Ponerology through the eyes of Ouspensky in "Letters from Russia 1919"

[Buddy]

Thanks Buddy. I hope you are right that consumer choices of the 99% can make a difference.

Maybe hope isn't necessary. Change is happening already!

In Canada, lessons from the rise and mostly failure of NGO's are back-propagating through the citizenry and local writers are documenting them. The Aboriginal message is being heard clearly, though not without difficulty for some people digesting the implications. Implications from a deeply circular or spatial system which includes the spiritual, or 'wholeness of existence'. They are speaking about humans as an integral part of the physical. Environmentally, the system takes human interests into account, but not in isolation from the rest.

Also factor in the diet threads and understand what's going on. Consider these dietary changes being made by increasing numbers of people and how dietary changes initiated by individuals can force growers and suppliers out of business or into new businesses that meet our needs.

Factor in the meaning of grassroots capitalism as represented by that open source "Blackspot" brand.

Notice a constant present within so many changes going on globally: in the past, we, the people, generally refused to imagine ourselves as making changes. Today, not so much.

In Wizard of Oz, Glenda told Dorothy that she (Dorothy) always had the power to return home (come back to her senses). So do we all, OSIT.

The example you give of GMO foods: In the US, it might be safer to assume something has GMO ingredients unless it says on the labelled that it does not.

Indeed.

So, what has this to do with "Bolshevism in the U.S.", or Political Ponerology in general? I'd say that only Global scale actions that outflank narrower context political maneuvering will work. Like a massive wave that can't be stopped.

Right now, global change toward 'better' is mosaic, fragmented. As more people join cooperative independent endeavors though, the separate parts of the picture may eventually come together and unite us all against the psychopaths.

 

[Approaching Infinity]

In the first letter, we can read:

"And the Bolsheviks did not propose to live in a state of perpetual war and to introduce into Russia what is in actual fact the dictatorship of the criminal clement."

Should it rather read:

"And the Bolsheviks did not propose to live in a state of perpetual war and to introduce into Russia what is in actual fact the dictatorship of the criminal element."

That's a common error with OCR, i.e. converted scanned text into digital text.

 

[Altair]

There are also interesting remarks about ponerology/psychopaths in Ouspensky's The fourth way:

Q. You speak of dead people recurring, but I thought essence could not die?

A. It can die relatively, in the sense that it cannot develop. Mechanically it may exist,
but it cannot grow, it can only deteriorate with time. Essence can die in many
different ways. It may die only for this life or it may die completely. It can die
completely only as a result of a long period of wrong actions, actions against
conscience. Killing essence means killing conscience. Or it can die in this life and be
born again, safe and sane, in the next. For instance, one can fall on one's head and
essence may die in the sense that it will not develop any further. But in the next life it
will live again. So in speaking about death of essence we must know which case we
mean, accidental or intentional.
In thinking about life, we forget that many people are dead and that sleeping people
easily fall under the influence of dead people.
Q. Are most people dead?

A. This question was much discussed in our group in St Petersburg. Some thought
that most people were dead, but I was always against this. Everybody is asleep, but
even in life you find pleasant people who may not work through laziness, lack of
opportunity, or something else. But they are not dead.
Q. How can dead people influence sleeping people?
A. In comparison with sleeping people they are very strong, because they have no
conscience and no shame. What makes ordinary people weak? Conscience and shame.
Besides, if people are asleep, anything can happen to them, they can be stolen out of
their beds.

It's discussed in this thread: https://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,34550.0.html