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Mar 16, 2023·edited Mar 16, 2023Liked by Simplicius

I live in one of the pilot cities in England destined as a "15-minute city". The first rollout involved setting up "traffic filters" forcing automobile traffic into certain patterns - no side street short-cuts to take you from one major road to another through a residential area, filters so that traffic from one part of the city have to follow a circuitous route around the city in order to reach another part of the city, and next year permits that allow you only so many times to enter restricted areas (these of course can be further restricted later and only apply to cars at the moment, but think about also applying them to everyone eventually!). Bicycle lanes are expanded and car lanes reduced, making it more and more difficult to drive in the city, thus encouraging you to take public transport, walk or cycle. I can well see the possible dystopian world we are entering.

I am in hopes that your predictions of a globalist failure will bear fruit eventually as we pass into a multi-polar world. The Chinese and Russian versions of the national state do not allow corporations to rule as they do in the West, so there is some hope there.

I suspect the world will ultimately coalesce into tow major divisions - a "Free World" consisting of sovereign independent states like China and Russia, and a "Dystopian West", an integrate "Fice Eyes", if you will, ruled with the iron hand of major multinational corporations and international bankers..

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Wow, thanks for the comment.

You're right, as I once heard repeated "in the western system, corporations control the gov't, in China the gov't controls the corporations". Your last paragraph is definitely on the money

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Mar 16, 2023Liked by Simplicius

I wrote that with sadness, as the West I grew up in, full of hope for the future and inspirational, bears no resemblance to the West as it is unfurling now, covered with clouds of darkness and gloom amidst the image of "progressiveness" and "freedom and democracy". I told my wife, who is a Russian patriot, that I feel I no longer have a home in this world, that my home tragically passed away quietly and without fanfare into the distant past, irrevocably unrecoverable.

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Mar 16, 2023·edited Mar 16, 2023Liked by Simplicius

"I grew up in a communist country. My father was imprisoned for three (3) years for the crime of celebrating Christmas (by having a Christmas tree in our home). Then, after the Berlin Wall fell, we had a war. As a grown-up journalist/writer, I was subsequently prosecuted and persecuted for my writing. (As a result, I was granted political asylum in the U.S.)

America was that mythical land so many of us around the world dreamed about. (I know, I've been to 83 countries, and that "America," meaning the U.S., always had an almost magical ring to it.) I am quoting this paragraph from my book just to show you the sentiment re: one tiny part of that America that, it seems to me now, never was:

"I always wanted to go around the cowboy country saying, 'howdy pilgrim' and/or 'howdy ma'am' and even more so, given that I never drink it, 'that's one damn fine cup of coffee, ma'am,' as I dabble in being a cowboy. I would find some ancient diner on the mythical Route 66, near Kingman, AZ, and enjoy bacon strip pancakes, bread-n-butter waffles, and a wonderfully gooey chocolate cinnamon bun. Or two. Perhaps several. Screw those Whole Foods cultists and their damn arugula salad. Who would eat food that requires you to put a beak on a mug in order to eat?"

At that time, I still had fun with the madness. Alas, as the days progressed, I've seen the Cultural Revolution of the worst kind growing in the States like cancer. Those images of "progressiveness" and "freedom and democracy" you wrote about were 10x scarier than the communist dogma -- everyone knew it was BS, the communist dogma, everyone knew the people in power were just mindless, power-hungry ghouls, not worthy of respect -- but once they managed to have the people voluntarily don those ridiculous cloth masks for "health reasons," etc., I started to look around myself, noticing that more than half of the population is utterly insane.

Ready to ostracize you, like they've done with "rats" (Jews in Nazi Germany who were "spreading disease), to isolate you, to corral you - we all know what was happening - I saw the burning houses of Sarajevo many years ago or Bakhmut today in America's future. And then, the "mostly peaceful protests" in the burning parts of Minneapolis, coming from the TV, told me, that's it, that's fucking it - the dystopia is real for the people do not believe their own eyes/reason anymore.

My heart broke. America was my country of choice, the land I still love, my only home. Alas, now, a cancerous home filled with hatred created in the labs, much worse than the one that gave us virus.

So I left, and now I have no home. I still do not know where to go, where to live out these last remaining years before these evil monsters eviscerate us all in a nuclear war - the only way out for their greed, madness, and utter disregard for human life.

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powerful words!

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My best years were spent tree planting in the West, living in my straw bale hand built “abode”… the West still holds me captive, the woods, rivers, the big open. The less I intergrate, the better. After many decade …grinding away in service to others; now…service to self, great humility, grace and ease, GodSpeed🧡🔥🧡

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"a "Free World" consisting of sovereign independent states like China"

While China may stay independent and 'free' - from a globalist perspective - China has been at the forefront of 'managing' their masses ... social credit scoring, facial recognition systems everywhere, concentration camps (zero covid lockdowns, organ harvesting), squashing HK independence, the impending (?) squashing of Taiwain independence, ...

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China is indeed not a democracy. And it certainly is authoritarian in nature. You are correct. But there is also untruth in what you mention as well. There are no concentration camps and organ harvesting - that is all Western propaganda as the Uyghurs themselves will attest. Yes, they have a social credit system - much the same as is being developed in the West. And yes, they have facial recognition systems spread all over - even licence plat readers, and telephone monitoring, and internet censorship - just like us. They have abandoned zero covid lockdowns as unproductive and harmful. You seem to forget that both Hong Kong and Taiwan are chinese provinces, not independent states. The USA has spoiled everything for both by encouraging revolt and social disorder - China reasonably is taking measures to correct that, as is their right to do so.

You are also correct that they have been at the forefront of managing their masses, but in doing so they have lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese out of desperate poverty and now have the largest middle class in the world (NB: Just a gentle reminder - our middle classes are disappearing, not growing). They have the largest car market in the world. They technology is growing leaps and bounds. They are establishing the New Silk Road. And their people are fanatically nationalists - they love their country. They are grateful and proud of the progress their country has made and the part the the CCP has had in that.

It might be wise not to judge too harshly or too quickly other countries for their lifestyles, cultures and governments - esp as we are frequently guilty of the very same acts as others whom we feel free to criticise with abandon. One of the major problems with our governments in the West, esp USA and UK, is that though we live in glass houses, we are constantly throwing stones at other glass houses. This is now coming back to bite us.

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