Just got back from the towns hall meeting........

[Ponce]

Maybe I am wrong but to me "rules and regulations" are only guide lines and not the law...they forget that they are the fathers, and mother, of the people of these town and that when ever possible they should be on their side.

I see them making laws with only two of the four council members that are supposed to be present.

When you have to ask permission to do anything you are then not a free man, and when they tell you to change or take away anthing that you have done you are then under a dictatorship.

V

[Glass]

I don't think they forget, they just ignore it and do what they are "required" to do by their superiors. Most people still think that those who seek and fill positions on government are doing it as a community service. Nothing could be further from the truth. People need to recognise and accept that these people are basically crooks and many, if not all are mentally damaged. There will be something, hidden away in the skeleton closet that causes these "honorable" community minded people to ignore their responsibilities and do as they are told (by their blackmailers or capo's).

It doesn't take much to be so far in that there is no way back out for them. Then the only solution is for the people to show up and physically chuck them out. Send them packing. There isn't anything else that works. Words don't. Pieces of paper don't. Then of course the people attract the attention of their associates who will show up and try to keep things as they were, either with the same front men or some new ones.

But in short you are right Ponce. Government (as a structure) is not something people need, it's just that they don't know that they don't want it. People always want something. SO if you say, do away with it, they will want to know what will go in it's place. There has to be something in it's place. Nothing will not do. This is what stops change. This is because doing away with something altogether is not change. See? You have to give them something to fill the void otherwise they fret and worry.

[agnut]

HI Ponce. To paraphrase Glass’ post, the unbridled lust for money and power is an as yet unrecognized form of mental illness. These people have something wrong in their wiring. Power should be given to those who want it the least.

Their motivations can come from avoiding blackmail. Next we should ask who the blackmailers are. A national forgiveness for past nefarious deeds could do a turnaround of our leadership. If it were widely disseminated so that everyone knew that the game was up and a whole new world could begin RIGHT Now, the leadership would be forced to make a decision whether they were on the side of the people or their old ways. Ways that would now exposed as the rotten stink of gangrene that it is. In other words, make a stink so bad that nobody could ignore it. And therefore have to do something about it. Forcing a choice makes people take sides, something we desperately need to be confronting right now.

And if their motivations come from monetary greed and power, remind them that there is no power as great as serving their fellow man. Of the thousands of quotes I have, my favorite quote is as follows :

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success. "
Ralph Waldo Emerson

What greater power than to be our fellow man’s helper ? In my opinion, mankind has forgotten that we ALL are in the same boat, the earth, and must look outward to the totality of man’s survival as well as our caring for each others’ welfare.

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
C.S. Lewis

We have forgotten that living is a spiritual matter rather than a physical matter.

A quote misattributed to C.S. Lewis :

It's not Lewis, it's by Walter Miller in his Canticle for Liebowitz:
"I'm sorry, Father, I feel that the laws of society are what makes something a crime or not. I'm aware that you don't agree. And there can be bad laws, ill-conceived, true. But in this case, I think we have a good law. If I thought I had such a thing as a soul, and that there might be an angry God in Heaven, I might agree with you."

Abbot Zerchi smiled thinly. "You don't have a soul, Doctor. You are a soul. You have a body, temporarily."

The visitor laughed politely. "A semantic confusion."

"True. But which of us is confused? Are you sure?"

Kind of reminds me of this quote by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin:

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."

With the internet we have the world at our fingers. What we do with it will be either praise or condemnation. The choice is ours.
I know what I should be doing when the collapse comes; I just hope that I am up the tasks.

Best wishes,
Agnut

[mick silver]

you see more people every day that need to be told how to live and want this and this is what we are seeing