A Little Something for Your Ark, Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt

In these increasingly dire times we have plenty of warners, but what we desperately need right now are more arks.

As Michael Ventura wrote: “[A]ll of this passing things on, in all its forms, may not cure the world now—curing the world now may not be a human possibility—but it keeps the great things alive. And we have to do this because, as Laing said, who are we to decide that it is hopeless? And I said to my son, if you wanted to volunteer for fascinating, dangerous, necessary work, this would be a great job to volunteer for—trying to be a wide-awake human during a Dark Age and keeping alive what you think is beautiful and important.”

~ James Hillman and Michael Ventura, We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy and the World's Getting Worse.

So, with that in mind, here's a little something to stow away safely in your ark, as we make preparations for the dark times ahead of us.

“Some want to turn the clock back, harkening back to some golden age of nostalgia, when women, children, the lower class, parishioners, and people of other races and creeds knew their place; not back to the 1950s, but further back: to Dickensian times and to (corporate) feudal fiefdom. They want to wind the clock back to a time before the hard-won battles for civil rights, social reforms, and worker representation. A time long, long before the ‘woke virus’, ‘illegal immigrants’, and gender identity, when life was more conservative and white lives mattered; though with a new, fundamentalist, Christian nationalist (or Islamist, or ultra-Zionist, or even atheist) and isolationist twist. And some will go to any lengths – and I do mean any desperate, violent, draconian lengths – to bring this vile and unholy vision about.”

~ Preface to Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt, a story of resistance.

The Root Causes of Why We're FUBAR

Or “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea”

I'm tempted to simply post:

“The U/S is FUBAR and the UK is heading the same way.

“That's it. That's the post.”

I was going to say that coming in the wake of Trump's abominable Big Ugly Bill, the message will be clear to all but the hardcore sycophants in Cult 45/47. However, large swathes of the population, especially in rural areas – ordinary, everyday, decent, law-abiding folk – are probably misinformed or oblivious to the facts.

But, of course, the spread of right-wing authoritarian regimes, faux-populism, faux-Christian nationalism, straight white male supremacy, oligarchy, and veiled eugenics sweeping through the US and reverberating throughout the West – toxic as these may be – have their root causes elsewhere. 

Though the allure of quick and simple solutions to horrendously complex problems is undeniable, and tempting, especially to those of us who have done our own research – that is, shunned the experts, the libtard fact-checkers and the Marxist wokerati, and watched a few videos on YouTube – we have to look deeper and further afield.

AEON, Step 1: Hello World!

Welcome to AEON!

Home of the Ad-hoc Emergency Online Network.

Inspired by Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt, a story of resistance by H.M. Forester.

The AEON Network

AEON is a decentralised, trust-based, non-hierarchical, democratic, browser-based, online network (with no vulnerable central server or database). It uses gossip to propagate individual users' digitally-signed registry entries (using a private key) containing details such as hostname, IP address, nickname, X509 security certificate, and personal biography or blurb on any site and community resources they choose to host in the network.

A would-be member can contact any other registered member, via the latter's built-in server (a http web server running on port 8008), and become a registered member of the AEON network.

Any registered member can moderate users' behaviour, and it is up to individual members which (if any) moderators they trust, and hence whether or not to act on their trusted moderators' actions. Though we can't block individuals from a decentralised network like AEON, we can limit their audience reach by applying trusted moderator overrides. This will limit the propagation of the individual's registry entry and updates, and hence reduce their social reputation and reach in the network.

Our Books and Documents

Since the future of the Internet Archive's library can no longer be guaranteed, due to massive lawsuits by book publishers and music companies, I've backed-up some files at Facebook.

Etienne de L'Amour's mystical adventure, H.M. Forester's soft sci-fi, and other short documents are now available in the Mystical Faction group's Files section.

The Arms Race to End Democracy

Right now, though most of us have not yet been informed or cottoned-on, we are in an arms race: a battle to save or destroy democracy itself (depending on which side you are on). The opposition (currently fronted by Musk and his minions) see democracy as no longer fit for purpose, and obsolete, and see techno-feudalism as the way forward. Think about that.

We who are pro-democracy are at a distinct disadvantage: we're playing by the rules, while the opposition (Trump, MAGA, Musk, Christian Nationalists, alt-right, techno-feudalist elite) have torn up the rule book. And while it takes an age to formulate a case to take to court against executive orders that ride roughshod over the Constitution and the rule of law, they have their plan worked out using AI in a jiffy, and they're already two or three plans ahead.

And no matter how many thousand followers you have in the social media, you can't post your way out of fascism.

Image from Mike Brock's article, “The Plot Against America”.

Taking a Stand Against Oppression

“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.”

~ Elie Wiesel, The Night Trilogy: Night, Dawn, The Accident.

In my opinion, for what it is worth, at Jimmy Carter's memorial service, and with President Donald Trump in attendance, Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, bishop of Washington DC, gently and fairly, but firmly spoke truth to power; promoting unity in the face of a regime hell bent on fostering division, and promoting compassion, empathy and mercy in the face of a regime hell bent on cruelty. In doing so, she distinguished her more genuine form of Christianity from the deranged brand of Christian Nationalism / worship of Mammon that is behind Project 2025 and Felonious Trump's vile and unholy regime.