lewrockwell--2020-08-24--Chasing the Light by Oliver Stone

Chasing the Light by Oliver Stone

Like the wandering and rascally Odysseus upon whom he models his life , Oliver Stone is “ double-minded ” in the most profound and illuminating ways .
The title of his fantastic new memoir is a case in point .
“ One of the first basic lessons in filming , ” he writes , “ is chasing the light .
Without it , you have nothing – no exposure that can be seen ; even what you see with your naked eye needs to be shaped and enhanced by the light.
” For as a true artist living out a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , his father and his mother , the warrior and the peacemaker , the domesticated and wild man , he has chosen a title that has a double meaning that is subtly woven like a thread through this labyrinthine tale .
It takes the reader from his childhood through his service in Vietnam and his struggles as a writer and filmmaker up to 1987 and his great success with his powerful autobiographical film , Platoon , for which he received Oscars for Best Film and Best Director , among others .
Driven by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ demons first brought on by his mismatched parents ’ divorce when he was fifteen , Stone dropped out of Yale , his father ’ s alma mater , where he had enrolled to fulfill his stockbroker father ’ s dream .
He accepted an offer from a Catholic Church group to teach English-speaking high school students in Chalon , a suburb of Saigon , which he did for six months before traveling around southeast Asia .
Back in Saigon , he joined the merchant marine and worked his way back to the states @ @ @ @ @ @ @ job on the ship .
After a storm-tossed 37 days journey , he was cured of his desire to go to sea , a romantic fascination he had acquired from literature .
The lesson : Books are not life , nor are movies – they are ways to shape and illuminate it .
Chasing the Light : Wri ... Stone , Oliver Best Price : $ 19.69 Buy New $ 18.01 Back in the states he threw himself into writing , his first love and the place where his “ anxieties could be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could confirm his independent existence separate from his parents .
Through writing he could control his story .
He wrote a novel called , “ A Child ’ s Night Dream.
” He reentered Yale but only lasted a few months since his heart was not in the placid life of academia , having already had a taste of the wandering life .
He then quit Yale for good , to his father ’ s great disappointment .
Lou Stone thought Oliver might turn into a “ bum , ” a painful refrain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inculcation of shame and fear cast a deep shadow on Oliver ’ s soul and became one of the ghosts that he spent years trying to outrun by becoming a workaholic desperate for success .
His novel was subsequently rejected and he fell into a deep depression and self-loathing .
Suicidal at nineteen , he volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army in Vietnam to expiate his guilt , shame , and self-loathing , thinking that perhaps God would take his life for him .
“ Odysseus thought he would return home when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , “ I wasn ’ t sure of anything… ” It was in Vietnam on January 1-2 , 1968 , after a terrifying night battle along the Cambodia border where his unit was in a hot zone interdicting North Vietnamese Army troops coming through Laos and Cambodia toward Saigon , when he experienced a profound light experience very different from the type he would later chase while making films .
The battle raged throughout the dark jungle night where confusion and terror reigned .
It was impossible to hear or see , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were killed , Stone “ hadn ’ t seen a single one of them [ Vietnamese ] , ” although he performed bravely .
Here is his brilliantly disturbing and revealing description of what ensued .
Full daylight revealed charred bodies , dusty napalm , and gray trees .
Men who died grimacing , in frozen positions , some of them still standing or kneeling in rigor mortis , white chemical death on their faces .
Dead , so dead .
Some covered with white ash , some burned black .
Their expressions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , were overtaken with anguish or horror .
How do you die like this ?
Charging forward in a hailstorm of death into these bombs and artillery .
Why ?
Were you terrified , or were you jacked out of your fucking mind ?
What kind of death did you achieve ?
It was frightening to contemplate , and yet , I wasn ’ t scared .
It was exciting .
It was as if I passed from this world and was somewhere where the light was being specially displayed to me in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ might say it was hell , but I saw it as divine ; the closest man would ever come to the Holy Spirit was to witness and survive this great , destructive energy .
[ emphasis added by author ] So after fifty years in another life , the survivor remembers in that odd mixture that memory is , a shaping force that relies on the light of experience to enhance the existential marriage of hope lost and found , fact and fiction joined to find the truth of an epiphany .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to witness so much death .
I really was too young to understand , and thus I erased much of it , remembering it in this strange way as a stunningly beautiful night full of fireworks , in which I hadn ’ t seen a single enemy , been fired on , or fired at anyone .
It ’ d been like a dream through which I ‘ d walked unharmed , grateful of course , but numb and puzzled by it all .
It reminded me of passages in Homer of gods @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the bloody battlefields at Troy to help their favorites , wrapping a mist or cloak around them and winging them to safety .
These passages appear early in the book , and I quote them not just to point out the dual nature of the book ’ s title – only something a truly creative writer would conceive – but because the dual theme of chasing and being chased by the light is central to Oliver ’ s life story .
It is a tale of a split-soul , the twice wounded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ heroism but who hates war and journeys to get back home where he can rest with his family by the hearth and feel at peace , and the wild , restless , tormented free pirate sailing for adventure and new discoveries .
Of course getting back home is no simple matter , especially when you left because home had set the conflict in your heart in the first place , as it did for Stone .
Home is a country as much as a family , and this personal tale is also a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ country riven since the 1960s .
A country that ’ s been feeding on lies that had “ infected everything , and I was still numb from it .
Because I ’ d basically never woken up.
” Platoon Best Price : $ 5.99 Buy New $ 10.00 But there are epiphanies along the way that wake Stone up , intuitions , hunches , risks he takes , and there are luminescent passages throughout this book to crack open the reader ’ s consciousness to a second reality .
Chasing the Light is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like so many memoirs by famous people ; Stone is a wonderful writer , and as with his films , he takes you deep to places you may wish to avoid but are essential for true sanity .
The great thing about this memoir is his passion for truth and life that courses through its pages .
He seizes the reader by the throat and shouts : Consciousness !
Wake up !
Don ’ t let sleep and forgetfulness make you into one of the living-dead !
A lesson he learned fortuitously at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ classical drama and his professor , Tim Leahy , raged about the fate of Odysseus and how he was the only one of his crew to get back home because he dared to keep his eyes and ears open to both the dark and light forces whirling all around him .
He refused “ LETHE ” – sleep and forgetfulness .
But as the fates decreed , when the desperately poor warrior Stone came back from Vietnam to NYC and was still struggling to find his way back to a true home he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make sense of his life , he encountered his Calypso , as did Odysseus along his wandering journey to get home to Ithaca .
Her name was Najwa Sarkis , an older Lebanese woman who worked at the United Nations .
They fell together and for five years Najwa gave Oliver shelter from the storm in her apartment in the East 50s .
The sex was passionate and the living conditions in Calypso ’ s cave comfortable , and although they married at her insistence , it was like his parents ’ marriage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I can ’ t say the marriage , from my side , ” he writes , “ was built on love , but rather on comfort and caring for each other.
” Tempted to stay by the thought of comfort , as Odysseus was by the promise of immortality , Stone finally admits the truth to Najwa and himself , packs his bags and leaves “ his goddess.
” He knew he wasn ’ t home yet and had to risk much more to try to get there .
“ The flaw was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my own man .
This I knew in my gut – that I hadn ’ t yet been successful as a writer because I ’ d failed to complete the journey I started when I went to Vietnam.
” So Odysseus heads to the uptown subway with his two suitcases .
Vietnam haunts him .
He starts to write what eventually will become the script for Platoon , using Odysseus as his template and example of conscious behavior to expose all the lies of the Vietnam war and the insidious hypocrisy of American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ poem about the older Odysseus , still wanting “ to seek , to find , and not to yield , ” the memoirist , himself now not young , says , “ In my seventy-plus years from 1946 to now , the chorus of fear-mongering bullshit has never ceased – only grown louder .
The joke is on us .
Ha Ha Ha.
” Throughout this book , Stone is very hard on himself as well as the country : I had my story , I realized .
I was no hero .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ whole country , our society had .
But at the least – If I could tell the truth of what I ’ d seen – it was better than…what ?
Nothing – the void of a meaningless war and waste of life while our society was stuffing it ’ s ears with wax .
Odysseus , lashing himself to his mast to preserve his sanity , had insisted on hearing the Sirens , and remembering it .
Whereas I was honored for my service to my country , the truth was I soiled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , exiled myself , gone to jail for it like the Berrigans , the Spocks , and some 200,000 others .
I was young , yes , and I can say that I didn ’ t know better , that I was part of the unconsciousness of my country .
He tells us he didn ’ t wake up until he was nearly thirty-years-old – in 1976 .
Ever since he has devoted his life to the art of waking up his fellow Americans through writing and filmmaking , which he had the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ film school from that other passionate New York filmmaker , Martin Scorsese , who was his professor .
Scorsese shone a light on Oliver after he had made a short film without dialogue called Last Year in Vietnam .
It was shown to the class , a tough group of critics , but before anyone had spoken , Scorsese said , “ Well – this is a filmmaker.
” It was an epiphany that Stone says he will never forget .
A pure gift that set him on his way to eventually make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was hard and took years to complete .
Stone ’ s mother , Jacqueline Pauline Cézarine Goddet , and his father , Louis Stone ( born Abraham Louis Silverstein ) , were married in Paris as World War II ended .
He was an U.S. Army officer and she , a “ peasant ” French girl , were mismatched from the start .
They “ made possibly the greatest mistake of their lives – to which I owe my existence , ” he tells us .
Oliver became very close to his French @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he was struggling to write successful screenplays and break into filmmaking , his beloved grandmother dies and he goes to France for her funeral .
There is a scene in this memoir – I almost said movie – where he arrives alone in a suburb of Paris where she is laid out in her musty apartment in an old apartment building .
He felt the dead were calling to him from the past – Vietnam , France .
So much death , so many lies , betrayals .
He writes : Seeking Truth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Buy New $ 26.95 I thought about how Odysseus went to the Underworld to find Tiresias for a prophecy about when and how he ’ d return home to Ithaca .
And once in the Underworld , he recognized his mother , Anticlea , who , like the other shades , had come to him to slake herself at the pool of sheep ’ s blood he had sacrificed to get there .
For Oliver , his Mémé was like a mother to him , and with her forty-year marriage to her beloved @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a symbol of what family life should be all about , the family Oliver had lost and desperately wished for .
Home as love and commitment .
“ Without a family , we one and all suffer , ” he says .
In less than four pages , his description of this encounter with his grandmother illuminates the heart of this memoir and is an exquisite example of a great artist at work .
An artist who uses words to touch your soul , heart-breaking , tender , and hopeful in turns , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stone .
I would buy this book for these four pages alone .
Listen : I drew up my chair closer to be with her , like we ’ d been when I was young , cuddled in her big bed as she told me the stories of the wolves in Paris who ’ d come down the chimneys to snatch the children who ’ d been bad…There was the silence of ‘ la mort , ’ and then the October light began to drop .
No one else knocked or visited .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ – and that something listening between us .
Not long ago I ’ d been twenty-three .
You were so happy when I ’ d returned in one piece from over there .
I ’ d tried to pay my debt to society .
We all have one , we don ’ t only live for ourselves .
But I still felt uneasy and Mémé did too .
What did Vietnam have to do with saving our civilization when it only made the world more callous ?
You never asked me for an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time…I ’ d done nothing .
I ’ d achieved nothing .
Therefore I was nothing…I was crying but didn ’ t know I was until I felt the tears .
I hadn ’ t cried in so any years – I was a hard boy .
I had to be , I felt , to survive .
I was raised to believe men don ’ t cry .
But this time it feels fresh , like a rain .
But who am I crying to ?
Not you , Mémé – you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
You never have .
Is it my self I ’ m crying to ?
My self , but who was that ?
I could not see myself .
I was ugly , hiding .
I could cry myself dry with self-pity .
All this pain , so much pain .
Yes , I feel it now- feel sorry for myself , it ’ s okay- so raw , all my lies , my embarrassment naked for the dead to see , naked to the whole world !
No one loves me , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Because I can ’ t love anyone – except you , Mémé , and you ’ re gone now .
Can I…can I learn to love ?
How can I start ?
By just being kind like you were ?
Can I be kind – to myself ?
In my mind , I heard Mémé reply : ‘ Try – you ’ re a man now .
You ’ re no longer seventeen sitting on the sidelines of your life , judging .
You ’ ve seen this world , tasted its tears @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recognize this , Oliver , Oliver , Oliver ’ – my name , invoked three times to rouse myself , to wake myself from this long slumber .
Do something with your life , I demanded , all this energy bottled up for years , hopeless dreaming and writing , no excuse , you can do better .
Stop fucking around…Mémé continued speaking to me so gently .
That soft voice : ‘ Mon chéri , mon p ’ tit Oliverre , te fais pas de soucis pour rien…Fais ta vie .
Fais @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ est tout ce quil y a. Je t ’ embrasse , je t ’ adore.
’ ( My darling , my little Oliver , don ’ t be miserable for nothing…Make you life .
Do what you have to do .
That ’ s all there is .
I embrace you , I adore you . )
…The other shades were approaching now , smelling the blood , so many young men groaning…faces distorted in death .
There was whispering , many voices .
‘ Stone , hey man , don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ ?
Gim me some !
Hey , tell my girl you saw me , will ya ?
Remember me , will ya ?
You got a joint ?
’ Mémé wanted me to go – quickly , before it was too late .
I couldn ’ t hear , but it clear what the shades were saying : We , the dead , are telling you – your lifespan is short .
Make of it everything you can .
Before you ’ re one of us .
I rose and kissed Mémé @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Au revoir , ma belle Mémé .
And I walked out – as she looked away and began slaking her thirst with the others…I walked the silent streets to the Metro .
Like in a dreamscape , there were no living people .
Maybe that ’ s the reason we die .
It makes us want to live again .
Oliver does exactly that .
Reborn , determined , he returns to the U.S. and makes his life by making the illuminating movies that have made his reputation .
He does the opposite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ People don ’ t want to know the truth , ” his father told him .
“ Reality is too tough .
They go to the movies to get away from all that.
” He knew his “ very nature was unacceptable to the fantasy world of moviegoers , ” but he wasn ’ t home yet and pushes on , getting in lots of trouble for telling truths people don ’ t want to hear , except perhaps the dead .
But making those films was far from smooth sailing .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ treacherous , filled with betrayals , drugs , Hollywood a place where you had to watch your back .
Just when the battle seemed over and you had won , another rocket would explode at your feet , throwing you for a loop .
It would take another toll on Stone .
So often , when he would think his screenplay or deal to direct a film was secured – that the stone he had rolled to the top of the hill was set – back it would roll .
He would find @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was down and that when he thought he was at the top , he was soon on the bottom .
The years that followed were a roller coaster ride .
He writes truthfully about his need to quell his anxiety with a host of drugs that fueled his days and nights and led to addiction , his guilt and confusion , his partying like his glamorous party-loving mother , who “ was there for me , and yet she wasn ’ t ; it was more like she was on display.
” He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from something , writing , hustling , trying to justify himself as he traveled toward a home called success , the bitch-goddess Success , the pipe dream nurtured in Hollywood .
In numerous chapters , a reader fascinated with the nuts and bolts of filmmaking , from the screenplay through directing , financing , casting , editing , distributing , etc.
, will delight in his detailed description of the movie game .
Midnight Express , Scarface , Salvador , Platoon are explored in depth .
If you want to know about Al @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , James Woods , Dino De Laurentiis , the wild Richard Boyle , et al.
, it ’ s all here .
The good , bad , and the ugly .
Gossip or insights , call it what you will .
It ’ s all interesting .
Stone writes about his second wife , Elizabeth , the joy that the birth of their son , his first child , Sean , brought him , the conflicts that developed as he ’ s torn between home life and the mad pursuit of filmmaking , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you off a cliff.
” He wrote in his diary : What have I become ?
A Macbeth of workaholics .
I ’ ve worked straight 17 , years , two scripts a year , etc.
, and what has it brought me ?
Never been able to relax , but must .
I ’ m always running like a mad rabbit down an Alice in Wonderland hole , always getting bigger or smaller and never knowing what will happen next.
” By the end of the book , Oliver , now forty-years-old @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the world when he wins Oscars for Platoon , and although he revels in this victory , something continues to eat at him , as if he hadn ’ t really reached Ithaca , but was still on the journey .
“ So I ’ d come to this moment in time , ” he writes .
“ Success was a beautiful goddess , yes , but was I being seduced by this vindication , this proving myself to my father ; was it the acceptance , the power ?
What did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rascal was still alive and at sea , despite saying that , “ And truthfully , I don ’ t think I ’ d ever been happier.
” He had finally achieved great film success , had a lovely wife and child , a garden , his books , a pool to jump in .
Tranquility .
No .
He tells us : Mine was a free man ’ s life , without a home , really , except for the wenches in the local ports , like Sabatini ’ s Captain Blood @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gift for laughter and the sense that the world was mad.
’ Thus it remains a split in my soul – the home , the hearth , and then out into the wind with your crew – Odysseus ’ s ‘ I am become a name.
’ Could this be ?
Could I live two different lives ?
Like those hard men I ’ d worked with in the merchant marine twenty years before – six months on land , six at sea ; unsettled , eccentric men who remained free in their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years , I ’ d live out this split in my nature to the fullest .
The reader will have to await a sequel to Chasing the Light to see if Odysseus ever finds his way to his true home .
In the meantime , Charlie Sheen ’ s words at the end of Platoon will have to suffice : Those of us who did make it have an obligation to build again , to teach to others what we know , and to try with what ’ s left of our lives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this life .
The Best of Edward Curtin

Like the wandering and rascally Odysseus upon whom he models his life, Oliver Stone is “double-minded” in the most profound and illuminating ways. The title of his fantastic new memoir is a case in point. “One of the first basic lessons in filming,” he writes, “is chasing the light. Without it, you have nothing – no exposure that can be seen; even what you see with your naked eye needs to be shaped and enhanced by the light.”
For as a true artist living out a marriage between his writing and his filmmaking, his father and his mother, the warrior and the peacemaker, the domesticated and wild man, he has chosen a title that has a double meaning that is subtly woven like a thread through this labyrinthine tale. It takes the reader from his childhood through his service in Vietnam and his struggles as a writer and filmmaker up to 1987 and his great success with his powerful autobiographical film, Platoon, for which he received Oscars for Best Film and Best Director, among others.
Driven by a youthful urge to escape his internal demons first brought on by his mismatched parents’ divorce when he was fifteen, Stone dropped out of Yale, his father’s alma mater, where he had enrolled to fulfill his stockbroker father’s dream. He accepted an offer from a Catholic Church group to teach English-speaking high school students in Chalon, a suburb of Saigon, which he did for six months before traveling around southeast Asia. Back in Saigon, he joined the merchant marine and worked his way back to the states cleaning boilers, the lowest and dirtiest job on the ship. After a storm-tossed 37 days journey, he was cured of his desire to go to sea, a romantic fascination he had acquired from literature. The lesson: Books are not life, nor are movies – they are ways to shape and illuminate it. Chasing the Light: Wri... Stone, Oliver Best Price: $19.69 Buy New $18.01 (as of 04:06 UTC - Details)
Back in the states he threw himself into writing, his first love and the place where his “anxieties could be relieved” and where he felt he could confirm his independent existence separate from his parents. Through writing he could control his story. He wrote a novel called, “A Child’s Night Dream.”
He reentered Yale but only lasted a few months since his heart was not in the placid life of academia, having already had a taste of the wandering life. He then quit Yale for good, to his father’s great disappointment. Lou Stone thought Oliver might turn into a “bum,” a painful refrain in this memoir. This twisted parental inculcation of shame and fear cast a deep shadow on Oliver’s soul and became one of the ghosts that he spent years trying to outrun by becoming a workaholic desperate for success. His novel was subsequently rejected and he fell into a deep depression and self-loathing.
Suicidal at nineteen, he volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army in Vietnam to expiate his guilt, shame, and self-loathing, thinking that perhaps God would take his life for him.
“Odysseus thought he would return home when he left Ithaca,” he writes, “I wasn’t sure of anything…”
It was in Vietnam on January 1-2, 1968, after a terrifying night battle along the Cambodia border where his unit was in a hot zone interdicting North Vietnamese Army troops coming through Laos and Cambodia toward Saigon, when he experienced a profound light experience very different from the type he would later chase while making films.
The battle raged throughout the dark jungle night where confusion and terror reigned. It was impossible to hear or see, and although 25 Americans and 400 North Vietnamese were killed, Stone “hadn’t seen a single one of them [Vietnamese],” although he performed bravely. Here is his brilliantly disturbing and revealing description of what ensued.
Full daylight revealed charred bodies, dusty napalm, and gray trees. Men who died grimacing, in frozen positions, some of them still standing or kneeling in rigor mortis, white chemical death on their faces. Dead, so dead. Some covered with white ash, some burned black. Their expressions, if they could still be seen, were overtaken with anguish or horror. How do you die like this? Charging forward in a hailstorm of death into these bombs and artillery. Why? Were you terrified, or were you jacked out of your fucking mind? What kind of death did you achieve? It was frightening to contemplate, and yet, I wasn’t scared. It was exciting. It was as if I passed from this world and was somewhere where the light was being specially displayed to me in a preview of another life. Soldiers might say it was hell, but I saw it as divine; the closest man would ever come to the Holy Spirit was to witness and survive this great, destructive energy. [emphasis added by author]
So after fifty years in another life, the survivor remembers in that odd mixture that memory is, a shaping force that relies on the light of experience to enhance the existential marriage of hope lost and found, fact and fiction joined to find the truth of an epiphany. He continues:
No person should ever have to witness so much death. I really was too young to understand, and thus I erased much of it, remembering it in this strange way as a stunningly beautiful night full of fireworks, in which I hadn’t seen a single enemy, been fired on, or fired at anyone. It’d been like a dream through which I ‘d walked unharmed, grateful of course, but numb and puzzled by it all. It reminded me of passages in Homer of gods and goddesses coming down from Mount Olympus to the bloody battlefields at Troy to help their favorites, wrapping a mist or cloak around them and winging them to safety.
These passages appear early in the book, and I quote them not just to point out the dual nature of the book’s title – only something a truly creative writer would conceive – but because the dual theme of chasing and being chased by the light is central to Oliver’s life story. It is a tale of a split-soul, the twice wounded warrior who receives a Bronze Star for heroism but who hates war and journeys to get back home where he can rest with his family by the hearth and feel at peace, and the wild, restless, tormented free pirate sailing for adventure and new discoveries. Of course getting back home is no simple matter, especially when you left because home had set the conflict in your heart in the first place, as it did for Stone.
Home is a country as much as a family, and this personal tale is also a guidebook through modern American history, a country riven since the 1960s. A country that’s been feeding on lies that had “infected everything, and I was still numb from it. Because I’d basically never woken up.” Platoon Best Price: $5.99 Buy New $10.00 (as of 04:06 UTC - Details)
But there are epiphanies along the way that wake Stone up, intuitions, hunches, risks he takes, and there are luminescent passages throughout this book to crack open the reader’s consciousness to a second reality. Chasing the Light is not a superficial trip down memory lane like so many memoirs by famous people; Stone is a wonderful writer, and as with his films, he takes you deep to places you may wish to avoid but are essential for true sanity. The great thing about this memoir is his passion for truth and life that courses through its pages. He seizes the reader by the throat and shouts: Consciousness! Wake up! Don’t let sleep and forgetfulness make you into one of the living-dead! A lesson he learned fortuitously at NYU when he took a course in classical drama and his professor, Tim Leahy, raged about the fate of Odysseus and how he was the only one of his crew to get back home because he dared to keep his eyes and ears open to both the dark and light forces whirling all around him. He refused “LETHE” – sleep and forgetfulness.
But as the fates decreed, when the desperately poor warrior Stone came back from Vietnam to NYC and was still struggling to find his way back to a true home he couldn’t envision, writing to make sense of his life, he encountered his Calypso, as did Odysseus along his wandering journey to get home to Ithaca. Her name was Najwa Sarkis, an older Lebanese woman who worked at the United Nations. They fell together and for five years Najwa gave Oliver shelter from the storm in her apartment in the East 50s. The sex was passionate and the living conditions in Calypso’s cave comfortable, and although they married at her insistence, it was like his parents’ marriage, built on a lie. “I can’t say the marriage, from my side,” he writes, “was built on love, but rather on comfort and caring for each other.” Tempted to stay by the thought of comfort, as Odysseus was by the promise of immortality, Stone finally admits the truth to Najwa and himself, packs his bags and leaves “his goddess.” He knew he wasn’t home yet and had to risk much more to try to get there. “The flaw was that I hadn’t grown into my own man. This I knew in my gut – that I hadn’t yet been successful as a writer because I’d failed to complete the journey I started when I went to Vietnam.” So Odysseus heads to the uptown subway with his two suitcases.
Vietnam haunts him. He starts to write what eventually will become the script for Platoon, using Odysseus as his template and example of conscious behavior to expose all the lies of the Vietnam war and the insidious hypocrisy of American life. As in Tennyson’s poem about the older Odysseus, still wanting “to seek, to find, and not to yield,” the memoirist, himself now not young, says, “In my seventy-plus years from 1946 to now, the chorus of fear-mongering bullshit has never ceased – only grown louder. The joke is on us. Ha Ha Ha.”
Throughout this book, Stone is very hard on himself as well as the country:
I had my story, I realized. I was no hero. I slept on my consciousness. My whole country, our society had. But at the least – If I could tell the truth of what I’d seen – it was better than…what? Nothing – the void of a meaningless war and waste of life while our society was stuffing it’s ears with wax. Odysseus, lashing himself to his mast to preserve his sanity, had insisted on hearing the Sirens, and remembering it. Whereas I was honored for my service to my country, the truth was I soiled myself when I could’ve resisted, exiled myself, gone to jail for it like the Berrigans, the Spocks, and some 200,000 others. I was young, yes, and I can say that I didn’t know better, that I was part of the unconsciousness of my country.
He tells us he didn’t wake up until he was nearly thirty-years-old – in 1976.
Ever since he has devoted his life to the art of waking up his fellow Americans through writing and filmmaking, which he had the great good fortune to learn at NYU film school from that other passionate New York filmmaker, Martin Scorsese, who was his professor. Scorsese shone a light on Oliver after he had made a short film without dialogue called Last Year in Vietnam. It was shown to the class, a tough group of critics, but before anyone had spoken, Scorsese said, “Well – this is a filmmaker.” It was an epiphany that Stone says he will never forget. A pure gift that set him on his way to eventually make his great films.
But the journey was hard and took years to complete.
Stone’s mother, Jacqueline Pauline Cézarine Goddet, and his father, Louis Stone (born Abraham Louis Silverstein), were married in Paris as World War II ended. He was an U.S. Army officer and she, a “peasant” French girl, were mismatched from the start. They “made possibly the greatest mistake of their lives – to which I owe my existence,” he tells us. Oliver became very close to his French grandparents, especially his Mémé. As he was struggling to write successful screenplays and break into filmmaking, his beloved grandmother dies and he goes to France for her funeral. There is a scene in this memoir – I almost said movie – where he arrives alone in a suburb of Paris where she is laid out in her musty apartment in an old apartment building. He felt the dead were calling to him from the past – Vietnam, France. So much death, so many lies, betrayals. He writes: Seeking Truth in a Cou... Curtin, Edward Buy New $26.95 (as of 02:59 UTC - Details)
I thought about how Odysseus went to the Underworld to find Tiresias for a prophecy about when and how he’d return home to Ithaca. And once in the Underworld, he recognized his mother, Anticlea, who, like the other shades, had come to him to slake herself at the pool of sheep’s blood he had sacrificed to get there.
For Oliver, his Mémé was like a mother to him, and with her forty-year marriage to her beloved Pépé who had predeceased her, was a symbol of what family life should be all about, the family Oliver had lost and desperately wished for. Home as love and commitment. “Without a family, we one and all suffer,” he says.
In less than four pages, his description of this encounter with his grandmother illuminates the heart of this memoir and is an exquisite example of a great artist at work. An artist who uses words to touch your soul, heart-breaking, tender, and hopeful in turns, far different from the often-popular image of Stone. I would buy this book for these four pages alone. Listen:
I drew up my chair closer to be with her, like we’d been when I was young, cuddled in her big bed as she told me the stories of the wolves in Paris who’d come down the chimneys to snatch the children who’d been bad…There was the silence of ‘la mort,’ and then the October light began to drop. No one else knocked or visited. Just me. And you, Mémé – and that something listening between us. Not long ago I’d been twenty-three. You were so happy when I’d returned in one piece from over there. I’d tried to pay my debt to society. We all have one, we don’t only live for ourselves. But I still felt uneasy and Mémé did too. What did Vietnam have to do with saving our civilization when it only made the world more callous? You never asked me for an explanation. Three wars in your life time…I’d done nothing. I’d achieved nothing. Therefore I was nothing…I was crying but didn’t know I was until I felt the tears. I hadn’t cried in so any years – I was a hard boy. I had to be, I felt, to survive. I was raised to believe men don’t cry. But this time it feels fresh, like a rain. But who am I crying to? Not you, Mémé – you’re not the one judging me. You never have. Is it my self I’m crying to? My self, but who was that? I could not see myself. I was ugly, hiding. I could cry myself dry with self-pity. All this pain, so much pain. Yes, I feel it now- feel sorry for myself, it’s okay- so raw, all my lies, my embarrassment naked for the dead to see, naked to the whole world! No one loves me, no one will ever love me. Because I can’t love anyone – except you, Mémé, and you’re gone now. Can I…can I learn to love? How can I start? By just being kind like you were? Can I be kind – to myself? In my mind, I heard Mémé reply: ‘Try – you’re a man now. You’re no longer seventeen sitting on the sidelines of your life, judging. You’ve seen this world, tasted its tears. Now’s the time to recognize this, Oliver, Oliver, Oliver’ – my name, invoked three times to rouse myself, to wake myself from this long slumber. Do something with your life, I demanded, all this energy bottled up for years, hopeless dreaming and writing, no excuse, you can do better. Stop fucking around…Mémé continued speaking to me so gently. That soft voice: ‘Mon chéri, mon p’tit Oliverre, te fais pas de soucis pour rien…Fais ta vie. Fais ce que tu veux faire. C’est tout ce quil y a. Je t’embrasse, je t’adore.’ (My darling, my little Oliver, don’t be miserable for nothing…Make you life. Do what you have to do. That’s all there is. I embrace you, I adore you.) …The other shades were approaching now, smelling the blood, so many young men groaning…faces distorted in death. There was whispering, many voices. ‘Stone, hey man, don’t forget me! Where you goin’? Gimme some! Hey, tell my girl you saw me, will ya? Remember me, will ya? You got a joint?’ Mémé wanted me to go – quickly, before it was too late. I couldn’t hear, but it clear what the shades were saying: We, the dead, are telling you – your lifespan is short. Make of it everything you can. Before you’re one of us. I rose and kissed Mémé’s face one last time…” Au revoir, ma belle Mémé. And I walked out – as she looked away and began slaking her thirst with the others…I walked the silent streets to the Metro. Like in a dreamscape, there were no living people. Maybe that’s the reason we die. It makes us want to live again.
Oliver does exactly that. Reborn, determined, he returns to the U.S. and makes his life by making the illuminating movies that have made his reputation. He does the opposite of what his father advised him. “People don’t want to know the truth,” his father told him. “Reality is too tough. They go to the movies to get away from all that.” He knew his “very nature was unacceptable to the fantasy world of moviegoers,” but he wasn’t home yet and pushes on, getting in lots of trouble for telling truths people don’t want to hear, except perhaps the dead.
But making those films was far from smooth sailing. It was another form of warfare, treacherous, filled with betrayals, drugs, Hollywood a place where you had to watch your back. Just when the battle seemed over and you had won, another rocket would explode at your feet, throwing you for a loop. It would take another toll on Stone. So often, when he would think his screenplay or deal to direct a film was secured – that the stone he had rolled to the top of the hill was set – back it would roll. He would find that often what seemed to be up was down and that when he thought he was at the top, he was soon on the bottom. The years that followed were a roller coaster ride.
He writes truthfully about his need to quell his anxiety with a host of drugs that fueled his days and nights and led to addiction, his guilt and confusion, his partying like his glamorous party-loving mother, who “was there for me, and yet she wasn’t; it was more like she was on display.” He tells us how he was always running from something, writing, hustling, trying to justify himself as he traveled toward a home called success, the bitch-goddess Success, the pipe dream nurtured in Hollywood.
In numerous chapters, a reader fascinated with the nuts and bolts of filmmaking, from the screenplay through directing, financing, casting, editing, distributing, etc., will delight in his detailed description of the movie game. Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, Platoon are explored in depth. If you want to know about Al Pacino, Charlie Sheen, Michael Cimino, James Woods, Dino De Laurentiis, the wild Richard Boyle, et al., it’s all here. The good, bad, and the ugly. Gossip or insights, call it what you will. It’s all interesting.
Stone writes about his second wife, Elizabeth, the joy that the birth of their son, his first child, Sean, brought him, the conflicts that developed as he’s torn between home life and the mad pursuit of filmmaking, “even if it’s leading you off a cliff.” He wrote in his diary:
What have I become? A Macbeth of workaholics. I’ve worked straight 17, years, two scripts a year, etc., and what has it brought me? Never been able to relax, but must. I’m always running like a mad rabbit down an Alice in Wonderland hole, always getting bigger or smaller and never knowing what will happen next.”
By the end of the book, Oliver, now forty-years-old in 1987, is on the top of the world when he wins Oscars for Platoon, and although he revels in this victory, something continues to eat at him, as if he hadn’t really reached Ithaca, but was still on the journey. “So I’d come to this moment in time,” he writes. “Success was a beautiful goddess, yes, but was I being seduced by this vindication, this proving myself to my father; was it the acceptance, the power? What did I really believe?”
The double-minded rascal was still alive and at sea, despite saying that, “And truthfully, I don’t think I’d ever been happier.” He had finally achieved great film success, had a lovely wife and child, a garden, his books, a pool to jump in. Tranquility.
No. He tells us:
Mine was a free man’s life, without a home, really, except for the wenches in the local ports, like Sabatini’s Captain Blood, who ‘was born with a gift for laughter and the sense that the world was mad.’ Thus it remains a split in my soul – the home, the hearth, and then out into the wind with your crew – Odysseus’s ‘I am become a name.’ Could this be? Could I live two different lives? Like those hard men I’d worked with in the merchant marine twenty years before – six months on land, six at sea; unsettled, eccentric men who remained free in their souls yet tormented. In the next years, I’d live out this split in my nature to the fullest.
The reader will have to await a sequel to Chasing the Light to see if Odysseus ever finds his way to his true home.
In the meantime, Charlie Sheen’s words at the end of Platoon will have to suffice:
Those of us who did make it have an obligation to build again, to teach to others what we know, and to try with what’s left of our lives to find a goodness and meaning to this life.
The Best of Edward Curtin


lewrockwell--2020-08-24--Here’s How a Cashless Society Would Affect Day to Day Life

Have you ever thought about the ramifications of a cashless society ?
I ’ m talking about the real , first-person effects , not some ephemeral conspiracy theory or possible biblical prophecy .
This is bad news for a lot of reasons , not the least of which are the ways it would affect day-to-day life .
Here ’ s my definition of a cashless society , so we ’ re all singing from the same songbook : Cash would no longer be legal tender , therefore you could not make purchases with it , pay bills with it , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ You would not be able to deposit cash into your bank account so you wouldn ’ t be able to accept cash for an exchange of goods or services .
Therefore , cash would be nothing more than a worthless piece of paper .
( I know , I know .
Debt-based currency is a totally different article though . )
Bank 4.0 : Banking Ever ... King , Brett Best Price : $ 12.84 Buy New $ 17.89 We ’ re heading this way .
Jose recently wrote that Venezuela is rapidly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ States a concerning early sign is that there is a “ change shortage ” which is causing many stores to give you your change on a store loyalty card or invite you to donate that change to some cause .
Think of all the times that cash is an appropriate gift .
I ’ ve always given money , like stuffing a child ’ s birthday card with a $ 20 bill or giving a new graduate some cash to put toward college expenses .
When I got married , we received quite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ones .
My dad always gave my daughters some spending money of their own each time we visited and they were surprised and delighted every single time .
However , in a cashless society , there are two problems with this .
First of all , the recipient would not be able to use the cash .
He or she would not be able to spend or deposit it .
Secondly , if a monetary gift is given , it would have to be done with a check or electronic transfer .
This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tax Man ) would know precisely how much money any person is given .
That might not be a big deal for the 7-year-old who got $ 20 from grandpa , but what about the graduate who raked in a couple thousand in gifts from family members to celebrate his or her accomplishments ?
At what point will the government have their hands out for “ their fair share ?
” A lot of folks are really struggling right now with the COVID shutdowns .
Jobs have been lost , hours have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ One of the ways that these people are making ends meet is with side gigs .
Folks are cutting grass , cleaning houses , driving for Uber , delivering food , babysitting – they ’ re coming up with all sorts of ways to make some extra money .
A huge percentage of these people are being paid in cash .
But if suddenly you can no longer spend your cash , you ’ d need to be paid electronically .
How many people who don ’ t already have a business have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ debit cards ?
There are options like Paypal and Venmo , which take a percentage fee , but they ’ re going to have to figure out something .
And then , as above , every single bit of this side gig money is traceable and trackable .
This could quickly turn your 20 bucks from lawn mowing into $ 15 after taxes .
Raise your hand if you ’ ve ever sold something to pay a bill .
Me too !
I ’ ve sold jewelry , furniture , exercise equipment – @ @ @ @ @ @ @ obligation when in a pinch .
Not only that , but I have a yard sale every single year to downsize the things that I found I don ’ t really use , which often brings in a few hundred dollars .
How will this work in a cashless society ?
Well , if you are selling just one larger item , you ’ d probably end up using some kind of payment app like Venmo or Paypal .
On the other hand , a yard sale would be nearly impossible to conduct @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be able to sit there and do Paypal transactions all day , especially when folks are buying things that cost 25 cents ?
And there we are , down another way of making some quick money .
Lots of folks who work in food service and the beauty industry , just to name two niches , depend on tips to make a living .
Generally , tips are collected from tables or paid out at the end of the shift if they were put on a debit card .
But…once there is no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ end up going on a regular paycheck .
One hundred percent of this money will be subject to payroll withholdings .
This will mean that a lot of people see a sharp decrease in their earnings , plus they ’ ll have to wait for their checks to get the money .
It puts a lot of power into the hands of the management and it would not be difficult at all for someone to manipulate the amounts the workers have earned .
I ’ ve written many times about the importance of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It teaches them responsibility and life skills that will serve them well in the future .
( Learn more about talking to your kids about money in this article . )
My daughters have had access to money since they were in kindergarten , and possibly before .
Now , how are you going to give a five-year-old access to money if it ’ s all electronic ?
Are they going to end up with their own bank accounts and debit cards ?
That hardly seems realistic .
There is also the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ means the money can only be spent at certain places , taking away the vital learning curve of saving your money to put it toward a Big Goal .
Forget lemonade stands , gifts from Grandpa , or putting change in a piggy bank – these will all be things of the past .
Eight million households in the United States are “ underbanked ” or “ unbanked.
” This means that they don ’ t have any kind of bank account due to fees , bad credit , or other obstacles .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ already take a hefty fee to give them the pay they ’ ve earned .
What will they do when this is no longer an option ?
Most of the people who are unbanked or underbanked are living under the poverty line already .
This would mean that they can no longer pick up side-gigs to make ends meet , they can ’ t do odd jobs , and getting them any kind of assistance will be more difficult .
Slate reports how the coin shortage is affecting these Americans : And this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how difficult it would be if our society became completely cashless .
There is an alarming amount of power in access .
So , we can see this isn ’ t an ideal situation for any of us .
The Unbanking of Ameri ... Servon , Lisa Best Price : $ 2.99 Buy New $ 8.88 But even these things are relatively minor in comparison to the potential for abuse against citizens in a cashless society .
If every single dime you bring in is tracked and recorded , you will have no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also be at far more risk .
Many of us keep some cash savings around the house for emergencies .
Even if there is a bank holiday , we ’ ll be okay because we have the money sitting around to take care of any incidentals while we are unable to access our banked money .
But what happens when things are cashless ?
All that money we ’ ve stashed away over the years would have to go into the coffers and we ’ d lose a certain amount of control .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ when times are okay , but what happens when there ’ s a Cyprus-style event and the government decides a bail-in is in order ?
If you don ’ t recall , back in 2013 , billions of dollars were seized from depositors to protect the small country ’ s banking system .
This was done to make good on an $ 11.6 billion dollar debt owed to creditors outside the country .
If you think that sounds far-fetched – like something that could “ never happen here , ” it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have language that allows for bail-ins here in the United States .
After the bailouts for the economic crisis of 2008 , Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Act of January 2010 , which prohibits government bailouts but allows bail-ins .
So , yes , the money in your account could indeed be used to save a floundering bank .
Not only that , but think about the outrageous phenomenon of civil asset forfeiture .
If you aren ’ t familiar with it , that means that an entity can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you have not been convicted of a crime .
Civil asset forfeiture provides billions of dollars to the US Government and local police departments every single year .
Imagine how much easier that would be if your wealth was all in one place .
And let me take it just one step further before I take off the tinfoil – think about how many websites , YouTube channels , and social media accounts have been purged and demonetized over the past few years .
Is it that much of a stretch of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ step further ?
That perhaps unpopular opinions could be fined and money immediately be withdrawn from the accounts of those who dissent with the status quo ?
Maybe I ’ m just another paranoid conspiracy theorist .
But are you actually paranoid when “ they ” are really out to control you ?
Reprinted with permission from The Organic Prepper .
The Best of Daisy Luther

Have you ever thought about the ramifications of a cashless society? I’m talking about the real, first-person effects, not some ephemeral conspiracy theory or possible biblical prophecy. This is bad news for a lot of reasons, not the least of which are the ways it would affect day-to-day life.
Here’s my definition of a cashless society, so we’re all singing from the same songbook:
Cash would no longer be legal tender, therefore you could not make purchases with it, pay bills with it, or spend it in any way. You would not be able to deposit cash into your bank account so you wouldn’t be able to accept cash for an exchange of goods or services.
Therefore, cash would be nothing more than a worthless piece of paper. (I know, I know. Debt-based currency is a totally different article though.) Bank 4.0: Banking Ever... King, Brett Best Price: $12.84 Buy New $17.89 (as of 04:08 UTC - Details)
We’re heading this way. Jose recently wrote that Venezuela is rapidly becoming cashless and here in the United States a concerning early sign is that there is a “change shortage” which is causing many stores to give you your change on a store loyalty card or invite you to donate that change to some cause.
Gifts
Think of all the times that cash is an appropriate gift. I’ve always given money, like stuffing a child’s birthday card with a $20 bill or giving a new graduate some cash to put toward college expenses. When I got married, we received quite a bit of money from various loved ones. My dad always gave my daughters some spending money of their own each time we visited and they were surprised and delighted every single time.
However, in a cashless society, there are two problems with this.
First of all, the recipient would not be able to use the cash. He or she would not be able to spend or deposit it.
Secondly, if a monetary gift is given, it would have to be done with a check or electronic transfer. This means that the government (and the Tax Man) would know precisely how much money any person is given. That might not be a big deal for the 7-year-old who got $20 from grandpa, but what about the graduate who raked in a couple thousand in gifts from family members to celebrate his or her accomplishments? At what point will the government have their hands out for “their fair share?”
Side Gigs
A lot of folks are really struggling right now with the COVID shutdowns. Jobs have been lost, hours have been cut, and financial problems abound. One of the ways that these people are making ends meet is with side gigs. Folks are cutting grass, cleaning houses, driving for Uber, delivering food, babysitting – they’re coming up with all sorts of ways to make some extra money. A huge percentage of these people are being paid in cash.
But if suddenly you can no longer spend your cash, you’d need to be paid electronically. How many people who don’t already have a business have a merchant account for taking credit or debit cards? There are options like Paypal and Venmo, which take a percentage fee, but they’re going to have to figure out something.
And then, as above, every single bit of this side gig money is traceable and trackable. This could quickly turn your 20 bucks from lawn mowing into $15 after taxes.
Selling Secondhand Goods
Raise your hand if you’ve ever sold something to pay a bill. Me too! I’ve sold jewelry, furniture, exercise equipment – all sorts of stuff to meet an obligation when in a pinch. Not only that, but I have a yard sale every single year to downsize the things that I found I don’t really use, which often brings in a few hundred dollars.
How will this work in a cashless society? Well, if you are selling just one larger item, you’d probably end up using some kind of payment app like Venmo or Paypal. On the other hand, a yard sale would be nearly impossible to conduct electronically. Who is really going to be able to sit there and do Paypal transactions all day, especially when folks are buying things that cost 25 cents?
And there we are, down another way of making some quick money.
Tips
Lots of folks who work in food service and the beauty industry, just to name two niches, depend on tips to make a living. Generally, tips are collected from tables or paid out at the end of the shift if they were put on a debit card. But…once there is no cash, these tips will have to end up going on a regular paycheck. One hundred percent of this money will be subject to payroll withholdings.
This will mean that a lot of people see a sharp decrease in their earnings, plus they’ll have to wait for their checks to get the money. It puts a lot of power into the hands of the management and it would not be difficult at all for someone to manipulate the amounts the workers have earned.
Children
I’ve written many times about the importance of allowing children to handle their own money. It teaches them responsibility and life skills that will serve them well in the future. (Learn more about talking to your kids about money in this article.) My daughters have had access to money since they were in kindergarten, and possibly before.
Now, how are you going to give a five-year-old access to money if it’s all electronic? Are they going to end up with their own bank accounts and debit cards? That hardly seems realistic. There is also the option of gift cards, but that means the money can only be spent at certain places, taking away the vital learning curve of saving your money to put it toward a Big Goal. Forget lemonade stands, gifts from Grandpa, or putting change in a piggy bank – these will all be things of the past.
The unbanked or underbanked
Eight million households in the United States are “underbanked” or “unbanked.” This means that they don’t have any kind of bank account due to fees, bad credit, or other obstacles. These people rely on check-cashing businesses that already take a hefty fee to give them the pay they’ve earned. What will they do when this is no longer an option?
Most of the people who are unbanked or underbanked are living under the poverty line already. This would mean that they can no longer pick up side-gigs to make ends meet, they can’t do odd jobs, and getting them any kind of assistance will be more difficult.
Slate reports how the coin shortage is affecting these Americans:
To the average American, this shortage may only cause minor headaches—a harder time paying at a parking meter or exact change required at a coffee shop. But some 8 million American households, or 6 percent of Americans, are “unbanked,” meaning that because of fees and other financial hurdles, they have no checking, savings, or money market account. Many rely instead on services such as money orders, pawn shop loans, or payday loans. According to Venky Shankar, a marketing professor at the Center for Retailing Studies at Texas A&M University, Americans who make $25,000 a year or less use cash for around 45 percent of their purchases. So those Americans might struggle to pay for essential services without change on hand. They also might find it more stressful to round up or donate their change, should stores ask for it. “For an unbanked or underbanked person, it could leave them in a horrible situation if they don’t have access to the cards,” saidAngela Lyons, a professor of economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (source)
And this is just a coin shortage. Imagine how difficult it would be if our society became completely cashless.
There is an alarming amount of power in access.
So, we can see this isn’t an ideal situation for any of us. The Unbanking of Ameri... Servon, Lisa Best Price: $2.99 Buy New $8.88 (as of 04:08 UTC - Details)
But even these things are relatively minor in comparison to the potential for abuse against citizens in a cashless society. If every single dime you bring in is tracked and recorded, you will have no financial privacy, and you’ll also be at far more risk. Many of us keep some cash savings around the house for emergencies. Even if there is a bank holiday, we’ll be okay because we have the money sitting around to take care of any incidentals while we are unable to access our banked money.
But what happens when things are cashless? All that money we’ve stashed away over the years would have to go into the coffers and we’d lose a certain amount of control.
It’s all well and good when times are okay, but what happens when there’s a Cyprus-style event and the government decides a bail-in is in order? If you don’t recall, back in 2013, billions of dollars were seized from depositors to protect the small country’s banking system. This was done to make good on an $11.6 billion dollar debt owed to creditors outside the country.
If you think that sounds far-fetched – like something that could “never happen here,” it’s incredibly important to note that we already have language that allows for bail-ins here in the United States. After the bailouts for the economic crisis of 2008, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Act of January 2010, which prohibits government bailouts but allows bail-ins. So, yes, the money in your account could indeed be used to save a floundering bank.
Not only that, but think about the outrageous phenomenon of civil asset forfeiture. If you aren’t familiar with it, that means that an entity can seize your property or money even when you have not been convicted of a crime. Civil asset forfeiture provides billions of dollars to the US Government and local police departments every single year. Imagine how much easier that would be if your wealth was all in one place.
And let me take it just one step further before I take off the tinfoil – think about how many websites, YouTube channels, and social media accounts have been purged and demonetized over the past few years. Is it that much of a stretch of the imagination that this could be taken a step further? That perhaps unpopular opinions could be fined and money immediately be withdrawn from the accounts of those who dissent with the status quo?
Maybe I’m just another paranoid conspiracy theorist. But are you actually paranoid when “they” are really out to control you?
Reprinted with permission from The Organic Prepper.
The Best of Daisy Luther


lewrockwell--2020-08-24--The Solar Plasma Temperature Is Plunging – Should We Worry?

The solar plasma temperature has plunged to a new low for the instrument record .
Coincidentally or not , the temperature of the southern hemisphere has also plunged over the last couple of weeks .
When do we start worrying ?
As Figure 1 shows , the temperature of the solar wind has hit a new low for the instrument record .
As it is energy from the Sun that keeps the Earth from looking like Pluto , the lower plasma temperature indicates that the Sun ’ s surface is cooling .
Surely the Earth ’ s surface will follow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proton ratio in the solar wind Similarly the alpha particle to proton ratio has hit a new low for the almost 50 years of the instrument record .
The decline for the peak ratio in each solar cycle is even more dramatic .
The question that naturally arises is this : Is there a lower bound for this ratio ?
Solar wind flow pressure has hit a new low for the instrument record .
There a couple of interesting things about this chart .
Note that the lows for the last three solar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blue line .
This implies that there is a disciplined process involved .
Note also the low activity in the late 1960s that set up the 1970s cooling period .
It is the solar wind flow pressure combined with the Sun ’ s magnetic field that reduces the flux of galactic cosmic rays reaching the Earth .
As these two parameters we can expect a spike in the neutron flux about a year from now .
In turn that is expected to increase cloud cover and the Earth ’ s albedo .

The solar plasma temperature has plunged to a new low for the instrument record. Coincidentally or not, the temperature of the southern hemisphere has also plunged over the last couple of weeks. When do we start worrying?
Figure 1: Temperature of the solar wind plasma
As Figure 1 shows, the temperature of the solar wind has hit a new low for the instrument record. As it is energy from the Sun that keeps the Earth from looking like Pluto, the lower plasma temperature indicates that the Sun’s surface is cooling. Surely the Earth’s surface will follow.
Figure 2: Alpha particle to proton ratio in the solar wind
Similarly the alpha particle to proton ratio has hit a new low for the almost 50 years of the instrument record. The decline for the peak ratio in each solar cycle is even more dramatic. The question that naturally arises is this: Is there a lower bound for this ratio?
False Alarm: How Clima... Lomborg, Bjorn Buy New $28.00 (as of 06:25 UTC - Details) Figure 3: Solar wind flow pressure
Solar wind flow pressure has hit a new low for the instrument record. There a couple of interesting things about this chart. Note that the lows for the last three solar cycles are aligned as indicated by the blue line. This implies that there is a disciplined process involved. Note also the low activity in the late 1960s that set up the 1970s cooling period.
It is the solar wind flow pressure combined with the Sun’s magnetic field that reduces the flux of galactic cosmic rays reaching the Earth. As these two parameters we can expect a spike in the neutron flux about a year from now. In turn that is expected to increase cloud cover and the Earth’s albedo.
Read the Whole Article


lewrockwell--2020-08-24--Scientists Call For Safety Testing of Aluminum-Based Vaccine Adjuvants

What Happened : A group of scientists from multiple countries recently published a paper in the Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology titled “ The role of aluminum adjuvants in vaccines raises issues that deserve independent , rigorous and honest science.
” In their publication , they provide evidence for their position that “ the safety of aluminium-based vaccine adjuvants , like that of any environmental factor presenting a risk of neurotoxicity and to which the young child is exposed , must be seriously evaluated without further delay , particularly at a time when the CDC is announcing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disorders , of 1 child in 54 in the USA.
” The publication goes on to address concerns it has with another paper that was published a year prior , emphasizing that the authors of that specific publication , JP Goullé & L Grangeot-Keros , Why This Is Important : This isn ’ t the only paper that raise concerns about the role of aluminum in vaccines .
Many people claim that the amount of aluminum we take in from other sources is greater than the aluminum in vaccines , but fail to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our body from vaccines may not exit our body .
Professor Christopher Shaw from the University of British Columbia in Canada explains that injected aluminum doesn ’ t come into the same methods of excretion as the aluminum we take in from food , for example .
When we inject aluminum , it stays in the body , it may cross the blood brain barrier , enter into cells and various organs in the body .
I Make Tin Foil Hat Fr ... Buy New $ 21.99 When you inject aluminum , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ body .
It doesn ’ t come into that same mechanism of excretion .
So , and of course it can ’ t because that ’ s the whole idea of aluminum adjuvants , aluminum adjuvants are meant to stick around and allow that antigen to be presented over and over and over again persistently , otherwise you wouldn ’ t put an adjuvant in in the first place .
It can ’ t be inert , because if it were inert it couldn ’ t do the things it does .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it couldn ’ t provide that prolonged exposure of the antigen to your immune system .
– Dr. Christopher Shaw – Canadian neuroscientist and professor of ophthalmology at the University of British Columbia ( source ) In 2018 , shaw published a paper in the Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry that found almost 100 percent of the intramuscularly injected aluminum in mice as vaccine adjuvants was absorbed into the systemic circulation and traveled to different sites in the body such as the brain , the joints , and the spleen where it accumulated and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ source ) A study published in BioMed Central ( also cited in the study above ) in 2013 found more cause for concern : The study went on to conclude that “ continuously escalating doses of this poorly biodegradable adjuvant in the population may become insidiously unsafe.
” These authors followed up and published a study study in 2015 tah emphasized : How to End the Autism ... Handley , J.B. Best Price : $ 9.89 Buy New $ 14.48 A paper published in 2018 discovered high amounts of aluminum in the brain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ particular paper has now been downloaded more than 1 million times .
The particular paper cited above was published by Dr. Christopher Exley .
Exley was also one of the authors on the main paper cited at the beginning of this article .
Here is a very interesting interview with him if you ’ re interested .
He ’ s considered to be one of the world ’ s leading experts in aluminum toxicology , if not the world ’ s leading expert .
You can find out more about his research and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ visiting his Instagram page .
The point is , this topic is hot right now , as it should be , and it seems that our federal health regulatory agencies continue to ignore the concerns being made and the studies being published .
Below is an important clip from Dr. Larry Palevsky , a board-certified Paediatrician currently practicing in New York talking about aluminum and how it differs in adjuvant form .
The video is important because in the 90 ’ s , Dr. Antonietta Gatti discovered the relationship between micro- and nano-particles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pathologies : cardiovascular diseases , many forms of cancer , multiple neurological diseases , and autoimmune diseases .
She ’ s taken part in many international research projects , including the pathologies induced by depleted uranium , waste incineration , food polluted with inorganic particles , and more .
She is also a selected expert of the FAO/WHO for the safety in nanotechnological food , and a Member of the NANOTOX Cluster of the European Commission and the author of a book titled “ Nanopathology : the health impact of nanoparticles , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Biomaterials Applications and a member of the CPCM of the Italian Ministry of Defense .
Furthermore , her and her husband Dr. Stefano Montanari founded a laboratory called Nano-diagnostics for the evaluation of the pathological tissues of patients , it ’ s presently at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia , Italy .
Miller ’ s Review ... Miller , Neil Z .
Best Price : $ 8.32 Buy New $ 14.48 A few years ago the Italian police raided their home , the police took all digital assets that were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ including laptops , computers , and flash-drives , basically years of work and research .
The scientists published their work in January of 2017 , titled , New Quality‐Control Investigations on Vaccines : Micro‐ and Nanocontamination .
If science wasn ’ t plagued by corruption , an investigation should have started , healthcare agencies would have become involved and vaccine safety policies would have come under intense scrutiny , but that never happened .
Dr. Martin Howell Friede , Coordinator of Initiative For Vaccine Research at the World Health Organization , brought up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at a WHO conference .
In certain vaccines , without these adjuvants the vaccine simply doesn ’ t work .
Dr. Friede mentioned that there are clinical studies that blame adjuvants for adverse events seen as a result of administering vaccines , and how people in general often blame adverse reactions to vaccines being the result of the vaccine adjuvant .
He mentioned aluminum specifically .
He showed concern given the fact that “ without adjuvants , we are not going to have the next generation of vaccines.
” He also stated that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it ’ s because it is essential .
We do not add adjuvants to vaccines because we want to do so , but when we add them it adds to the complexity .
And I give courses every year on ‘ how do you develop vaccines ’ and ‘ how do you make vaccines ’ and the first lesson is , while you are making your vaccine , if you can avoid using an adjuvant , please do so .
Lesson two is , if you ’ re going to use an adjuvant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of safety , and lesson three is , if you ’ re not going to do that , think very carefully .
You can read more about that conference and find a link to it here .
So , does the aluminum adjuvant in vaccines have a “ history of safety ?
” Vaccine Epidemic : How ... Best Price : $ 7.50 Buy New $ 12.99 According to a study published as far back as 2011 in Current Medical Chemistry The Takeaway : When it comes to vaccine safety , why does @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those who have concerns “ anti-vax conspiracy theorists ?
” Why don ’ t they ever address the science and concerns being raised that paint vaccines in a light that they ’ ve never been painted in ?
What ’ s going on here ?
Why are the safety concerns addressed by many scientists and doctors always ignored and never addressed/countered ?
Would more rigorous safety testing of our vaccines not be in the best interests of everybody ?
Who would ever oppose that and why ?

What Happened: A group of scientists from multiple countries recently published a paper in the Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology titled “The role of aluminum adjuvants in vaccines raises issues that deserve independent, rigorous and honest science.” In their publication, they provide evidence for their position that “the safety of aluminium-based vaccine adjuvants, like that of any environmental factor presenting a risk of neurotoxicity and to which the young child is exposed, must be seriously evaluated without further delay, particularly at a time when the CDC is announcing a still increasing prevalence of autism spectrum disorders, of 1 child in 54 in the USA.”
The publication goes on to address concerns it has with another paper that was published a year prior, emphasizing that the authors of that specific publication, JP Goullé & L Grangeot-Keros,
Described general knowledge on aluminum (Al) exposure, kinetics and toxicity but made very little effort to delineate the scientific questions specifically related to Al adjuvants in vaccines. Instead of representing the bulk of their review, the subject of Al adjuvants covered no more than one third of the 3 page-text. Numerous important papers on the topic were omitted, i.e. 20 years of scientific publications in clinical, post-mortem, in vitro and in vivo experimental studies published by independent research teams, worldwide experts in this topic, were simply omitted.
Why This Is Important: This isn’t the only paper that raise concerns about the role of aluminum in vaccines. Many people claim that the amount of aluminum we take in from other sources is greater than the aluminum in vaccines, but fail to realize that the aluminum we take into our body from vaccines may not exit our body. Professor Christopher Shaw from the University of British Columbia in Canada explains that injected aluminum doesn’t come into the same methods of excretion as the aluminum we take in from food, for example. When we inject aluminum, it stays in the body, it may cross the blood brain barrier, enter into cells and various organs in the body. I Make Tin Foil Hat Fr... Buy New $21.99 (as of 04:09 UTC - Details)
When you inject aluminum, it goes into a different compartment of your body. It doesn’t come into that same mechanism of excretion. So, and of course it can’t because that’s the whole idea of aluminum adjuvants, aluminum adjuvants are meant to stick around and allow that antigen to be presented over and over and over again persistently, otherwise you wouldn’t put an adjuvant in in the first place. It can’t be inert, because if it were inert it couldn’t do the things it does. It can’t be excreted because again it couldn’t provide that prolonged exposure of the antigen to your immune system. – Dr. Christopher Shaw – Canadian neuroscientist and professor of ophthalmology at the University of British Columbia (source)
In 2018, shaw published a paper in the Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry that found almost 100 percent of the intramuscularly injected aluminum in mice as vaccine adjuvants was absorbed into the systemic circulation and traveled to different sites in the body such as the brain, the joints, and the spleen where it accumulated and was retained for years post-vaccination. (source)
A study published in BioMed Central (also cited in the study above) in 2013 found more cause for concern:
Intramuscular injection of alum-containing vaccine was associated with the appearance of aluminum deposits in distant organs, such as spleen and brain where they were still detected one year after injection. Both fluorescent materials injected into muscle translocated to draining lymph nodes (DLNs) and thereafter were detected associated with phagocytes in blood and spleen. Particles linearly accumulated in the brain up to the six-month endpoint; they were first found in perivascular CD11b+ cells and then in microglia and other neural cells. DLN ablation dramatically reduced the biodistribution. Cerebral translocation was not observed after direct intravenous injection, but significantly increased in mice with chronically altered blood-brain-barrier. Loss/gain-of-function experiments consistently implicated CCL2 in systemic diffusion of Al-Rho particles captured by monocyte-lineage cells and in their subsequent neurodelivery. Stereotactic particle injection pointed out brain retention as a factor of progressive particle accumulation…
The study went on to conclude that “continuously escalating doses of this poorly biodegradable adjuvant in the population may become insidiously unsafe.”
These authors followed up and published a study study in 2015 tah emphasized: How to End the Autism ... Handley, J.B. Best Price: $9.89 Buy New $14.48 (as of 01:35 UTC - Details)
Evidence that aluminum-coated particles phagocytozed in the injected muscle and its draining lymph nodes can disseminate within phagocytes throughout the body and slowly accumulate in the brain further suggests that alum safety should be evaluated in the long term.
A paper published in 2018 discovered high amounts of aluminum in the brain tissue of people with autism. That particular paper has now been downloaded more than 1 million times.
The particular paper cited above was published by Dr. Christopher Exley.
Exley was also one of the authors on the main paper cited at the beginning of this article. Here is a very interesting interview with him if you’re interested. He’s considered to be one of the world’s leading experts in aluminum toxicology, if not the world’s leading expert. You can find out more about his research and what he’s up to by visiting his Instagram page.
The point is, this topic is hot right now, as it should be, and it seems that our federal health regulatory agencies continue to ignore the concerns being made and the studies being published. Below is an important clip from Dr. Larry Palevsky, a board-certified Paediatrician currently practicing in New York talking about aluminum and how it differs in adjuvant form.
The video is important because in the 90’s, Dr. Antonietta Gatti discovered the relationship between micro- and nano-particles as well as a great number of pathologies: cardiovascular diseases, many forms of cancer, multiple neurological diseases, and autoimmune diseases. She’s taken part in many international research projects, including the pathologies induced by depleted uranium, waste incineration, food polluted with inorganic particles, and more.
She is also a selected expert of the FAO/WHO for the safety in nanotechnological food, and a Member of the NANOTOX Cluster of the European Commission and the author of a book titled “Nanopathology: the health impact of nanoparticles,” and on the Editorial Board of Journal of Biomaterials Applications and a member of the CPCM of the Italian Ministry of Defense.
Furthermore, her and her husband Dr. Stefano Montanari founded a laboratory called Nano-diagnostics for the evaluation of the pathological tissues of patients, it’s presently at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. Miller’s Review ... Miller, Neil Z. Best Price: $8.32 Buy New $14.48 (as of 04:45 UTC - Details)
A few years ago the Italian police raided their home, the police took all digital assets that were owned by the the two nanopathologists, including laptops, computers, and flash-drives, basically years of work and research.
James Grundvig via Children’s Health Defense describes what happened:
Because Gatti and Montanari had taken their research of nanodust and nanoparticles, from in-vivo (performed in a living organism) and in-vitro (performed in a test tube) to what unseen contamination might reside in vaccines in 2016, they came under the microscope of the United States, European, and Italian authorities. They had touched the third rail of medicine. They had crossed the no-go zone with the purported crime being scientific research and discovery. By finding nano-contamination in random vaccines, Gatti and Montanari revealed, for the first time, what no one knew: Vaccines had more than aluminum salts adjuvants, Polysorbate-80, and other inorganic chemicals in them, they also harbored stainless steel, tungsten, copper, and other metals and rare elements that don’t belong in shots given to fetuses, pregnant women, newborns, babies and toddlers developing their lungs, immune and nervous systems.
The scientists published their work in January of 2017, titled, New Quality‐Control Investigations on Vaccines: Micro‐ and Nanocontamination. If science wasn’t plagued by corruption, an investigation should have started, healthcare agencies would have become involved and vaccine safety policies would have come under intense scrutiny, but that never happened.
More Important Notes:
Dr. Martin Howell Friede, Coordinator of Initiative For Vaccine Research at the World Health Organization, brought up the topic of vaccine adjuvants like aluminum at a WHO conference. In certain vaccines, without these adjuvants the vaccine simply doesn’t work. Dr. Friede mentioned that there are clinical studies that blame adjuvants for adverse events seen as a result of administering vaccines, and how people in general often blame adverse reactions to vaccines being the result of the vaccine adjuvant. He mentioned aluminum specifically.
He showed concern given the fact that “without adjuvants, we are not going to have the next generation of vaccines.”
He also stated that:
When we add an adjuvant, it’s because it is essential. We do not add adjuvants to vaccines because we want to do so, but when we add them it adds to the complexity. And I give courses every year on ‘how do you develop vaccines’ and ‘how do you make vaccines’ and the first lesson is, while you are making your vaccine, if you can avoid using an adjuvant, please do so. Lesson two is, if you’re going to use an adjuvant, use one that has a history of safety, and lesson three is, if you’re not going to do that, think very carefully.
You can read more about that conference and find a link to it here.
So, does the aluminum adjuvant in vaccines have a “history of safety?” Vaccine Epidemic: How ... Best Price: $7.50 Buy New $12.99 (as of 06:30 UTC - Details)
According to a study published as far back as 2011 in Current Medical Chemistry
Aluminum is an experimentally demonstrated neurotoxin and the most commonly used vaccine adjuvant. Despite almost 90 years of widespread use of aluminum adjuvants, medical science’s understanding about their mechanisms of action is still remarkably poor. There is also a concerning scarcity of data on toxicology and pharmacokinetics of these compounds. In spite of this, the notion that aluminum in vaccines is safe appears to be widely accepted. Experimental research, however, clearly shows that aluminum adjuvants have a potential to induce serious immunological disorders in humans. (source)
The Takeaway: When it comes to vaccine safety, why does mainstream media constantly point fingers and call those who have concerns “anti-vax conspiracy theorists?” Why don’t they ever address the science and concerns being raised that paint vaccines in a light that they’ve never been painted in? What’s going on here? Why are the safety concerns addressed by many scientists and doctors always ignored and never addressed/countered? Would more rigorous safety testing of our vaccines not be in the best interests of everybody? Who would ever oppose that and why?
Reprinted with permission from Collective Evolution.


lewrockwell--2020-08-24--Bill Gates Blames ‘Freedom’ for Spread of the Covid1984

Recently , Bill Gates gave an interview to the Rothschild partially owned Economist .
In this interview , Gates was asked about how he views the U.S. response to the outbreak .
His reply was… Gates proceeded to directly blame the poor response on lack of preparation , but also freedom .
Yes , Bill Gates blamed our freedoms for the spread of the virus .
Bill Gates then went on to praise China ’ s authoritarian response and said , despite the fact that people ’ s rights were violated , China ’ s response was really amazing !
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rockefeller Lock Step document that laid out a scenario for a world of tighter top-down government control and more authoritarian leadership .
In this video report , we examine how we seem to be living out a scenario very similar to a Rockefeller Foundation document from a decade ago .
We also explore several examples of how what was initially considered to be basic , fundamental freedoms are being erased in response to this current crisis .
At the end of the day , one must always ask … who benefits ?
Somewhere @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Buy New $ 1.99 A VOYAGE IN IMAGINATIO ... Holmes , Dr Joel S Buy New $ 9.95 Fauci : The Bernie Mado ... Ortleb , Charles Buy New $ 5.99 Contagion Myth : Why Vi ... Fallon Morell , Sally Buy New $ 22.49

Recently, Bill Gates gave an interview to the Rothschild partially owned Economist. In this interview, Gates was asked about how he views the U.S. response to the outbreak. His reply was…
Aside from the high ‘risk money’ the US ponied up for vaccine research and development, he think the U.S. is doing a poor job overall.
Gates proceeded to directly blame the poor response on lack of preparation, but also freedom. Yes, Bill Gates blamed our freedoms for the spread of the virus.
Bill Gates then went on to praise China’s authoritarian response and said, despite the fact that people’s rights were violated, China’s response was really amazing!
This is right out of the 2010 Rockefeller Lock Step document that laid out a scenario for a world of tighter top-down government control and more authoritarian leadership.
In this video report, we examine how we seem to be living out a scenario very similar to a Rockefeller Foundation document from a decade ago.
We also explore several examples of how what was initially considered to be basic, fundamental freedoms are being erased in response to this current crisis.
At the end of the day, one must always ask … who benefits?
Read the Whole Article
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