Comments

Episode-1214- Life After Awakening — 57 Comments

  1. I have tried to explain the dying young back in those days too a lot of people as a misnomer, what they fail to understand is the word “Average” age, seeing as how a good portion of the population died in child birth or before the age of 5, if you made it past 5 you had a very good chance of living to an old age. so if you add 70+5 you get 75 divided by 2= 37.5 Average life span, you would be amazed at how many times I have tried to explain that and people still didn’t get it.
    My Great Grandparents were dirt poor and lived to be almost 100, the funny thing is none of their children lived to be 90,but and this is just my opinion, my Great Grandparents grew all their own food and never went to a Doctor because they couldn’t afford it, while my Grandparents on the other hand bought cheap food and took 10 prescriptions each 3 times a day, they both lived until their mid 80’s but that was close to 15 years less than their parents, I’m convinced it was the quality of food and the meds they took, I look at my parents now and it saddens me because I doubt either one will make it to 80.
    It also seems like with each generation the stress level is much higher and I’m sure that plays into it as well.

  2. I’ve been coming to the conclusion that things are not right in America for a while. It’s hard to conceive the lengths of deception that government and corporations will go to manipulate the masses. I had a very eye opening experience last night watching a video many in your audience might be familiar with. It is about the 9-11 plane that struck the Pentagon. I’m I become a conspiracy nut job, or am I awakened to the depravity? All I know now is I have to focus on improving my skills and my loved ones lives and spread out from there. Your show has been a major influence toward that goal.
    http://youtu.be/hVaGht6eHoQ

  3. Great show today, very inspiring. I think this one is another to play for people who “don’t get it” You don’t talk about prepping hardly at all (which is good for people new to these things) and the Matrix movie is so relate-able to people 25 and up (anyone younger than that might consider it a “classic”!) . You were right on about how being happy and just showing how we live is better than forced prepper indoctrination by a well meaning friend or family member

  4. great show!!!!!!!!, you are so right on, in my life i add god, and it is all more better, thank you for all your work …cheryl

  5. Very good, thank you. Vampires shy from the light and zombies are only interested in feeding (living food), however, that only stands to strengthen your analogy of todays realities. Social programs being fed by workers and the string pullers shying away from the light. Thanks again for the show.

  6. This episode felt like the ones that hooked me two years ago. Maybe it’s because summer was fading then too; maybe it’s because I remember how much awakening felt like drowning, and that permaculture and TSP were eddies that carried me to a new shore where thousands were already building a different future. This episode was a special one for me.

    • Thank you for stating that just the way you have – you made my night, well right after listening to the podcast itself that is.

  7. Jack said he had a love/hate relationship with the movie, but never really got into the details of why he hated it.

    I am going to take a stab at it, the part were Agent Smith tells him that the human mind rejected the paradise program is problematic for people in a libertarian/voluntarian/anarchist mindset.

    On a very primitive level, going back when dinosaurs were eat mammals, we know that something isn’t right. We know that there are limited resources on the planet, and their will be stratification of the haves and have nots. This is a problem of many voluntary society ideas. Sure a community can ask and ask another community for something that they be desperate for, but if they don’t get it, they might just have to take it by force if it is needed, water wars always come to mind (whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting if I remember the saying correctly).

    You don’t have to look back very far to see hunter-gather societies, and yes they had no taxes as we think of, but they took taxes in other ways. I point to the Lakota native americans. They roamed the plains, but if they wanted something, they were brutal in the battles they fought and the slaves they took. The Apache weren’t any better, but instead of battling it out with other natives (Lakota and Shoshone have no love lost); Apache enjoyed killing Texans as quickly as possible (which probably most of America wouldn’t really have a problem with even today). I think you should stop looking at hunter-gathers societies thru a kaleidoscope, and see them for what they were, just humans surviving on what resources they saw in front on them. They took taxes from people, they were just different than what you know.

    • No my issues was the wholesale slaughter of life in it, a glorification of killing thousands and thousands of people. The big shoot up scenes.

      • Thousands and thousands of people?!? I think I need to sit down and watch the movie again. I vaguely remember thousand and thousands of misses (which is par for the course of most sci-fi flicks), but only a handful of kills.

        Maybe what you are referring to is in the sequels. Never watched them. Some friends told me they were horrible before I had a chance to go to either of them.

    • Interesting points, Scott. Earlier in native american history, they were devastated by european disease. Up to 90% were wiped out by diseases that traveled hundreds of miles inland. What resulted were the “mourning wars” wherein tribes attacked each other with the goal of abducting women and children (killing the men) to increase their own tribes’ numbers to compensate for the toll caused by disease. This was because the security and strength of tribes depended entirely on their numbers. (Anthropologists also believe this is why many adopted agriculture — because it allowed them to support larger populations. The paleo diet was more healthy, but 100 warriors usually beat 10, no matter how much stronger those 10 are.)

      Later in native american history, there are many well-documented examples of them raiding and dominating each other, often demanding yearly tribute. None of this is meant to judge them, of course. Native culture and lifestyles were often superior than europeans.’ Also, we should appreciate how the twin catastrophes of disease and european settlement produced a mad max-like scenario for native societies.

      • Cough, cough, BULLcrap. There were entire civilizations that rose and fell from war before the Europeans ever came here. Covetousness and greed are intrinsic in the human heart. There was never a magical time where societies co-existed in perfect peace and harmony anytime, anywhere. Europeans are not the reason American tribes fought with each other. Mankind fights because we have infinite desires with finite resources. A covetous heart that marketing plays off of.
        History was actually my field of study way back when and I don’t know where you got that fairy tale.
        I’ll give you a good example. I went to Cozumel for my tenth anniversary because the Mayans always had a special place in my heart. I looked at the beautiful ruins that were mysteriously abandoned centuries before the Europeans ever got there. There were still natives there and I could not figure out why they would rather live in grass hut palapas instead of this beautiful stone city. Fast forward to when I watched the movie Apocalypto. Those jungle tribes hated those murderous Mayans and would have wanted nothing to do with their stone buildings and pyramids. That is not European mankind’s fault. That is the fault of all mankind. And don’t blame religion. It is covetousness.

  8. If you enjoyed the Matrix you might want to give Dark City a try. It’s sort of the same story, a guy wakes up while everyone else around him is still “asleep”. Just watched this on a whim when it came out. Turned out to be one of my favorite films of all time.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrGSLMl1XFs

  9. Best show ever. Thanks. And I’m promoting it.

    I unplugged from the matrix in 1986. Fasting – it started with radical diet change to save my health. And I just started waking up.

    • Wouldn’t another big lie is that everything you put in your body (food, pharma, etc) and on your body (shampoo, lotion, etc) are safe? So Scott Gordon changes his diet and wakes up … very nice. :!)

  10. I used to feel like Sarah Conner(The Terminator), that I know something is coming but now one will listen, they think I’m crazy. Now I don’t say much, I just ask questions. “So how do you feel about the US Govt arming Al quada in Syria?”
    The people I work with are so lost they look up to the kardashians.

    Matthew

  11. Your point about trying to drag people along reminded me of a quote most often attributed to Benjamin Franklin.

    “A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still.”

  12. Very timely episode Jack.
    Sometimes it’s hard to bring idea clouds in my head down to concrete ideas on paper. This is helping me to form my ideas of the overbearing Canadian government along with the bleeding heart, sheeple citizens here.

  13. Fantastic episode Jack!!!
    I get so frustrated that others can’t see, but then I have to remember I was once asleep and didn’t want to be bothered. It took me years to finally accept the crap that’s going on. It’s very sad that society has been created this way.

    • Nothing there indicates that. You would have to ask the writer of the story, it says they are pop culture symbols but the movie made them so.

    • I’ve heard some interesting Christian interpretations of The Matrix, where the red pill symbolizes the blood of Christ (choose salvation). In the third movie Neo sacrifices himself (complete with arms stretched out like on a cross) to save the human race… It’s not a perfect analogy but interesting still…

  14. Another excellent podcast. The topics brought up in this one have shaped so much of my life in the last few years and one reason I keep on listenin’ to jack. I try not to pay attention to ANY news, that isn’t my local news. The ONLY thing I follow is financial stuff (like a hawk) because that stuff is very indicative of where things are ACTUALLY going. (The money doesn’t lie, just politicians).

    However, I just pay attention to how can I make my life what I want it to be. I don’t care about all the other stuff, thats so far beyond me, that just paying attention to it is ENTERTAINMENT (entertainment can be both good and bad). That’s why I stay out of the moronic pissing contests between my wife’s parents and one of their daughters. Who cares, you’re both wrong. hah. Like that’s what we should be talking about on Thanksgiving, national politics, something that doesn’t matter at all. Focusing on everybody elses problems instead of your own at a minimum is a bad way of going through life.

  15. There’s another book out there that pre-dates the Matrix which might have had some inspiration for it, it’s called Brave New World. The society is doped up on a drug, and I’m not making this up, called “soma”. They take drug induced “holidays” to tune out reality.
    A worker class of clones is created to do all of the labor. But since they are genetically modified they don’t live very long and have lots of health issues. The protagonist in the novel is a “savage” or native american that is born outside of the system. He’s paraded around as a sort of carnival attraction. I think it was written in the 40’s and almost parallels society today. I think I’ll re-read it…

  16. I would submit that TV is the most prolific method by which the biggest lies are distributed. Between one prime time show, some advertisements, and a news show you get all of the biggest lies repeated to you and reinforced multiple times. I would also argue there is a direct correlation between the amount of TV a person watches and their zombie quotient; the more TV, the more zombie like, and the less likely they are to ever wake up.

    I could on at length about the psychology behind programming, the control mechanisms, the devastating effects on children… Why do you think it’s called “programming”? Here is the single most creepy and shocking thing I have observed about TV; the reactions I get from some people when I tell them my family does not own a TV. The look of horror and panic at the thought of going without TV themselves. They can not imagine life without a TV. They can not imagine themselves without the constant stream of big lies delivered straight into their house for hours each day.

    If the thought of killing your TV is revolting to you, Survival Podcast Listeners, then perhaps you should reassess you own zombie awareness.

    • On the glued to TV aspect I agree but on the not wanting to have no TV at all meaning something is wrong I have to call bullshit. Seriously, TV is a tool like any tool. It is all how it is used.

      Your assessment of TV sounds a lot like a big government liberals assessment of a gun.

    • Have you read Fahrenheit 451? The wife’s addiction/obsession with having a full room TVs is frightening and yet sooooo where we’re headed…

  17. Jack,

    One the best episodes I have heard from you. I thought Nero was a Roman emperor and Neo was in the movie…lol. You kept referring to him as Nero. Had to say something, had me laughing every time you said Nero.

    610Alpha

  18. maybe someone else already mentioned this, but the blue pill in the matrix made me thing of ‘soma’ in Brave New World
    “I don’t understand anything,” she said with decision, determined to preserve her incomprehension intact. “Nothing. Least of all,” she continued in another tone “why you don’t take soma when you have these dreadful ideas of yours. You’d forget all about them. And instead of feeling miserable, you’d be jolly. So jolly,”

  19. Jack,

    With the obvious exception of the Steven Harris generator special I don’t remember being as moved as this by a TSP episode. Those last seven minutes, about chaos and joy and the miracle of the world, are so wise and eloquent and heartfelt and true that I struggled to keep it together, and eventually failed to keep it together. You weren’t saying anything the Buddha didn’t say 3000 years ago, obviously, but somehow you boiled it down better. I think it was the shiny silver fish dancing across still waters that finally did it for me.

    If I had a criticism, it’s with the notion that there’s an evil “they” somewhere, controlling and deceiving the zombies and then chortling at their stupidity. According to you, and you’re right, one of the biggest lies is that “the problems are all because of people who are different than you.” You also had some choice words for “class warfare.” But by suggesting that there’s a class of diabolical puppet masters controlling what and how the rest of us think, aren’t you just telling your own version of that very same lie? Creating a bogus, shadowy “they” in order to rally your troops, and yourself, against it?

    The uncomfortable truth, surely, is that these lies come from within us. It’s in our nature to divide the world into “us” and “them.” It’s in our nature to crave “stuff,” and to worry that our neighbors might have more stuff than us, or be up to things we disapprove of. Yes, there’s an advertising industry trying to get us to buy things, and a political industry trying to get us to vote for them, but when you actually meet any of these people in person you invariably find someone just like yourself: a confused, hopeful human being trying to do the right thing by their family and their country and their world according to rules that were in place long before they showed up.

    Which is not an argument for complacency. We can and should fight against these less noble, less conscious sides of our common human nature, because we really can transcend them and “wake up.” It happens. It really does. But isn’t Step One on that journey to take ownership of and responsibility for our delusions? The revolution is you, absolutely. But so is the thing being overthrown.

    Again: great, great episode.

    Bruno

    • Sadly Bruno there is a they in that way. There are absolutely a group of elites in the financial and government world that do control and manipulate the masses.

      That isn’t “class warfare” though those people are adept at using it. They are in control, they run our government, our banks, our food systems, our medical systems. They have the force of the state, the dollar and the gun on their side and they are the machine.

      But what you are saying in a way is true, they are also nothing but humans. All that is necessary is for enough zombies to awaken, we just are not there yet. It isn’t us and them, it is simply some are in power and maintain power by a false illusion, a false fear sold to the masses.

      I hope that makes sense.

  20. Great and timely show Jack. I like the Idocracy analogy. Truly the way young people talk to each other now a days. I let my with listen to it on a long drive we took the other day and she was very impressed and stunned by how much she was awake about most thing already. The parts about the family hit close to home with me and my brother. Him very liberal and me being conservative and libertarian. I did get him to listen to though so there is hope.