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History Lessons of Truth (Part1): Nat Turner – A True Revolutionary Slave

Jason Cooper — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:38:27 +0000

Nat Turner's mini uprising against his white masters is ended by his capture

Let me begin this post with a relevant quote:

“Everyone falsifies history even if it is only his own personal history. Sometimes the falsification is deliberate, sometimes unconscious; put always the past is altered to suit the needs of the present. The best we can say of any account is not that it is the real truth at last, but that this is how the story appears now.”

~ Joseph Freeman

What more can be said regarding the teaching of history to the masses – I have to agree with Joseph to some extent. Well, let me start this series with a dark period of humankind’s history: The Slave Trade.

Personally, I feel that this subject is not taught enough in Western schools (especially in the UK) when compared to the constant exposure, through the media and education, of the Jewish Holocaust (which in it’s own rights is perhaps as bad as African slavery – although slavery lasted over 200 years with many millions of blacks being tortured or killed in the process) during World War II. It’s plain to see, that the subject of black slavery has been all but forgotten in the minds and conscience of those who disseminate knowledge to the rest of us.

Making the children and adults alike become aware of this terrible past would help to make us better understand what lasting affects that slavery may have caused (no matter how little) the later generations of black people, especially in regards today’s disillusioned black youth, who seem to suffer, more than most, from self-destructive problems.

Another important benefit of the teaching of slavery is that it may help in regards race relations by stripping away the many ignorant or racist views that somebody, who is not black, may have against the black culture in general – this would hopefully eliminate that old saying from their psyche “we fear what we don’t understand”.

My only guess for the apparent concealment of this particular moment in history is that maybe the countries who profited from this most heinous of crimes are either embarrassed or, what should be more the case, ashamed of their past actions – or maybe there is another suspect reason.

In any case, there should be no excuse for this exploitative period of evil, which was carried out so systematically by Western powers, not to be included in the curriculum. These aforementioned powers, made up of white European and Anglo-American imperialists, invaded, plundered and pillaged the African continent, which was most profitable at the time.

It has to be said that these so-called great empires and their citizens would perhaps not be in the privileged position that they now find themselves if it wasn’t for the blood and sweat of captured slaves, and the many bountiful treasures and precious resources that were stolen from the lands of Africa.

A True Revolutionary Against Slavery

A lot has been said about British politician and philanthropist William Wilberforce who championed the magnificent cause towards the abolition of slavery, but little do most of us know that it was actually a black victim of this abomination who was the true revolutionary.

Nat Turner, a deeply religious slave and controversial figure, inspired the first of many rebellions against the white slave masters in 1831. All it took was for a simmering sense of injustice to boil over and a divine sign for Turner to then carry out his own version of retribution.

This is where the controversy lies with Turner’s choice of vengeance, where he and a few other black slaves that he could muster used any instrument they could find as a weapon of violence. What followed was a short but bloody episode in which every white man, woman and child that Nat and his small militia came across were not spared, as they were slaughtered mostly in their sleep.

Turner, however, was eventually captured and brutally executed, so to act as a severe deterrent against other would-be “Nats”.

I won’t go too much into the moral questions regarding Turner’s actions, but all I would ask is for you to first put yourself in his chains and mindset. You may then find that Turner’s violent reaction was most understandable given the desperate circumstances of being stolen from his homeland, and then treated with constant indignity whilst being chained up, worked and beaten like a wild animal.

Some would say Turner was nothing but a violent religious fanatic; and others would argue that he was an inspirational hero for justice and the emancipation of his people. But despite all that, nobody can deny that this proud, enslaved and religious man had some influence on the rest of the slave population and, eventually, the abolitionists themselves.

Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property

Watch the following video to learn about the forgotten but important story of Nat Turner:

The Wise and True Prophets of Comedy (Part 2): Bill Hicks

Jason Cooper — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:22:32 +0000

Hicks: The smoking "Truth-Seeker" of comedy

I now like to turn your attention to the late Bill Hicks, who was in the same mould as George Carlin, featured in the post ‘The Wise and True Prophets of Comedy (Part 1): George Carlin’.

In fact, the young Bill Hicks was very much inspired/influenced by the older George’s style and subject matter.

Fortunately for us lost deceived souls, Hicks decided to produce and to display his own brand of social commentating and irreverent comedy.

Here is an excerpt from the Bill Hicks Official Website of Hicks’ biography which describes him as being a down-to-earth guy, who was always frank and always seeking truth within the mystery of life – all this despite being struck down in his prime by a terminal illness:

Despite his illness, Bill was at peace. He spent time with his parents, playing them the music he loved and showing them documentaries about his interests. He called friends to say goodbye and re-read J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Fellowship Of The Ring.

On February 7th, 1994, Bill wrote his last words to the world:

I was born William Melvin Hicks on December 16, 1961 in Valdosta, Georgia. Ugh. Melvin Hicks from Georgia. Yee Har! I already had gotten off to life on the wrong foot. I was always “awake,” I guess you’d say. Some part of me clamoring for new insights and new ways to make the world a better place.

All of this came out years down the line, in my multitude of creative interests that are the tools I now bring to the Party. Writing, acting, music, comedy. A deep love of literature and books. Thank God for all the artists who’ve helped me. I’d read these words and off I went – dreaming my own imaginative dreams. Exercising them at will, eventually to form bands, comedy, more bands, movies,anything creative. This is the coin of the realm I use in my words – Vision.

On June 16, 1993 I was diagnosed with having “liver cancer that had spread from the pancreas.” One of life’s weirdest and worst jokes imaginable. I’d been making such progress recently in my attitude, my career and realizing my dreams that it just stood me on my head for a while. “Why me!?” I would cry out, and “Why now!?”

Well, I know now there may never be any answers to those particular questions, but maybe in telling a little about myself, we can find some other answers to other questions. That might help our way down our own particular paths, towards realizing my dream of New Hope and New Happiness. Amen.

I left in love, in laughter, and in truth and wherever truth, love and laughter abide, I am there in spirit.

On Saturday, February 26th, 1994, Bill died. He was 32.

Why not Change this Amusement Ride of a Life for the Better?

In the following video, Hicks offers up a metaphor of life as being an amusement park ride, as he tells us to ride with love and truth, rather than with fear and hatred…

Final Destination: Peace on Earth with us laughing all the way.

The Wise and True Prophets of Comedy (Part 1): George Carlin

Jason Cooper — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:42:18 +0000

Carlin: The "Socrates" of comedy

Wisdom and Truth can be garnered from the most unlikely of places – none more so than the spectacle of stand-up comedy. So I’d like to introduce you all to two such past comedic greats who can be considered true prophets of their craft.

The comedians in question were George Carlin and Bill Hicks, who both penetrated our conscience, and raised our consciousness with their pinpoint insights and observations into all the pretentious bullshit and hypocrisy that society propagated and continues to propagate – not to mention, provoking uncontrollable laughter at the same time.

Both Carlin’s and Hicks’ social and political views were considered controversial at the time – but controversy does not mean that they were wrong.

Here is an excerpt from the George Carlin Official Website detailing Carlin’s autobiography ‘Last Words’ which contains his comedic value, iconoclastic views and philosophy of life:

LAST WORDS also delves into Carlin’s work as a stand-up comedian, and his acting aspirations, in which he offers a frank account of his talent: “I was devastatingly inept! There were no Oscars in sight.” In the end, the book is a celebration about a boy from Harlem who knew how to make people laugh and forever changed the face of comedy in America and the world.

George… on politics: I had a left-wing, humanitarian, secular humanist, liberal inclination on the one hand, which implied positions on myriad issues. On the other I had prejudices and angers and hatreds towards various classes of people. None of which included skin color or ethnicity or religion. Well—religion, yes. I used to get angry at blue-collar right-wingers but that passed because I saw that in the end they were just a different sort of victim.

…on values: The worst thing about groups are their values. Traditional values, American values, family values, shared values, OUR values. Just code for white middle-class prejudices and discrimination, justification for greed and hatred. I believe in giving everyone, as I encounter them, one at a time the full value of their dignity and their honor in the world. Whether I’m seen as a celebrity on an elevator or I’m just George the stranger, I open myself to them and I take them in and I give them everything I would want myself in terms of treatment, feeling and consideration. I call that a value.

…on being an individual: It always seemed to me that the reasons groups came together were superficial. The group didn’t feed me and I had nothing to contribute to it. I had a deeper goal, this giant puzzle to work on, which was only going to happen if they left me alone… The aloneness of the stage makes groups irrelevant. Few things dramatize the face-off between loner and group more starkly than the artist before the audience. And there’s no irony here. If this loner can’t get the audience to act as a group—laugh together—he’s fucked.

The Truth or not the Truth – That is the Question

In the following video, Carlin offers us some good advice, as he tells us to question everything we think to be true…communicated in his own irreverent but humorous way of course.

Read part 2 of the series: ‘The Wise and True Prophets of Comedy (Part 2): Bill Hicks’.

4 Important Steps Towards Discerning Truth in a World of Deception

Jason Cooper — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 08:57:49 +0000

Extra, extra, read all about it! Amazingly, somebody tells the truth for once!

For all you movie buffs out there, let me start this post with a relevant quote from ‘The Matrix’, which will hopefully give you some sense of where this particular post is coming from:

“What is “real”? How do you define “real”?”

“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill — the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill — you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”

“I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.”

“Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream, Neo? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world? ”

“The Matrix is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.”

“What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.”

“Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.”

“If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then ‘real’ is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.”

“The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it.”

“There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”

It maybe a movie but there is a pertinent message for humanity behind it’s plot.

Wake up out of your Dream world of an Illusion and Seek the Truth

A few questions you should ask yourselves:

What is the truth?

Who can we really trust in this apparent world (The Matrix) of deception?

Should we trust:

The Educational System?
The Religious Leaders?
The Media?
The Law?
The Government?
The Conspiracy Theorists?
Or in fact, any sort of so-called authority of information and knowledge, such as the ones mentioned above, who are suppose to be the benevolent and wise leaders of truth, integrity and justice?

The next thing I’m about to say may contain more than an air of cynicism and conspiracy, but if we are to be honest with ourselves, frankly, we have been led down the garden path for most of our lives.

Unfortunately, there are powerful people out there who choose to monopolise the dissemination of knowledge and information to the masses, and who wish nothing more than to seduce our minds to the point of slumber whilst manipulating us towards submitting our will, freedom and very lives for them to do what they wish – no matter how pernicious.

In other words, through our own ignorance (which is mostly conditioned into us from childhood) we are unbeknowingly empowering them to enslave us psychologically.

Now is the time to take back this power and learn to empower ourselves with the knowledge and wisdom that can eliminate these masters of deception (aka disinformation agents), so that we can then emancipate our minds towards a joyful existence filled with integrity, truth and meaning.

I think the late American writer, radio host and truth-seeker William Cooper was on the right track when he offered the following advice to the rest of us:

“Read everything, Listen to everybody. Don’t trust anything unless you can prove it with your own research.”

~ William Cooper 1943-2001

Joel Skousen’s Four Steps Towards Truth

In the following excerpt from the article ‘HOW TO ANALYZE THE NEWS AND WHAT GOES ON AROUND YOU’, political scientist Joel Skousen offers, I feel, priceless information and advice on how one can hope to discern truth from manufactured falsities, especially in regard the media.

Be warned, it does border on the conspiracy near the end, but all I ask is for you to have an open mind and try not to immediately dismiss Joel’s seemingly unconventional views (which proves my point if indeed you react negatively. We have been conditioned to believe implicitly the popular and accepted view over a more polemical alternative – even though the totally dismissed controversy may in fact be true) as a case for him to be locked-up in a padded cell.

Just keep the following quote from my old grumpy friend Arthur in mind when reading:

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

~Arthur Schopenhauer

As Joel Skousen writes:

1. Reliable Sources: No journalist or historian bases his writings on original material, except when relating what he or she personally experiences. This world is much too big with much too much going on for anyone to directly witness anything but a small fraction of life’s happenings. Thus, we all have to rely on sources of information. As all of my readers know, most of the world has become heavily reliant upon the establishment media. People are busy, with little time to study and analyze current events. So they scan the front page each day, or watch the TV evening news, relying on these easy, quick sound bites to “inform” them about the world.

Almost everyone who gets this minimum dose of daily news thinks that they know what is going on in the world. This is not so, even though the media rarely tells an outright lie. What writers and editors do is purposefully omit key pieces of information that would significantly change people’s opinion about what is being presented. This brings up the first rule in finding reliable sources. Search for someone who is skeptical of the official version, and who searches out key information that has been withheld by establishment sources…

2. Education and Experience: I don’t accept anything in the news at face value without comparing it to what I already know is true. The greater the body of true knowledge that you possess, the easier it is to see fallacies and falsehoods. The more shallow your store of “facts” and true experiences, the harder it is to scrutinize new information, especially when it falls outside your limited area of expertise or experience. Those who come from a home where learning is a continuing affair enriched by good books and alternative news, and not confined to television and establishment schools exclusively, have a head start in this process. In public schools students develop a body of “knowledge” in the social sciences and historical areas that is politically skewed and largely distorted. Because these “truths” are repeated by everyone and assumed true, even good people can sometimes become resistant to changing their minds. All of you who have tried to introduce others to evidence of conspiracy and corruption in government know what I mean.

Regardless of your background, the best way to become a critical thinker is to start reading argument-oriented commentaries on various subjects. The best source of such commentaries is transcripts of debates where contrasting presentations are given on two opposing issues, followed by a counter to each view and lastly a counter to the counter. That’s what it takes to really see error. States that publish voter pamphlets often use this format for initiatives. Also, the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) each month publishes “Ideas on Liberty,” a collection of confrontational essays directly countering bad ideas in economics, law and politics. It makes for stimulating reading, and is not difficult to understand. See www.fee.org on the web…

3. Using logic: It is not enough, however, to merely accumulate knowledge and facts like so many books on a shelf. You must also learn how to filter that information and assemble it into a realistic view of the world. Most people know how to draw a simple conclusion from a logical proposal: A = B and B = C. Therefore A must equal C. This is deductive reasoning. However, in a complex world filled with multiple layers of deception and sophisticated lies, it is inductive reasoning that you must master in order to analyze the news and put together a coherent view of modern history.

Inductive reasoning is much more difficult to master. It involves taking a wide sampling of seemingly random information or observations and picking out patterns of truth, sufficient to derive broader conclusions. There are several reasons why most people do so poorly at inductive reasoning. For one thing, few have access to a wide range of details to analyze in the first place. Much of the blame for this lies with the media and the school system, on which the vast majority of people are reliant for their information, and which systematically omits critical details. Even when more information and evidence is available, however, few people have the patience to remember the details, much less to sort through the conflicts and contradictions found in the details long enough to derive conclusions or see the patterns. Inductive reasoning takes a good memory and a lot of mental processing…

4. A Correct World View: We cannot understand how this world operates if we hold to a purely secular, evolutionary, or humanistic view. Even though the spiritual spectrum is mostly hidden to man on earth, its workings can be detected if one is sensitive to truth, and if one avoids offending the source of all truth by chronic violations of conscience. You cannot, for example, really understand the following conundrums about conspiracy without contemplating the possibility of Satanic control:

· The fact that people involved in the conspiracy for global control already have more money and power than any man can use. Why should these continue to push for global control?

· The generational affect. The conspiracy doesn’t fade or alter course after the death of key people. If the driving force were only an individual or a small group of megalomaniacs, they would be incapable of controlling the direction others would take after they are gone.

· The fact that the globalists, in prepping the world for WWIII and encouraging a Russian/Chinese nuclear preemptive strike on the West, would also destroy the wealth and power of these same powerful conspirators. Why would anyone do this?

These aspects of the conspiracy cannot be explained by conventional leftist anti-capitalist jargon about greed, power and class struggle—even though these do play a significant role. The thirst for control of oil is also part of the picture, but it doesn’t explain the globalists’ plan to risk partial destruction of the West in an effort to create a Hegelian conflict out of which people can be induced to give up national sovereignty and join in a NWO…

Please read the full version of this thought-provoking article here.

Mission Impossible?

Before I go, please allow me to remind my fellow truth-seekers about “The Mission”:

Your mission should you choose to accept it, is to:

turn off the TV and radio

dispose of the newspapers

question everything you have been told and taught to be true

inquire for yourself to discern what the truth may be – in other words, educate yourselves

Seek and gain the practical and beneficial knowledge that can actually help you to become conscious beings, self-reliant, self-determined, pragmatic and wise

Look within yourselves for the true answers towards achieving your aims in life – the truth and wisdom is within you to use to your advantage

Take responsibility for your own health, income, and general well-being

What Does Wisdom Mean To Will Durant

Jason Cooper — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:11:04 +0000

American writer, historian, and philosopher Will Durant describes wisdom in his own intelligent and eloquent way.

Read the following excerpt of ‘What is Wisdom?’ by Durant:

“What is wisdom? I feel like a droplet of spray which proudly poised for a moment on the crest of a wave, undertakes to analyze the sea.

Ideally, wisdom is total perspective — seeing an object, event, or idea in all its pertinent relationships. Spinoza defined wisdom as seeing things sub specie eternitatis, in view of eternity; I suggest defining it as seeing things sub specie totius, in view of the whole.

Obviously we can only approach such total perspective; to possess it would be to be God. The first lesson of philosophy is that philosophy is the study of any part of experience in the light of our whole experience; the second lesson is that the philosopher is a very small part in a very large whole. Just as philosopher means not a “possessor” but a “lover” of wisdom, so we can only seek wisdom devotedly, like a lover fated, as on Keats’ Grecian urn, never to possess, but only to desire. Perhaps it is more blessed to desire than to possess.

Shall we have examples? Rain falls; you mourn that your tennis games must be postponed; you are not a philosopher. But you console yourself with the thought, “How grateful the parched earth will be for the rain!” You have seen the event in a larger perspective, and you are beginning to approach wisdom.”

Please read the rest of this fascinating article here.

Let me also turn your attention to a few recommended books authored by Will Durant, which will give you a good grounding in the history of philosophy and the great thinkers:

Liberate Your Mind with the Empowering Wisdom of Hip-Hop – Part 4

Jason Cooper — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:34:19 +0000

Arise my fellow humans and stand up for nature, humanity and self-knowledge!

Mr. Lif drops some wisdom in the following thought-provoking tune, as he advises humanity to reconnect with nature and our spiritual selves, and to turn away from divisive and destructive man-made machinations.

I have to agree with Lif in regard the ubiquity and popularity of today’s technology (iPad anyone?), which has inexplicably all but disconnected our consciousness from nature and one another – as I have previously written about in the post Living Consciously in a Technological World.

We have also become ever more dependent on this technology to help us live our lives instead of relying on ourselves, which is setting a dangerous precedence, especially regarding us ever achieving the most important goal – and that is, self-knowledge.

Most worryingly, Man’s ignorant capability of being able to destroy this planet with his mechanical toys because of war is becoming increasingly possible in this present climate of uncertainty.

Unfortunately, the evidence of all this is plain to see within myself, as I sit here alone at an inanimate object typing this blog, instead of being outside with the people that I love whilst basking in the sunshine and absorbing all the wonders that nature has to offer.

Mr. Lif – Arise Lyrics

Here’s a vision
Imagine a whole globe made with precision
Continents of brown soil with green grass
That compliments deep seas and trees with multi-colored leaves
Mountain ranges that survive through the ages
Plus show expressions of time on rock faces
Now gaze up towards the glorious sky
Only appreciated by a powerful eye
As I understand, man is to cherish the land
As we coexist hand in hand
But as time has past
Man has created a vast
Mass of trash that has the capability to smash
Your natural desire to explore your state of being and
Discover you fire
For instance when a child is born
It posseses no intelligence of hate or scorn
But as it learns of hard ways
It becomes tuned from its original nature
As we destroy nature in the name of cash
All justified by laws made by the legislature
You never say *rekcufrehtom* cause that claim they aims to
Seek justice but ain’t it a shame
That that isn’t the case yo we all are so tame
That we’re all fair game
Thats why they got our name
Address social security number
Even though where you bought your last rest
Or mattress have you saying
“Oh that’s just the way things are”
Then I explain that you’re so far from your core
You need to explore
I wake up in the morning in war and saw
And go look for more
Weapons being prepared for nuclear war
And then when I found some no this is to god, hit
The ground son
With strong winds to make the clouds run
Step up in the laboratory
Keep it mandatory
Their response: Inflammatory
Now their dome’s all puffed up
Cause they *kcuffed* up
Give me the data chips
I’ll reverse gravity
So mad they’ll flip
Show these *kcuffer’s* the light
The adequate side of the scene, natty dips
Mankind should feel the effects
As he rips through the environment
Mash up the Earth’s power as if
It were required
The whole things blowin a cold heart
Stand as he asks where the fire went
Trapped in an Ice age and while you’re defrostin’
I kick open the door and let some Holocaust in
Then I remain sober in the galaxy
Take the form of the sun
So I can shine emphatically
Then I shed light on the tragedy
Step aside just to make way for remorse and apathy
Then I perform something you can all see
As I change the climate from cold to balmy
As temperatures rise
I squeeze acid water out of the skies
To burn out your eyes
Cause you could never see what I devise
And get your five lives and nine tries
But usually nobody survives cause I
Elevated far above and beyond
So you could be bombed, crushed to dust
You can be harmed
You can be armed with shanks and tanks
Bayonettes, Missile Threats
Yet I still launch lyrical text
That gets so intense
It could disassemble all of those other meds
So you should fear what the god invents
Since I was sent under the name of Lif
Which means to upLif
It’s my never ending duty to attempt to shift your mind
From one train of thought to a more positive state
So then in turn you can create
Control your own fate
Rather than having those with wealth dominate and complicate
Living to the point where we’re all imprisoned
People we should all pick our minds Its’s Time!
Look at how the world is designed
It’s major
We should all walk out of our manger
And start to educate the nearest stranger
Ignorance has no remainder
I manifest, prophesize visions of danger
With seven lines I show you seven signs
Time’s of the essence
Choose before you lose your physical presence
Perpetuate wickedness or walk along the path of god
The force from which we were all created
Stand amongst prosperity
Or fall devestated
Another victim of hatred
In a land where nothing is sacred
Except for these thoughts that I share
With no fear – to make you all aware of the nightmare
I see you puttin in a little work but we’re not quite there
Climb out of your darkness, the light is quite clear
We’re still to concerned with jewels and hype gear
But I’ma drop my thoughts until you open your eyes…Arise
It doesn’t matter what your color creed race or size…Arise