The Book of Genesis relates the story of a time when the whole world shared a same language. With this common language the people of Babel attempted to build a towering system to reach heaven. The account reveals that by divine design, or a mysterious ingrained mechanism, no single earthly power gets away with building a totalitarian system: In biblical terms, of playing God. As soon as an earthly power does, there is a built-in mechanism that sets in motion a dynamic to destabilize any tyrannical endeavor. The story shows that the Lord’s intervention stopped the evil plan. It resulted in the creation of multiple languages and eventually division that lead to growing confusion, protectionism and economic chaos in the world.
The definition of language does not limit itself to human speech, but to any signs or codes used as means of human communication between two or more entities/devices. One example of a global language consists of codes making up the hypertext markup language (html, http, etc) that allows computers and other devices to communicate between each other in order to create the World Wide Web’s interfaces. These codes are subliminal, they are nonetheless a language. Unfortunately, the development of this omnipresent online system has made it possible for global powers to play god, monitor and impose a corporate global doctrine on the people of the planet. A metaphorical Tower of Babel can be represented today as ONE global corporate hierarchy and body trying to impose a ONE world government.
The World’s Unfolding Schism
The Web became the most pervasive communication interface in the world. Unfortunately the WWW has been hijacked by global corporate interests.
I can’t remember who said the following: When the Internet encounters censure it bypasses it. Timing is everything. And necessity is the mother of invention.
What civilization needs to safeguard human cultural heritage is a parallel Internet hypertext language in order to bypass the current global corporate control of the WWW.
Keep in mind that a corporation is defined as an artificial person. It is not endowed with human reproductive or regenerative capabilities.
And because life is cyclical, the Web may have reached a climax in terms of its beneficial contribution to human civilization. Hence, the need for an open-source hypertext markup language to promote human cultural heritage and bypass corporate control.
What we need to do is reinvent the Net. We have to rethink the Net.
Tim Pritlove
PS: The image above represents a work of art by Marta Minujín, appropriately entitled Tower of Babel. The structure stands seven stories high. It is located in Plaza San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The piece of art is made of a collection of 30,000 books written in different languages donated from 50 countries.
War is a convenient way to manage a growing distrust of government. A distrust that could potentially lead citizens question the legitimacy of an established political order. A military conflict is an expedient way to distract any resentment away from the ruling elite and re-direct it against an enemy abroad. The process enables the imposition of stricter control on the population, reinforcing the power of rulers at home. The consequence of war is; the bigger the conflict the greater the political disintegration for the defeated party and eventual readjustment of a world order .
Self-righteous politicians who promote tough gun control laws don’t see any problem spending gazillion dollars of taxpayers’ money on destructive weapons of war. For conflicts that benefit mostly corporations and their shareholders who in turn finance the political campaigns of warmonger. Of candidates who don’t have a problem promoting destructive weapons that kill an obscene number of people. And who don’t send their children to the front but sends other people’s children to die in battle while they enjoy a cushy political career at home.
Based on my lifelong study and research of religion, I realized that the Economy (with a big E) is humanity’s universal religion. Every human being on the planet accepts and believes in a system that will enhance his or her economic benefit and security. Conversely, the worship of money, defined as greed, is the source of all evil. On the other hand, money is a necessary tool that provides a shield against tyrants who use their money to control and exploit unsuspecting innocent people. This is the mysterious spectrum of good and evil, the yin ~ yang so to speak, that defines human condition.
I read Lionel Rubinoff’s The Pornography of Power in the 1970s. I recently bought another copy of the book as I got rid of most of my books over the years. Books don’t travel easily. I was unaware the book is available for free on archive.org. I also found out that Robert Sheer wrote a book with the same title.
“The artist is not simply a reporter who takes evil for granted and uses his talent to profit from man’s inherent fascination for it. If a man as to be called an artist, it is because he has used his art not to exploit but to transcend evil. The way back to salvation is not to go mad and surrender oneself to evil, but to create. The creative act is the apotheosis of man; the destruction of creativity is therefore the greatest of all crimes. This is how the death of God comes about. It begins with man’s destruction of his own creativity.
But this is precisely what is happening today. The life of creativity is slowly being infected by the propaganda of irrationalism, and the imagination, no longer informed by the elan vital, has lost its capacity to transcend despair and has become instead an imagination of disaster. The success of the propaganda of irrationalism in stifling the imagination is due partly to our own fears. We are afraid to be creative today because we are afraid to be individuals, afraid to be active in a conformist society that encourages total passivity. To be an individual on a collective society is to suffer a kind of madness. But to be part of it, which is normal, is to live without purpose, to worship platitudes and empty truths, to be mediocre, and to exist without love, which is hell. Hell is the suffering of being unable to love, and hell is the anomie and the powerlessness and living under the shadow of the apocalyptic vision…”
St. Thomas lists a number of these sins, which he calls the “daughters of greed.” They are: fraud, lying, perjury, dissatisfaction (restlessness), violence, and hardheartedness.
Like all the seven deadly or capital sins, greed sees many other sins that flow from it.
The unraveling loss of confidence in our political leaders around the world is the result of a stealth buyout by global corporations of government’s agencies. The takeover has unleashed a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde psychosis in the political body. Creating a divided self whereby the moneyed corporation, as an amoral organism, has misplaced the political representation of We The People.
A cancer does not know it’s a cancer. It fools itself by being the most powerful and destructive organism in a body, unaware it will eventually kill the body in which it grows. The growth of this artificial/corporate organism is made possible by the unlimited amount of tax payers’ money that enables the cancer grow while remaining undetected.
War, huh, yeah-
What is it good for?-
Absolutely nothing, uh-huh, uh-huh-
War, huh, yeah-
What is it good for?-
Absolutely nothing, say it again, y’all-
Listen to me;
Oh war, I despise,
‘Cause it means destruction of innocent lives
War means tears to thousands of mothers’ eyes
When their sons go off to fight and lose their lives
I said, war, huh, good god, y’all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it again
War, huh, whoa-oh-whoa-oh, Lord
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
War, it ain’t nothing but a heartbreak
War, friend only to the undertaker
Oh, war, is an enemy to all mankind
The thought of war blows my mind
War has caused unrest within the younger generation
Induction then destruction, who wants to die?
Oh, war, huh, good god, y’all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it, say it, say it
War, huh, uh-huh, yeah, uh
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
War, it ain’t nothing but a heartbreaker
War, it got one friend, that’s the undertaker
Oh, war has shattered many a young man’s dreams
Made him disabled, bitter and mean
Life is much too short and precious to spend fighting wars these days
War can’t give life, it can only take it away
Oh, war, huh, good god, y’all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it again
War, huh, whoa-oh-whoa-oh, Lord
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
War, it ain’t nothing but a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker
Peace, love and understanding, tell me
Is there no place for them today?
They say we must fight to keep our freedom
But lord knows there’s got to be a better way
Oh, war, huh, good god, y’all
What is it good for?
You tell me, (nothing) say it, say it, say it, say it
War, huh, good god, yeah, huh
What is it good for?
Stand up and shout it (nothing)
It’s interesting to see how a new type of addiction develops. And how it evolves. Pinball machines were a physical prelude to the current online multi-billion dollar gaming business, which is played by approximately two-thirds of American people. It’s noteworthy to observe that among gamers, some display symptoms that are typically associated with addictive behavior.
Divide to conquer
The widespread use of computers and handheld devices prompted a major shift in people’s allocation of time to rely on the World Wide Web to conduct their personal and business activities. A swift change of behavior that is unprecedented in human history. A move that favors online dependence on an all-knowing, otherworldly source of interaction and influence. A transformation that is having an inconspicuous impact on the behavior of a captive audience.
Compulsive browsing makes individuals literally turn their backs on their physical environment. To ignore a world that is essential to human spiritual, emotional and economic well-being. An isolation that is a common trait among addicts suffering from drug abuse, alcoholism, sex addiction, money fixation/greed and compulsive gambling.
A Big Tech online dependency exposes a more pervasive and insidious condition among people who are hooked on the world-wide spying/spider web. A system that puts profits ahead of people by confining them into their sphere of influence: By spying on consumers’ buying habits to direct purchases and with data collection on searches to sway political action.
There is no consensus among mental health professionals that online video game fixation is an “impulsive control disorder” similar to other known addictions. Yet, online dependence displays similar symptoms like; fear, aloofness, loneliness, anxiety, depression, identity confusion and an individual’s alienation from their social environment. Users with these symptoms are trapped in a global containment, captive of an invisible sphere of influence.
Whereas global, from the word globe, implies a self-contained sphere with a well defined border. A globe embraces the totality of items within the confines of its circle. Hence, it is totalitarian by design. A globe is oblivious to reality that lies outside its perimeters. It separates and shields a monopolistic doctrine from the outer world/reality of an ever-expansive universe.
The more pernicious symptom of online confinement is the separation of individuals from their human physical environment, mostly family, friends, local associations and the grassroots economy. A cult-like power “that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action” that promotes a global corporate doctrine over the economy, culture and politics.
This fact merely underlines the point that “the medium is the message” because it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action. Marshall McLuhan
The Internet and the WWW have transcended traditional forms of communication. The web has ushered innovations and economic benefits unparalleled in human history. Unfortunately, Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of the web as a universal tool for good has been altered by greedy billionaire who are intoxicated by the power of the world-wide spying/spider web has over the globe.
The Internet still has valuable qualities for all of us if we take the necessary precautions to protect ourselves from predatory indoctrination and control. Some steps should be taken to preserve our personal freedom, destiny and humanity.
Restore your privacy
Bypass the spying/spider web with email activism
Use a browser like Brave
Support your local grassroots economy, local small businesses and restaurants
Support independent journalism and podcasts
Use an open-source operating system for your personal use like Ubuntu, or Tails
Use privacy friendly email account like Protonmail.com or Tutanota.com
Support your local church, temple, mosque or synagogue or any other spiritual community:
Love your neighbor as yourself
Here’s another must watch podcast: America this Week with Matt Taibbi and Walter Kern “Oligarchy in the UK”. Have we reach peak consolidation of power of an UN-Democratic political ingroup also referred to as “the party”? Led by an alienated junta of inbred apparatchiks at the head of surveillance, legal and enforcement government institutions. As a result, the cancer in the body politic is focalizing and is more visible as it exerts its tyranny, triggering an inevitable cure, albeit a painful one for the whole body. A cure that will only be completed if the supply of blood and sugar that feeds its existence is cut off.
Debbie W., Richmond, CA
Extremely Interesting Read. Deeply researched account of the symbols om the US dollar.
I’ve always been curious about the symbols on the one dollar bill and the little book explains them well. Highly recommend this read.
Peter O., Santa Fe, NM
Good and entertaining… This book is full of historical facts about the symbols on the dollar. You won’t be bored reading it. The author keeps delivering relevant info till the end. And once you’re done reading the book, you’ll never look at the dollar the same way again.
L. K. M., Seattle, WA
Great read! Extremely well researched writing of the history, symbols and makeup of the US currency.
After reading the book you will love the tender you exchange everyday. Highly recommend.
R. S., Santa Monica, CA
Well researched book on the symbols of our currency. Very interesting and revealing aspects behind the history of our currency.
Joanne A., Novato, CA
Everything you ever wanted to know about the one dollar bill. This book explains all the symbols on the one dollar. Who knew it was so detailed? Very interesting!
M.J.B., San Diego, CA
Great Read! Well researched, packed with interesting facts about the US dollar. Quick read.
Highly recommend.
Carl L., San Francisco, CA
If you’re curious as to how the symbols found on the US dollar came to be, look no further than
Michael Rizzotti’s well researched book. In addition to providing the reader with the history and context, the author expands on related subjects such as the Federal Reserve and the dollar’ s evolution to becoming the reserve currency of the world. All in all, a good, well written read.
Ricky I., Palm Desert, CA
Interesting and Detailed. A unique and well researched explanation and interpretation of the symbols we have all seen on ou US dollar. Mr. Rizzotti vividly introduces us to the history of the symbols; and quite interesting interpretations on how and or why these symbols were included on the dollar.
