Karl

Thats the sort of question that can be asked in stable countries, but when an entire Middle East/ North Africa region is being ripped apart and the troubles expand out across the rest of Africa then it's difficult to split one from the other. The West has had its fingers in every pie throughout the region and now we have Turkey, The Saudis, Syrians, ISIS, ISIL, Kurds and several other groups piling into the mix. I can't imagine it will be long before the Iranians are destabilised as well. Who wants to hang about in a country where groups are continually fighting, or the area is getting bombed, where there isn't any work and food/utilities are non existent ? Migrants ? Refugees ? "He looked from pig to man and back again, but could see no difference".

Right, but I'm not talking about a conductor but about a energy wave already at light speed and thus at zero relative time. In effect it's like a mechanical rod with zero expansion. Push one end and the other moves instantly at the other. It appears to exceed light speed, but it doesn't, there isn't any waiting for a wave to pass from one place to the other because it is the wave itself. The particles aren't independent they are simply part and parcel of the wave itself-just one with a spin induced time delayed mass-like a vortex in water, but instead of water it's energy waves. I'm sure this is a terrible explanation.

I'm presuming you understand this stuff to a degree ? I'm a billion light years from understanding it, but I can see a possibility related to every day things. Couldn't it just be kind of eddy currents rather than some strange quantum coupling ? On a more electromagnetic basis we can lock one motor synchronously with another, so could this not occur with paired particles ? Zero travel time would be needed, one particles spin would impinge directly on the other and thus achieve- what appeared to be-faster than light travel. If you had a very long cable with zero stretch, then you could beat speed light by direct mechanical action, set an electron off at the same time as pulling the cable and wouldn't it be true that the speed of light rule would appear to have been broken ?

I'm certain they are real, but I doubt they form any sort of homogenous group. They aren't an army, but a disparate group made up of genuine fighters, ex military from deposed regimes, tribesman, thugs, rapists, thieves, the simple minded, coerced, unemployed, religious fanatics etc. They are partially a creation of the West through the CIA trained muhajadine and AQ. Part funded by the Arab States. Part ideology and necessity. Part deposed military. They are a great excuse for the West to stay in the Middle East and for those contractors ( security suppliers, weapons manufacturers etc ) to continue to appropriate tax payer funds to line their pockets by supplying weapons and high tech surveillance both in and out of the Middle East. If you don't have a market, then create one-cronyism 101 ISIS is the name of a Western jamboree that went side wards, but doesn't present any serious threat and plenty of opportunity. Europe is now being over run by refugees and economic migrants looking to get out of the mess which was always anticipated. It's all part of what is termed 'the great game' which is Russia/China vs the Western empire-lead kicking and screaming by the USA. The waves of migrants into the West is probably punishment for not supporting the U.S. against its avowed arch enemies-which is anyone that refuses to accept the way of the indispensable nation.

Well I'm no a Taoist, but I favour the 'running away' very fast gambit. Avoid confrontation by ensuring you don't go places, or act in a way that is likely to bring violence to you. Best avoid fighting if you can. If it's unavoidable then do maximum damage and retreat as soon as you can. I'm old enough to know that every fight I have ever been in I could have just as easily avoided, I liked acting like John Wayne instead of choosing avoidance.

How are you writing this then ?

It's funny how one thing leads to another and then something pops out of the mass of collected information like an unexpected treat. Here is a paper by the late, great, libertarian Murray Rothbard in which he proposes that Lao Tzu was really a libertarian philosopher forced to live under Chinese rule and this lead to retreatism as the only-and desperate-alternative. He posits that it might well be that retreatism itself has become the over arching high ideal of Taoist followers instead of the libertarian philosophy that once under pinned it. I wondered how I found my way here :-) https://mises.org/system/tdf/9_2_3_0.pdf?file=1&type=document

Stop going on about your waistline :-) I made the mistake of thinking it was food related. That's what happens when making assumptions.

I was with it right up to '80 years'.

Funny way to think about it.

Initially as an add on to consumer electronics. It will be no more controversial than a mobile phone. It will replace car security, payments, passports. In fact I'm sure I read somewhere an American company already chips their employees. So, not so much a date by which we are all microchipped, but beginning right now. Without one there will be no access to the cashless financial system.

If one wishes to shrink it One must first expand it If one wishes to weaken it One must first strengthen it If one wishes to discard it One must first promote it If one wishes to seize it One must first give it This is called subtle clarity

Socialism helps in culling the old: Woman, 80, Trampled to Death in Venezuelan Supermarket Stampede Crazed money printing plus price controls equals chaos and death. The Democratic Unity coalition said Maria Aguirre died and another 75 people were injured - including five security officials - in chaotic scenes when National Guard troops sought to control a 5,000-strong crowd with teargas. "Due to the shortage of food ... the desperation is enormous," local opposition politician Andres Camejo said, according to the coalition's website. It published a photo of an elderly woman's body lying inert on a concrete floor. Camejo said thieves had also attacked the crowd, members of which were seeking to buy cheap food at an outlet of the state's Mercal supermarket chain in Barinas state.

Not even that. Just start a queue and others will join it.

So, now I've done a bit of research it would seem that 'social Darwinism' is very much your game and diametrically opposed to my views. It is very much statist control and collectivism which seems to be more your thing. You have a kind of Fabian approach.

I think you have always had nominally greater freedom than we have and tend to rebel against it. The UK is far less revolutionary. We have had years of 'terrorism' and a greater acceptance of state security by default. As such we complain very little as the surveillance state has grown exponentially. We were all for biometric identity cards-to be fair it was only the extreme lefties that opposed it. If the Government announced we were getting microchipped tomorrow, there would be a line of willing takers.

Darwin didn't posit 'survival of the fittest' but 'survival of the most adaptable'. Altruism doesn't exist, but cooperation-absolutely, but only of value if it is voluntary and not coercive.

It isn't cynical, just reality, by the time you catch on you will have an identity chip. Already we have almost as many CCTV cameras (that we know about) in the UK as we have people. Many of these cameras have facial recognition software. Every phone call and Internet search can be collected. Most of us don't use cash and so our credit card transactions are open source. We have number plate readers for cars throughout the country. Once cash is outlawed there will be no transaction out of sight. Even now, taking money out, or in to banks invites a hail of obligatory questions and delays. Buying precious metals requires a passport over a certain quantity. Licences are required for birth, death, marriage or driving. Every airport is ringed by security personal feeling up, or shaking down passengers. Even viewing the wrong website can get you into trouble. We now have a new policy which will target 'extremists' under which the prosecuted will have to prove they are innocent and we have school teachers reporting toddlers as young as 3 for extremist influence. Cynical. Nah mate. This is what is happening right under our noses.

From the reality that we only have privileges and no rights. Every action/decision must then be related to the existence of the state. Unless of course you subscribe to the 'no mind' model. You seem desperate to find a little shelf for me ;-) I would give up if I was you. I subscribe notionally to many philosophies. You have all these categories that I have either never heard of, or know nothing about. I've heard of social Darwinism but can't say I knowingly subscribe to it. Darwin was a bit of a eugenecist so I stay clear of those who like drawers and boxes.

Just as the state has no free market system then so there is no 'leave nothing for others' because the state makes all decisions. They promised abundance in return for submission, as you have no choice but submission then whatever loot they offer should be taken-otherwise you are not submitting sufficiently :-) Oppose any increased subsidies, tariffs, wars etc in whatever way you can, but you cannot hide from reality or reality of self. Did you not say that your waistline was larger than you wished-what has Taoism taught you ? Everyone is sovereign, enough for one is too much for another and not enough for some. Only honest work should reward if it is valued by others. The more it is valued the more will be the reward. Joy in service, not by coercion, but by responsible, honest labour.

Not at all. It isn't advice, this is just constructive commentary. There is no need to divorce from the system either. This isn't a 'how to' kind of thing. Each according to their own. If it's done in full awareness then there isn't anything else to do. I don't believe that there is any need to refuse what the state has promised to provide. We live under its laws, take whatever is due as you would if foraging for yourself, leave nothing on the ground, take it all. Again, in full awareness of those actions then there is no problem.

Start with self and make it a reality. Right knowledge, right thought, right action. It does not matter over how long, or if it is never at all, but if one does not take the first step there will be no path. It's only idealism if you don't act upon it, if you do then that is reality. Know thyself, act accordingly, if your path is not to act in accordance with your principles then that is also reality, but know that this is what you are doing in full light of conscious awareness and then there is no problem.

I have not voluntarily entered into any state agreement. I have not joined anything at all. I can choose to join something like the hells angels if I wish to subscribe and this should be precisely how it is with the state. It has nothing what so ever to do with geographical location. Why should move ? Let those who wish to live under a state should move, if that is what they advocate. Otherwise I'm happy to let them live side by side with me. Let's see how many will pay tax to support a state if there is no penalty for doing so. Isn't this the way of the Tao ? One lives without expectation, without the need to control others.

And now you will see why logic is such a powerful thing....:-)

Governance not Government. In a Hells Angel group everybody is there voluntarily and they have agreed to abide by those rules. They are free to leave if they don't want to continue living under the rules. I have no issue at all with that. Pure anarchy would be an individual decision, it doesn't have to ever have to be, it only needs to exist. It is the Tao. "The first kind of leader is one the people are not aware of"