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We need to wake up! We need to stop the mass brainwashing of society!
The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet is always garnering a lot of attention, and for good reason. Most recently, he told the world that simply praying is not the answer for the incident that occurred in Paris, as well as other similar atrocities that seem to happen all over the globe.
He stated that humans have created this problem, and now we are asking God to solve it, which makes no sense. If we created this mess, we should be the ones to solve it, not God.
His comments went viral, resonating with many people around the world who realize that action on a mass scale is required at this time to change the direction in which our planet seems to be headed.
Intertwined with the Paris attacks are the realities of war, and there is a great piece written on the Dalai Lama's website regarding the mass brainwashing of human beings. This is something we touch upon regularly on our website, especially when it comes to incidents of terrorism and war, along with the creation of these groups who are carrying out these attacks all over the world. He writes:
Of course, war and the large military establishments are the greatest sources of violence in the world. Whether their purpose is defensive or offensive, these vast powerful organizations exist solely to kill human beings. We should think carefully about the reality of war. Most of us have been conditioned to regard military combat as exciting and glamorous – an opportunity for men to prove their competence and courage. Since armies are legal, we feel that war is acceptable; in general, nobody feels that war is criminal or that accepting it is criminal attitude. In fact, we have been brainwashed. War is neither glamorous nor attractive. It is monstrous. Its very nature is one of tragedy and suffering.(source)
This (above) statement really hits home. If you think about it, these vast and powerful organizations, and the military in general, "exist solely to kill human beings."
As the Dalai Lama touches upon, we are conditioned and made to believe that military service is something to be proud of. Sure, these men and women may be entering into the service in order to serve their country, with a tremendous amount of bravery and good hearted intentions going into that decision, but what they do not know is that this global war on terrorism is a complete fabrication. The enemy they are made to believe they're defending their country from is actually a product of their own country.
As Dr. Michel Chossudovsky, University of Ottawa's Emeritus Professor of Economics, tells us, the global war on terrorism is completely fake and based on fake premises. Soldiers have been brainwashed into thinking that they are going after an enemy and defending their own country when that same enemy is fully supported and financed by the Western military alliance. As the Dalai Lama argues, this is exactly why "we feel that war is acceptable," because we are made to believe it's a necessary course of action.
He then goes on to state that:
Modern warfare waged primarily with different forms of fire, but we are so conditioned to see it as thrilling that we talk about this or that marvelous weapon as a remarkable piece of technology without remembering that, if it is actually used, it will burn living people. War also strongly resembles a fire in the way it spreads. If one area gets weak, the commanding officer sends in reinforcements. This is throwing live people onto a fire. But because we have been brainwashed to think this way, we do not consider the suffering of individual soldiers. No soldiers want to be wounded or die. None of his loved ones wants any harm to come to him. If one soldier is killed, or maimed for life, at least another five or ten people – his relatives and friends – suffer as well. We should all be horrified by the extent of this tragedy, but we are too confused. (source)
The extent of this brainwashing is quite massive, and if we are going to stop the murder of other human beings and war in general, it is that 'brainwashed' soldier that needs to wake up. It is a human being pulling the trigger, it is a human being giving the orders to do os, and it is a human being thinking that they are doing something good.
We are the reason war exists in the first place; we created it, we participate in it, and we prolong it. Just imagine what would happen if every human being on the planet refused to participate in war? This is why we say change needs to come from within, and as more soldiers wake up to what's really happening here, more of them will simply refuse to go to war.
"No matter how malevolent or evil are the many murderous dictators who can currently oppress their nations and cause international problems, it is obvious that they cannot harm others or destroy countless human lives if they don't have a military organisation accepted and condoned by society." (source)
Some of these soldiers that are used by their corporate/big bank puppetmasters are starting to wake up and speak out. Linked below is an article that provides two excellent examples, with some shocking information that many people are still waking up to (graphic footage warning).
The Dalai Lama then goes on to speak about how expensive war is. This is something many people think about – the fact that the money pumped into the military and the Department of Defense in the United States (including the black budget) could completely alleviate poverty and hunger on our planet. That being said, money is made out of thin air, typed up on a computer screen and printed at will by the controlling elite.
We are talking about, as ex Canadian Defense Minister Paul Hellyer points out, "trillions, and I mean thousands of billions of dollars" that "have been spent on projects which both Congress and the Commander in Chief know nothing about." Welcome to what president Eisenhower called the military industrial complex where, as he warned us, the rise for misplaced power exists and will persist. What would he say about what's happened today?
The point is, if we are going to use money as a tool, why not take that many and allocate it to provide food, shelter and clothing for everybody on the planet? The defense expenditures of a couple of countries alone could do this no problem.
"We should feel fed up with the violence and killing going on around us. If a human being is killed by an animal, it's sad, but if a human being is killed by another human being it's unthinkable. We have to make a special effort to think of each other as fellow human beings, as our brothers and sisters." – Dalai Lama (source)
Thank you Dalai Lama for having the courage to share such an important message with the world.
Longtime Business Lobbyist Laments Loss of 'Smoke-Filled Rooms' in Washington
December 18, 2016
On Washington
By CARL HULSE
R. Bruce Josten has been in the middle of the biggest deals in Washington over the past few decades without ever holding office, working on Capitol Hill or serving in the White House.
As executive vice president for government affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Josten, 66, was the point man for business interests in a slew of heavy-duty trade, tax and energy negotiations. He was a master at the inside game.
After more than 30 years in the Beaux-Arts-style chamber headquarters across Lafayette Square from the White House, Mr. Josten is now in his own transition, retiring after helping turn the chamber into a political powerhouse and watching his specialty — sophisticated legislative give-and-take — become less prized in a polarized capital.
Washington, he said, has become an "I-win, you-lose" town rather than a "how-do-we-get-this-done" town where those skilled in what he calls the "art of the back room" can have a big impact.
"I like to be able to negotiate and go back and forth," said Mr. Josten, recounting how he would shuttle proposals between congressional players on big bills. "That is what I did. It was a big part of closing a deal to get it out of committee, to get it to an actual floor vote to passage. And that doesn't happen anymore."
"I actually do miss the smoke-filled rooms of yesteryear," said Mr. Josten, and not just because he quit smoking after a health scare three years ago. "Because you got a lot done."
One thing Mr. Josten wasn't able to get done over the years was any kind of serious overhaul of the big entitlement programs such as Social Security, he said, noting ruefully that he struck out on three separate occasions. But he did lead a coalition that led to a balanced federal budget in 1996. And he took the chamber from handing out scorecards on lawmakers to spending millions of dollars on campaign advertising.
Mr. Josten doesn't always have patience for those without the grasp of the policy details that he marshals on a variety of complex tax and trade subjects. But the Harvard graduate and collegiate swimmer who began as a telemarketer for the chamber in 1974 was widely respected by those on all sides for his command of the issues and his ideas about how to bridge differences. K Street ran straight through his chamber office on H Street.
His exit comes at the end of a campaign season during which the Republican candidate for president — typically someone expected to be aligned with the chamber — was the one bashing big business for exporting jobs and accepting flawed trade deals at the expense of U.S. workers.
Mr. Josten isn't leaving because of the changing landscape and the arrival of President-elect Donald J. Trump. He says he just sees it as a good moment to turn over his responsibilities to successors he has helped recruit. But he doesn't dispute that the chamber has become a punching bag for some on the right who view establishment entities and their defense of institutions such as the U.S. Export-Import Bank as a big part of the problem in Washington.
He attributes the criticism of the bank, which provides government help to exporters, to a lack of understanding of international markets. And he sees the assault on the chamber by advocacy groups as a way to tap into public anger — and wallets.
"You need something to sell against to raise money, to be frank," he said. "If you look at Trump's campaign, he embodied that divisiveness, fear and anger in the American people. We are on the other side of that and we are a big target."
Mr. Josten is more concerned with the trend toward one party going it alone legislatively, using its power to impose its priorities on the other as the Democrats did with the health care law and Republicans are threatening to do by repealing it. That approach is not sustainable in the long run, he said.
"If you want durability and lasting law, the only way to really achieve it is to engage both sides of the aisle and reach an outcome that the president, regardless of party, will sign because of the product itself," he said.
He sees a current political and legislative climate marked by a certain inflexibility and intransigence that is not conducive to compromise and ends with little being accomplished.
"From time to time, you work with your adversaries," said Mr. Josten, who became the chamber's chief lobbyist in 1994, as the organization faced a membership revolt over the chamber's initial endorsement of key elements of the Clinton administration's health care proposal. "You've got to be able to separate certain things at certain times and do what is right for your constituents. I think it just became harder and harder for the politicians to do that and I think that has had an impact on all of us in town."
With Republicans about to assert themselves, Mr. Josten fears they won't learn from the mistakes made by Democrats when they had control of the White House and Congress and will "ram them and jam them" on taxes and health care. He suggests another course for Republicans who think there is but one alternative.
"Why don't you try it the old-fashioned way would be my recommendation," Mr. Josten said. "Let's have a real give and take."
"I always felt it shouldn't be really easy to legislate," he said. "It should be a bit of a challenge. You should have to work at it."
Now, for the first time in a long time, the lawmakers who choose to work at it will do so without Mr. Josten.