the president ordered his vice president to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions. This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me." - Edward Snowden

This is not the first time when Obama lied in the most brutal and disgusting manner. Related only to this case I would like to remind you about a time when he ran for office under his "Change" motto and among all the points he had a "Project Whistleblower", what could that be?

"Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process. " - Barack Hussein Obama campaign

As it turns out, yet again, Obama apparently underwent a fundamental shift in his consciousness once he saw himself in the Oval Office, could he be suffering from multiple personalities and only now his evil twin took control or is he a look-alike propped by the financial ruling elite?

For me, the fact that the NSA, CIA, FBI (and the rest) are going through incredible amounts of data snooped from unsuspecting citizens didn't came as a shock (in Communist countries it was normal), what actually shocked me was that Snowden revealed to the American nation that they are one of the main targets of this surveillance program and no mass protests are being planned. This is exactly the case of totalitarian and autocratic states where the governing "elite" consider themselves to be superior from the rest of the people and in many ways have reasons to fear them.  But this surely can't be the case... America is the land of liberty and justice for all, the birthplace of modern democracy, the land of the free,  the last bastion of humanity, the human rights protector, the policeman of the world... such bullshit. I recommend we take Obama's example and while reading thing like "land of liberty and justice" understand "cesspit of prisons and injustice", and "land of the free" consider it as "land of the sheeple".

European media and some European politicians have begun making waves over this scandal after evidence that EU diplomats have been (are) under NSA surveillance. I don't know if they are acting freely and truthfully or are just acting in order to show that they are doing something and in this way tempering popular reaction. Just like in totalitarian systems, where the few need to control the many,  the few in charge of America have to know that their European colleagues are eating from their hands, meaning that they can be blackmailed.

When Snowden arrived in the Moscow airport and the US began pressures on Russia to hand him over and Putin gently refused, I immediately came out and supported Putin over his position, funny enough, even his opposition gave him credit for that. However, Putin's condition for Snowden that he will be permited to stay in Russia if he stops harming America (a declaration that came after Rafael Correa said the ball is in Putin's court) is disappointing but also intriguing.

I would like to end with a quote:

“No matter how many more days my life contains, I remain dedicated to the fight for justice in this unequal world." - Edward Snowden

We are with you Snowden, you fight in our name and we will not forget and we will not forgive.

ORWELL, George - 1984 [Utopian Dystopia]

If you haven't read 1984, you should, it's the novel that gave us terms like "Big Brother" and "Orwellian", in fact, reading and understanding the book is a sign of mental maturity in this brave new world. [Previously] In Equilibrium we had control through religion, drugs, lack of emotions and total submission, in "Brave New World" there was an extreme example of social change, shockingly resembling modern day "homo mallus" in a constant search for mindless happiness and infantile group behavior, now we will be talking about the uber-dystopia.

Perpetual war, perpetual surveillance,  scarcity of basic goods, censorship, lack of any real knowledge, lack of freedom of thought, degradation of human relationships. So which ones do we have?  Anyone reading this on a tablet in a ski resort in Switzerland while drinking Irish coffee will obviously say none, just like the "Inner Party" members in 1984 enjoyed all the blessings of the industrial revolution with little or none of the drawbacks. So it seems that we started with our first and fundamental similarity, one that I have not mentioned above, it's the pyramid of (political) power. I suspect we can easily arrive at a discussion about Communism or at least Socialism but that's not the goal. The way in which humanity deals with these levels in our social structure doesn't eliminate the fact that the levels (or social classes) are here to stay. We can enlarge the playing field with as many levels as we wish but if we are to narrow the field we will get a minimum of two, the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak, the smart and the stupid.

American Dream: Introduction and the Past

America is an important part of the world, how could it not be? The scientific developments mesmerize us, its military power makes us tremble and its culture inevitably changes everyone else's culture. All this power demands great responsibility and control, decisions must be taken for the good of mankind more than the good of its citizens.

INTRODUCTION

"We hold these truths to be self- evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." This is a fragment from the Declaration of Independence, unanimous signed by the thirteen American colonies. Too bad this fragment did not make it into the US Constitution, adopted in 1787. An amendment was in fact needed (The Bill of Rights) in order to specify the actual status of American citizens and their liberties.

"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The important word here is citizens, the ones who did not fit into this category were exposed to the possibility of having no rights. This possibility was, as we all know, a hard reality.

We can clearly see a great difference between the two texts when it comes to the ideas and the power of the words. "All man are created equal", if these words were the start of the US Constitution then yes, America would of been the land of the free and home of the brave. We should also look at the profound religious implications of the text, the word "Creator" stands for God, a universal God. The promise of a new and better form of government, a just state fundamentally different from what was seen in Europe was just that, a promise, hardly followed by concrete action.

The abolition of slavery was finally decided in 1865, through the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment of the US Constitution. Prior to this, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, under his war powers. For 78 years, and many more decades after that, the black population was seen as something sub-human, too underdeveloped to make it on their own and too primitive to be set free because of fear of rebellion. The example of Haiti is indicative of the situation in that time, a former colony of France, recognized by its former master in 1825 and by America in 1862.

THE PAST

Chances are that the colonists would of never succeeded with the revolution if they did not have the support of France. This help had a cost, both the Americans and the French found an alliance rather tricky, imagine becoming a friend to a former enemy, nonetheless, France had only to gain from weakening the British Empire and the prospects of improved commercial activity with the US were a great bonus. The colonists managed to secure the support of one of the powers of the time and doing so, to secure their independence, theoretically.

What started as a fight for greater recognition of the colonies inside the British Empire transformed in a full fledged revolt against monarchy and the "old ways" of Europe (may I remind you that France was still a monarchy when it all started). There is a man that, in a way, changed the future of the world, or in a less mythical way, changed the destiny of the new world, he is Thomas Paine. He fought for some things not many people even bothered to think about, anyway, he was not the first of his kind nor the last but he managed to influence the people that started a revolution.

One of those people was Thomas Jefferson (a good friend of Paine). During his presidency, the United States saw their first foreign war, the Tripolitan War, a doubling of the territory and a few other things. Before independence, American merchants were protected in the Mediterranean by the British Navy, this security was lost after the war and so America was left without any real method of protecting its commercial route. The prior presidents, Washington and Adams, opted for ransoming the prisoners instead of fighting, creating a navy and maintaining it was thought to be much more costly. At a cost of 1 million dollars, the US signed treaties with Morocco, Algiers and Tripoli guaranteeing in return of an annual tribute, the security of American trade. Needless to say, the newborn country was weak.

The war lasted from 1801 to 1805 but the result was not satisfactory and a new war was needed in 1812 to secure a decisive battle. This relatively long lasting conflict is of great importance because it marks the consolidation of the state and the creation of the navy. It would take much more time however before America would become the dominant force on the sea.

Although Jefferson was openly against the "old world" looking in retrospective we see his actions as nothing really new to a country in expansion. The Louisiana Purchase was a doubling in territorial size of the United States. This vast land was bought from the French for the price of 15 million dollars. Napoleon managed to get control of this land from Spain as a result of a treaty between the two powers. Florida remained in the hands of Spain and soon became a target for both Jefferson and his successor, Madison.

A major war broke out between the United States and Britain in the year 1812. The situation has been presented in such a way that the American people basically demanded war, this made Madison to ask Congress to engage in armed conflict with the British Empire. They were not prepared to face such an enemy and surprisingly, the Congress even rejected expanding the navy. The main reason for this war might have been the desire of some to take control of Canada. This ended up being known as the Second War of American Independence although it clearly was nothing more than a desire to take Canada while the British were in war with France. Taking advantage of the general situation, the United States went the second time into war with the Barbary States securing commerce in the Mediterranean.

The next important moment was the declaration of the Monroe Doctrine which was actually written by John Quincy Adams (who succeeded him as president), a man who dreamed at more than a republic from the Atlantic to the Pacific, he visioned the entire continent speaking one language, having one currency, one culture. In a meeting with the British minister to the United States, Stratford Canning, Adams said: "Keep what is yours and leave the rest of the continent to us". This is also an example of the type of arrogance America blessed the world with.

On December 2, 1823, in his message to Congress, Monroe declared: " (...) the occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers (...)"

Nations in both American continents were declaring their independence, these were events that promised much for the United States, from commercial benefits, to security and spheres of influence. Surprisingly, all this was done with a type of tacit British approval, the old master, turned enemy was now beginning to look more like a distant relative if not a friend. My purpose was not to give a complete history of America, an impossible undertaking for an article of this size but I needed to go through some key moments in time that steady began to create an American culture. We have seen that the promises from the Declaration of Independence were not followed by hard facts, civil rights movements continued till mid-late 20th century for example. The black people initially were perceived as too underdeveloped to take care of themselves, albeit many good and enlightened people from the northern states fought for the banning of slavery. The American Indians on the other hand were perceived as primitive but could be civilized, God knows how many of them got civilized in that period.

The United States turned up being like any other European power of that period with one important exception, the American Dream. This was why so many Europeans fought to get to the new world, to live a decent and happy life, black people and Asian people were not welcomed. The Chinese Exclusion Act which lasted till 1943 expressly stopped any Chinese immigration, a similar law was also applied to the Japanese.

Read Part 2

Extraterrestrial Life

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Scientist are getting close to finding Earth-like planets out there which could possibly be the home for other civilizations like us, or not. For our own good let's be optimist and think that they are not like us. The time that will pass between finding the planet, sending a robotic mission and hopefully tweeting with "them" will be great, but not this is what interests us.

In fact, forget the introduction and think of it this way, what would you ask an alien if you would have that possibility. I would go for the history to understand who/what they are. Learning their language would not be that bad. Another question that you should put yourself is how would you react when "he/her/it" would stand in front of you. Ugly or beautiful, it does not matter how they look, you realize that you take part at something historical and that there are possibilities for things to go wrong. Just remember how the Europeans colonized the New World, wouldn't want to be an Inca.

If you and I are rational people, what about the rest? This question alone could be on the lips and in the minds of those who now know about extraterrestrials, if the "conspiracy theories" are true. I am not so sure that "they" would be interested in forming with us an "intergalactic rugby cup competition" or start commerce with iPhones or cocaine. So what would average Joe have to do with "them"? They would probably say that we are not prepared, or less polite, that we are stupid.

This leaves us with only one solution, hope they are peaceful and hope that we will evolve. Realizing our current situation, it's kind of useless to want disclosure if you are not interested in research about and with "them" and chances are that if you are any good in your field you are already part of a "team".

The truth is we have many more things to fix and we should concentrate on those while trying to find other forms of life. This idea of Extraterrestrial Life is important and will prove to be the beginning of a new era for the development of humanity. The novelty of it will pass after the "contacts", this I am convinced, and our eyes will be set on other, even greater tasks. 

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Recommended reading:
MICHAUD, Michael, Contact with Alien Civilizations, Copernicus Books, 2001

And for fun,  Earth, a visitors guide to the human race, by Jon Stewart

About Humanity, a few ideas

Our species is shaped by war, by conflict, but also by the pursuit of knowledge and progress. Our instinct of self conservation creates every so often the environment for evolution. These are the two sides of the coin, destruction and creation, forces that try to dominate one another but end up in a delicate balance.

I've been asking myself what is the future of humanity and unlike many others, I see progress. The wars that are present in every decade of our history end up pushing humanity forward. I am not an advocate of war, and do be frank, it would be hard for me to embrace such a theory with bombs flying around, but this seems to be the truth. For humans, death is normal, although not wanted, you can also think about the spring-fall cycle.

Science and technology seem to be growing at a faster and faster rate, giving us new opportunities for the future and solutions to present problems, at least this is the theory. It is not an easy thing to admit, but the vast majority of humans seem distant from the road of progress. It is true that the world needs not only researchers and university teachers, as examples of well educated people, and letting the machines do the ”dirty” work is far too early for our present stage of evolution. In most countries the economic and political environments do not value the mind, in this way many do not achieve their full potential.

We should not discriminate people because of their education. You may not see this now, but wait a few decades, the world could be torn in two, not based on race or wealth, but on education and access to it. I must admit that knowledge is not like falling in love, at least for most people, it is a tree you must take care of for a long time before the fruits start to appear. We must learn from history and learn to appreciate one another, not doing so will mean the end of the human race, sooner or later.

This conflict between the ones who control and those controlled is present from East to West. Just read my article about How to manipulate man. I am confident that the human mind will prevail and we will be free of the stupidity of one dominating the other, this could be just an utopia, but i like to think that not only the ”bad” things can be real. This first two problems, knowledge and access to it and the relation ruler-subject, are all based on instincts that helped us survive harsh times in our development, don't forget, even as a child you are under the control of your parents, in a way at least. The primitive human societies managed to survive because the strong got the power and knew how to use it.

If we talk about democracy we are in a predicament. Officially the people have the power and their leaders are only elected as a type of spokesmen who end up not representing the people, but the interests of different groups. We can see a cycle forming and breaking it is hard, but necessary.

Humanity must go through a real revolution to survive the things to come, we must rethink our mentality and our position in this universe. This is a hard task, but I am confident we will eventually be successful. Until then, let us individually try to surpass ourselves and whatever our jobs are, do not let the mind and soul die.

Thoughts on religion and man

I like to think that people who take religion serious tend to reject the rituals that for so long shadowed the inner teachings of the different faiths. I am not saying that all rituals are worthless, i am addressing the issue of people not reaching the core of their religion. For example, Romanian Orthodox Christians tend to pile up dozens of rituals that come from pagan traditions and have nothing to do with the message of Christ. This situation is not restricted to Romanians, it applies to all humans of all faiths.

The problem of grasping the idea of a supreme entity and of a system of the universe that is far beyond our every day life is that many uneducated people try to make foolish and repetitive actions in the hope of attracting the grace of God. Few really want to evolve and i think this is why humanity is in a downward spiral.

I am a religious person in the modern sense of the word, I try to learn from all of the sacred texts, because in essence, all of them teach us the same things. Goodness, the search for knowledge and truth, the love of humankind and of the Universe and to respect the basic principles of life. These are the things that mater, the things we must keep with us all the time.

Our present world is dominated by science, the pursue of knowledge, we must not forget that our mind must go hand in hand with our spirit. The way we perceive religion needs to change to accommodate our present level of development. We no longer believe in supernatural forces, instead we try to understand every aspect of this world. Taking life into our own hands is a must if we want to survive as a species, now we have the possibility to extinct ourselves to say so, no supernatural being will save us from our own stupidity.

In other words, the real religion of this millennium will be the search for God based on the understanding of God and incorporating Him in our conscience. Also, we must redefine what we are, based on what we did and what we want to do as a species. Human history is stained with blood as our aggressive nature many times is pushed in front and with our minds blinded with hate we kill and destroy until nothing is left. This is not the way and it seams that all the prophets, saints, and thinkers who addressed issues that make our species disgusting never achieved their mission. But i have hope that things will change.