What Is R.I.S.E.?
With our tongues planted firmly in our cheeks, let's listen in as Gordon plays philosophical paddle ball with an imaginary interviewer from the land of the Normals...
Q: Can you explain the R.I.S.E movement? A: Certainly. We are not a movement. Movements move around. We just diverge right where we are. Q: Diverge? From what? A: From conventional wisdom, from the illusion of popular choice. Where two roads diverge in a yellow wood, we look for the exit ramp. Q: Can you give me an example? A: Absolutely. Think of it this way. There are two main political parties in America. Vote for either one and the government still gets in. Q: So you're anti-government? A: Not at all. We love government. It's very entertaining. Government is a relatively young social experiment, about 5,500 years old, that hasn't gone all that well so far. Throughout recorded history more people have died at the hands of their own government than from all earthquakes, floods, tornadoes and other natural causes combined. You have to admit, that's pretty impressive. Q: If you're not a movement, perhaps you're some kind of cult? A: You mean a small clique that's out of touch with reality and plots in secret behind closed doors? Like Congress? Not at all. We're just everyday working people, as all-American as mom, apple pie and corruption. Q: Do you have a leader? A: No, that would be against our nature. The herd follows leaders. When they grow tired of a leader, they find a new one to follow, often right off a cliff. We Divergents cannot be led. The best we can do is to herd ourselves. Q: So does divergent mean contrarian? A: No. Whatever the public does, contrarians do the opposite. It's a reflex kind of thing. But they do so within the same publicly shared reality we call Normalspace which we exit altogether through a warp in the cultural membrane. Q: This is getting a bit confusing. A: You're telling me. You should be on this side of the membrane! Q: OK, one more try. Where is Normalspace? A: It is all around you, like the ether that Tesla wrote about. It's in the classroom, in the living room, in the ballot box, under your hat, in bank ATMs which we associate with creepy Morlock temples. Basically, everywhere. Q: So if Normalspace is all around you, how can you exit from it? A: Through the back door to The Truman Show which leads to an RV park where recovering Normals sit around the campfire sharing escape stories. Q: What are some of the types of activities you engage in? A: Normal, everyday activities like unplugging cable TV and reading Lysander Spooner, declining vaccinations, teaching our home schooling children to think for themselves as self-regulating individuals, things like that. Q: Do any of you diverge just for the sake of diverging? A: No, that would be petulant and sophomoric, not to mention lemming-like. Q: You seem pretty down on the public. Are you opposed to everything public? A: Not at all. If it weren't for the public we wouldn't have parades, selfies or a crumbling empire, and where would the entertainment be then? We shouldn't be hard on the public. They can't help themselves, having endured twelve years of public school and thousands of hours of TV. That kind of brain washing is pretty tough to overcome. Especially when you throw in flouride, electrosmog and chemtrails. Q: But you do reject conventional wisdom, don't you? A: Pretty much, but not because it's public, but because it's incorrect. We're big on reality. Q: What are some examples of things the public is wrong about? A: Sure. Well, let's see... there's real history, criminal politics, the fiat money cartel, zero point energy, life after the coming economic implosion... interesting things like that. Q: Do you make any attempt to educate the public to your point of view? A: We wouldn't dream of it. We'd be tarred and feathered. People need to diverge on their own. It's something that happens when you turn off the TV. Pretty soon you find yourself sitting there with your own thoughts and questioning everything. It's rather refreshing. No commercials playing in your head, either. Q: Thank you, this has been most enlightening. A: I was afraid you'd say that. 
What R.I.S.E. Is Not
R.I.S.E. is not a club, a political movement or a religion. More than anything we are a philosophy generally shared by individuals who elect to fraternize for the purpose of achieving common goals. We have no president and no governing council. There is no written document outlining rules of behavior. We associate of our own free will. If you were to interview any one of us we might tell you the following. THAT we envision a world in which each and every individual is free to make, explore and realize their own personal choices of how best to live their lives; a world not only free of violence perpetrated by others, but free of violence perpetrated by government in their name. THAT we understand that, ultimately, there are only two types of people in this world: collectivists and individualists. Collectivists see society as a living organism. They would sacrifice the rights, and even the life of the individual for the good of the hive. Collectivists prefer security to liberty and find it easier to elect others to do the thinking for them. They see proponents of liberty as selfish and self-interested, even as they themselves vote in political popularity contests for officials who will subject them to the least amount of organized theft through taxation. Pure democracy, socialism, communism and fascism are all forms of collectivism. Individualists - also called voluntaryists - support the right and cherish opportunity of each individual to explore and fulfill the full expression of his or her dreams and ambitions, so long as the property, privacy and rights of others are not encroached upon in the process. THAT the vast majority of war, plunder, oppression, conquest, famine, genocide and other human misery has been the work of collectivists busily harnessing the power of the state to mold others into their vision of a perfect world. THAT throughout recorded history, collectivism has resulted in the death of countless hundreds of millions at the hand of their own governments. THAT organized acts of violence like these have always occurred over the ignored protests of history's most celebrated scientists, inventors, philosophers, writers and poets, the vast majority of whom were enthusiastically individualists. THAT even today, on this beautiful and very small planet overflowing with abundant food and natural resources, every other person alive goes to bed hungry each day as a direct result of planned interventions in the economies, distribution infrastructures and social management of their respective nations, all the work of concerted collectivists.. Collectivists and voluntaryists. Consumers and citizens. Violence and freedom. Security and liberty. Scarcity and plenty. War and peace. Which begs asking, Dear Reader, which of these perspectives do you support? |
Making Sense Of It All
If like many forward-thinking individuals you find yourself deeply concerned over the clear and accelerating down trend in just about everything these days, you might be asking yourself: "Why is everything so screwed up?" That's a big question, isn't it? To be sure, much about life on this small, blue planet is great. But much is not. Billions of our fellow humans suffer each day from the effects of war, hunger, poverty, disease, political corruption, deprivation of freedoms, racial divisiveness and much more. Some of these phenomena have natural causes. But many, and provably so, come to us courtesy of international corporations, governments, and the ancient (and very private) societies that direct them, all networking together as the taxpayers are left to pick up the tab for their own political and economic enslavement. This cozy cabal constitutes a deep and integrated layer of global management and control with the goal of forming all nations into a unified, one-world social, economic and political structure molded according to their shared vision of utopia. Some of these controllers are visible. Most are largely invisible. Many you will never be allowed to know. This network controls 99% of the world's wealth and natural resources which gives them monopoly control over the world's major institutions such as banking and money, schools and education, energy, transportation, communication, manipulation of public thought processes via their monopoly media, and military intervention with armed forces sent to enforce freedom in places without indoor plumbing, whether they like it or not. Are there any effective solutions that "We the little people" can apply to these problems? Said more simply, what can we do to "take our planet back?" Perhaps The Solution Is Political? Unfortunately, as recorded history proves, every political party - even those that begin with the purest of intentions - soon and easily become penetrated, compromised, corrupted and controlled. What About Religion? Perhaps faith in God holds the solution? Regrettably, throughout countless centuries, millions of people the world over have been subjugated and slaughtered in the name of organized religion. As proof of this, religious wars continue to this very day. Perhaps Government Can Provide The Answers? "We asked for help, they sent us men with guns." - Hurricane Katrina survivor. Governments aren't just inept, it is the very nature of government to be corrupt. Even those governments which purport to be the most democratic exist by exerting coercive control over the populace. How else to extract labor, loyalty and taxes? Politicians (bought-and-paid-for) pass laws according to their personal views of a perfect society, and you must then do as they say. Or else. Perhaps The Schools Can Make a Difference? You were thinking of the public schools? Not on your life. Not when the government is the one assigning the textbooks. Why would any government educate future voters in the very principles of liberty that would empower them to resist? Perhaps The Answer Lies In Higher Education? Would any college dare offer a course in the only practical solution to the "government problem," which is to enlighten young people in the self-interested advantages of a voluntary society based on free and ethical interactions, thereby eliminating the need for government altogether? See what we mean? Ain't gonna' happen. Subsidized college tuition programs would dry up overnight. Perhaps Home Schooling Offers The Answer? This was true at the beginning of the home education movement, back when parents teaching the Constitution at the kitchen table were arrested for "abetting truancy" because their children were not warming government classroom seats during school hours. Unfortunately, many of today's home schoolers study from the same government-issued textbooks as the kids seated in the government school up the street. To their credit, their parents don't want their precious children being exposed to bullying, experimental drugs, nose piercings, gang tattoos, demonstrations of proper condom use, locker inspections, metal detectors and more. Good for them! But often the education being received by these "at home" public schoolers about real history or the true meaning of liberty (and its outright theft by government) looks a lot like a goose egg after the goose left town. We should add that many of the finest home educating families still allow television in their house as if it were just another member of the family. Yet people who watch television for many years have their paradigm subtly yet deeply altered in ways most are not aware of. Do we dare to call this a mild form of cultural hypnotism? Not to mention that when it comes to the truth, the best place to hide anything is on TV. So if "all of the above" potential solutions have been tried already and failed to create a rational, responsible, ethical and spiritually enlightened society, where does this leave us? We would suggest, Dear Reader, that the answer lies above the plane of protests, rallies, parades and socioeconomic struggle. That the solution to rescuing humanity from the forces of economic manipulation, political oppression, armed aggression and other social controls is to understand that no membership organization, no grassroots movement, no social upheaval is ever going to change anything. Perhaps in the short run, but not with any permanent effect. So Where Will Real Change Come From? As "V" said, "You have only to look in the mirror." You have the power to change everything. It's right inside you. It's been there all along. It's inside everyone else, too. Always has been. Each of us, acting alone. That's how we all act together. No leaders needed, because each leads. No followers either. Because there are no leaders to follow. How Does a Freedom Seeking People Resist Their Oppressors? Simple, you stop doing business with them. You stop... ... using their money. ... buying their products and services. ... eating their lifeless, manufactured foods. ... injecting your children with their concoctions. ... sending your children to their educational camps. ... sending your children to serve as spear catchers in their wars. ... voting for their corrupt, pre-programmed political candidates. How do one's oppressors stop a "movement" like this? They can't. You can't stop a movement that isn't moving. One that just is. Now you know how to reclaim your lost freedoms, your precious liberty. Tell someone else. Then they'll know too. There's Trouble Afoot!
As we enter the 2nd millennium of the common era, humankind here on planet Earth is in trouble. Big trouble. You won't get the 'Big Picture' on The History Channel but here it is in a nutshell. The web of dynastic European families that emerged solvent from the Dark Ages... ... that soon plied the oceans with their sailing ships and acquired wealth too vast to be counted at the dawn of international trade... ... that steadily concentrated power behind the scenes even as the world cheered the American experiment in liberty at the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment... ... that grabbed western civilization by the hairs of its head and consolidated monopoly control over manufacture and transportation at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution... ... that expanded their global financial empire exponentially with the injection of cartel central banking into every nation so the people could be rented their national money supply as debt and guarantee it repayment via a confiscatory income tax... ... that gained power over men's minds through control of public schooling, television and now, the 24/7 communication and surveillance system we call the Internet (created by the 'Deep State' for the use of the populace)... ... has now matured into a all-encompassing network of global control that I call The GRID (like the Matrix, just real...) and whose operators remain largely unknown to a public easily distracted by sports, cultural conflict and televised wardrobe malfunctions. The GRID has overlaid the world with a largely invisible and steadily tightening web of social and financial control that, if not arrested and reversed, threatens to erase all remaining traces of freedom and privacy within the next generation and turn this planet into a 24/7 human farm where the sheep can be managed, monetized, sheared and controlled at will and, when no longer useful, disposed of, and where resistance will no longer be effective or even possible. A few millions of educated and enlightened individuals the world over are well aware of all this and, although comprising less than 1% of the global population, are doing everything in their power to awaken the other 99% through the usual means: the formation of private organizations, peace movements, blogs, newsletters, marches, rallies, political parties and other channels of communication and activism. Regrettably , none of these ostensible solutions will ever work. They've all been tried, countless times throughout recorded history, and will fail countless times again due to a total failure to understand the dynamic of effective resistance. Here is how this works. If an organization or movement seeking to reform corruption, regain lost liberties and "fight the evil-doers" succeeds in gaining traction with the public, it is quickly mocked, ridiculed and attacked virulently in the control Grid media as dangerously 'radical,' 'anti-government' and so forth If it survives this first level of soft attack and continues to gain public favor, an attempt is then made to infiltrate and neutralize its top leadership. If it somehow survives this second attack and continues to grow, it is finally eliminated through litigation, bankruptcy, blackmail, fraud and other forms of violence, both direct and indirect. All of which would appear to leave ardent lovers of liberty with no effective remaining course of action. But this is not true. And here is where the magic begins. We humans are social creatures. We are joiners. We seek association, camaraderie and community. We forms clubs and councils, memberships and movements. Yet this is our weakness, and it is easily exploited. The U.S. military had a slogan that it featured on billboards everywhere: Army Of One. It's pretty easy to co-opt and control millions of people joined together behind a leader. It's almost impossible to co-opt and control millions of individuals, each of whom thinks alike, and none of whom needs a leader. Think about it. |
Someone Said
"This is truly a beautiful concept. I am interested in how I may spread this concept far and wide so that we can make a positive change. I have never been part of anything that really did effect change. Nothing seems to change. I know this is not a political movement. I am here to listen, learn and possibly help act as I am a lawful American and believe to my core in individual liberty, natural, discovered law, such as my right to life, liberty, property, and many more too numerous to list here and politics is not the answer. In other words....I'm in." - D.S., New England
"This is truly a beautiful concept. I am interested in how I may spread this concept far and wide so that we can make a positive change. I have never been part of anything that really did effect change. Nothing seems to change. I know this is not a political movement. I am here to listen, learn and possibly help act as I am a lawful American and believe to my core in individual liberty, natural, discovered law, such as my right to life, liberty, property, and many more too numerous to list here and politics is not the answer. In other words....I'm in." - D.S., New England