Stories about protagonists who’ve been misguided their whole lives about something very important have been emerging in our culture for generations, and they continue to delight audiences in the box office to this day.
The pauper was really a prince. Luke was Darth Vader’s son. Keanu Reeves had been living in a computer simulation. Bruce Willis was really a ghost. Jim Carrey’s whole world was the set of a TV show, and everyone in his life had been lying to him since his infancy.
This theme repeats so often because it strongly resonates with people. And it strongly resonates with people because it’s exactly what is happening.
From our earliest moments we are trained to fit in with a society that was designed from the ground up by the powerful in the service of the powerful. As soon as we are old enough to get curious about the world and how it works our heads are filled with lies about such matters, by our education systems, by the media we consume, by our parents who were indoctrinated in the same way, and by the very culture we find ourselves immersed in from day one.
These stories about a character who’s been deceived about life resonate so strongly with us because on some level we all suspect it might be true of our own lives as well. They whisper to something hidden and sacred within us that has always sensed that there’s something not quite right with the way we are perceiving things.
We’ve spent our whole lives marinating in lies which serve the powerful. We’re deceived into believing that we live in a democracy whose government acts in accordance with the will of the voting public. We’re deceived into believing our political systems are driven by two warring ideological factions whose divisions are naturally occurring phenomena in our society instead of the product of deliberate social engineering. We’re deceived into believing our government is basically good, and that it stands in opposition to foreign governments who are pure evil. We’re deceived into believing the way things are is the only way they could possibly be.
We’re deceived into believing false things about the ways we gather information and form our understanding of the world. We’re deceived into believing the news media tell us the truth about what’s going on. We’re deceived into believing that everything we hear from our side of the political partisan divide is true and trustworthy. We’re deceived into believing the partisan filters which have been placed over our perception of national and world events by indoctrination are entirely reliable instruments for interpreting information and drawing conclusions.
We’re deceived into believing false things about ourselves. We’re deceived into believing that we are successful if we can become dominant capitalists and wealthy ladder climbers, and that we are failures if we don’t turn the gears of industry and climb over others to get ahead. We’re deceived into believing that we are good if we uphold the made-up, power-serving rules of law, of culture and of religion, and that we are bad if we transgress them. We are deceived into believing that we need to keep accomplishing, achieving and obtaining, that we need to keep earning money and approval, so that we might one day feel adequate at some imaginary point in a future which never arrives.
If we really commit to uprooting the untruth that’s been planted in us, we can even discover that we’ve been deceiving ourselves about the way we experience reality. That the perception of oneself as a finite character who is separate from the world is based on false assumptions about the way experience is happening, unhelpful mental habits born of incorrect premises, and overlooked aspects of our own consciousness. That we’ve been making ourselves miserable with false beliefs about who and what we are.
This civilization is the set of the Truman Show, and we are all Truman.
But because we are all Truman, we can only walk off the set if we walk off together. There is no option to leave as an individual, because even if you know it’s all lies, you’re still stuck in a world full of humans whose behavior is driven by lies.
Awakening to reality as an individual can for this reason sometimes be more uncomfortable than remaining asleep in the dream, because you’re like Truman after he realizes it’s all a sham, but before he escapes. At times you’re just stuck there, freaking out at the actor who’s playing your mother while she tries in vain to cut to a commercial break. It can be distressing for you, and it can be distressing for the people around you who aren’t yet on the same page.
The only way we’re getting off the set of the Truman Show is if we can all succeed in waking each other up from the lies which built it. Until then we’ll be stuck in a world of poverty, war, exploitation, degradation, ecocide, and suffering. It’s not until enough of us have unplugged our minds from the matrix of lies that we’ll be able to use our strength of numbers to force real change.
Only then will we be able to escape.
Only then will we be able to walk off the set.
Only then will we be able to turn to the audience and say, “In case I don’t see ya: good afternoon, good evening, and good night!”
And then turn around, and walk out the door, and begin our adventure into reality.
_______________________
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TagsAWAKENINGCIVILIZATIONHUMANITYLIESPROPAGANDA Share When They Announce WW3 Let's Just Say 'Nah': Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix Latest Comments
PASCAL / JULY 25, 2022 @Ranney’s post below: The Godfather III kinda relates both to Caitlin’s article and to your post as Michael Corleone tries to buy himself respectability and legitimacy by donating spectacularly to the Catholic Church (the Vatican really) only to discover that the hierarchy there is as rotten as what he’s seen in the US political world, culminating with the alleged poisoning of Pope John Paul I in 1978, who wouldn’t go along with the ambient financial skulduggery.
This was quite a colorful period, with people flying out of windows at Clearstream in Luxemburg that laundered the money deposited in the Ambrosiano Bank whose chairman, Roberto Calvi, dubbed God’s banker, was eventually found hanging from London’s Blackfriars (can’t make that up) Bridge in 1982 in what was ruled a murder.
The Lodge P2 (Propaganda Due), labelled a “state in the state” for having members from all walks of deep state life (government, the Church, secret services, bankers… dancing to the tune of Nato’s terrorist branch Operation Gladio – officially a stay-behind army hell-bent on fighting communism in Europe while being actually run by far-right thugs, including CIA rogue nazi sympathizers Azov Battalion style, who killed dozens of Italian citizens in false flags attacks attributed to the Red Brigades) was of course suspected. Not alien to that suspicion was the fact that Michele Sindona (dubbed “the Vatican banker” because he had been appointed as economic consigliere by Paul VI), a member of Lodge P2 known in banking circles as “the Shark”, was also linked to the Sicilian mafia and chosen by the Gambino family to “manage” their profits from heroin sales. Sindona finally had Giorgio Ambrosoli, a lawyer who investigated him as liquidator of one of the banks he controlled, assassinated and was serving a life sentence in a Lombardian cell for that crime in 1986 when he serendipitously drank a cup of coffee laced with cyanide.
Meanwhile, back in the old ranch, in 1981, an assassination attempt was perpetrated on John Paul II. They are those, like the CIA, who heavily insist that it was “the Russians” in retaliation for John Paul II’s support of Polish anti-Russian communist rule organization Solidarnosc while others claim it was the CIA/Gladio for the same reason they had wacked John Paul II’s predecessor. Of course the fact that the would be assassin was a member of the far-right Turkish organization Grey Wolves, a CIA ally, doesn’t help the official CIA version much.
It’s interesting that Propaganda Due was also active in Argentina during the far-right Videla dictatorship brought about by the CIA’s Operation Condor while Provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus Jorge Mario Bergoglio (better known these days as Pope Francis), a vocal opponent to the left-wing theology of liberation hardly had anything to say about the atrocities committed by the junta.
We learnt from him later through complacent corporate media (who’ve loved him with a passion from day one) that he actually saved a few lives. It is an absolute marvel in any case to see how he is an ostentatiously woke pillar of the New World Order and Great Reset, even in domains not really pertaining to the church like heavily promoting the experimental, basically useless and marginally lethal Covid vaccines. Can’t make that stuff up!
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PETER MCLOUGHLIN / JULY 25, 2022 The greatest lie of all – or at least the self-deception – is power: people want it, not realizing it is an illusion. “Power” has ultimately brought every empire in history the conflict it was attempting to avoid: its own collapse. https://patternofhistory.wordpress.com/
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PAULHOLDSWORTH / JULY 25, 2022 There is of course only one truth in this world, and that is there is no truth in it….period
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MAX424 / JULY 25, 2022 An “adventure into reality.” Nice one. We never should have left reality behind in the first place, though, it will prove a costly mistake I’m afraid. As Max Tsu once said; never waste time when time is running out. And that’s what we’re doing, with all this living in the Truman Matrix world. Wasting what limited time is left to us at previously unthinkable, warp speeds. “You heard the order Mr. Sulu. Warp factor 7.” Note: “The engines can’t take much more Captain!” “Noted Mr. Scott.”
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RANNEY / JULY 25, 2022 Caitlin, you are absolutely right, but your examples aren’t scary enough. Lately I’ve been reading some books about our history. One of them is called “The Devil’s Chessboard” It’s about the Dulles brothers, especially about Alan who created the OSS and then the CIA. Both brothers were of the mind that Russia was an evil country because of Communism and that Communism must be eliminated at all costs. John Dulles was in charge of the State Department and the two of them went to work organizing the western world against Russia and communism. They were not above lying, if need be and they were definitely much more in sync with fascism and Nazis than they were of Russia. Granted Russia was our ally in the war but as soon as the war was over, as far as the Dulles bros were concerned , they were our enemies so they put out that Stalin was planning on attacking European countries and started us on an 80 year trajectory of hating Russia. I happened to be in 2nd grade when the war started and at the time Russia was our friend, so I have always thought of Russia as an ally, but that was a very short time period and most of us who are in their 80’s are dead and everyone who is even 2 or 3 years younger than 88, were actually raised to believe Russia was an enemy – it was easy back then – Stalin was not a nice guy and easy to hate, but he also was not planning to attack Europe; he was busy trying to get his country off its knees after losing 27 million people along with the total bombing of major cities and the destruction of their infrastructure. The lies have continued ever since 1945. Vietnam was fought to keep communism from taking over the world according to our leaders. (What CRAP!!!) and so it goes, as they say. The other book I am currently reading is called ‘Operation Gladio: the Unholy Alliance between the Vatican, the CIA and the Mafia”, published in 2018. If author Paul Williams is even half accurate (and he foot notes copiously) then the CIA (yes Dulles’ CIA) has been a major international drug dealer for the past 80 years, and has had the help of the Italian Mafia and the Vatican church’s own bank to help cover up that fact. We sort of know about Air America in Viet Nam because of the movie, but it was and is MUCH bigger than that. The truth is that absolutely nothing that the CIA says can be relied on; they may occasionally tell the truth by accident, but mostly they are simply working their money making agenda without concern for anything else – and by now they are raking in the money by the billions. So yes, dear Caitlin, who I so enjoy reading, you are right – we are being lied to about everything especially when it comes to our relationship with the rest of the world. We lie continually about Russia and China and of course our behavior in meddling in the governments of other countries is disgusting. I am so ashamed at our constantly taking out semi liberal governments and putting in fascists as we have done over and over. It’s really time for us to learn the awful truth. Lots of reporters have tried to tell us what is going on but they get “disappeared” and are no longer seen or heard or read in major news outlets on TV or press. I hope you will keep trying.
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REALIST / JULY 25, 2022 Spot on observations of critically important facts and so lucidly expressed. Thanks for this post.
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PASCAL / JULY 25, 2022 @Ranney: See reply above for space.
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FORTE / JULY 25, 2022 Are you waiting for everyone to get out of the set? That can be quite the wait.
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EDDY / JULY 25, 2022 Seriously Caitlin, I CHALLENGE you to speak to dispossesed people from foreign lands, like IRAQ, LIBYA,YEMEN, AFGHANISTAN, UKRAINE even. There’s incredibly large number to choose from these days, you need to interview these people if you wish to maintain creditability on this issue. I was Born in Europe, immediately after WW 2, my parents decided there was no future in Europe, and despite the war, nothing had changed to benefit the people. I grew up in Australia, and was confounded, when I started school at 6 years of age, being singled out as a NAZI, something I had no idea of what it was supposed to be. Before my first year was completed, I was fully informed on the issue. Thus I grew up watching and listening to these people claiming to be the Hollier than Thou, and anyone who did not suscribe to that, was the enemy. Until I joined the Australian Military and was sent to Vietnam. Boy Oh Boy, what a rude awakening that was, I very quickly discovered that the Australians with their heavy British influence were just as bad with the alleged enemy, as the Nazis were accused of. This was a BIG shock to me, contrary to everything I had been told all my life up that point. So what your writing is not accurate. People can and do, break out from the accepted Bullshit that’s fed to them from craddle to grave. They simply need and event that snaps them out and into reality. B.T.W. we did have quiet a few soldiers, when that happened to them, were unable to deal with their lives after that awakening, some committed suicide, some went insane, and some simply drowned themselves in alcohol and drugs. Today, if you’ve been paying attention in the MSM, they now propose to treat such people with legalised methylamphetamines, a crimilised drug, being legalised to bring these people back under control, and the nation stands silently in approval.
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ROSEMARY NISSEN-WADE / JULY 25, 2022 Ah, but what form would the walking off take? We are so conditioned that all we know is violence. But I don’t think either violent revolution or passive resistance would do it. I suppose the first thing is to wake everyone else up – and you are certainly doing the best you can in that direction – but then what? And do we have the time? I’m not saying we should give up. Freedom’s worth the attempt even if it turns out to be a lost cause., But I can’t see what the attempt might consist of.
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JARRET WOLFMAN / JULY 25, 2022 i think it starts with people like us talking to each other. organizing. brainstorming. strategizing. we need to connect and we need a plan. but it’s up to us. 🙂
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NATALIE GOLOVIN / JULY 25, 2022 Your post just listed exactly what Catholics describe are the deceipts of Satan and his minions. The more people desert God individually, and as a society, the stronger Satan becomes. St Michael the Archangel is called on to be “the safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil” Amazing how this whole “4th Turning” -as some describe it…or possible Apocalypse-start of the End Times seems approaching. Old Testament lists sword, famine, wild beasts, pestilence or plague while New Testament-conquest, war, famine and death. Coincidence? Just repeats or has the decline of religious faith gone so far that the biblical process has begun?
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EDDY / JULY 25, 2022 Natalie, I’m a Vietnam Veteran, I spent 13 months in the mud and slush in Vietnam’s jungles, ALLEGEDLY fighting an enemy, that prior to our involvement, did not even know Australia existed. Consider that for a moment. At the same time, the Australian Government and the MSM was telling Australians we had to go fight them over there or we’d all be speaking Vietnamese in short order. The people believed them. I didn’t. I was keen to see what the truth really was, so I volunteered my services, knowing I might not be coming home, but I had to find the truth. Before our Battalion departed Australia, we toured all Christian faiths in Townsville, being blessed at each center, and were told we were doing “GOD’s work”. NONE of these religious folks had ever set foot in Vietnam. Imagine my shock on arrival in Vietnam, to discover the folks considered the enemy, were in actual FACT Christians themselves, and to make it worse, many of them were Catholics as well. Here we were, appointed to do God’s work by butchering his own people ! I have not set foot into a church in Australia ever since, and have no intentions of ever doing so again. Your words, and I quote, “The more people desert God individually, and as a society, the stronger Satan becomes.” Unquote, area further mockery on top of a huge pile of the same crap.
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BB BENDERHAUS / JULY 25, 2022 People confuse the social manifestations of faith (churches) with the individual reality. It is a shame man perverts belief in God into such entities. God found Abraham faithful and just without a single church.
JARRET WOLFMAN / JULY 25, 2022 this may be your pièce de résistance. would actually love to hear it read by you. with feeling. if someone could put video to that it would be awesome. 🙂
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JARRET WOLFMAN / JULY 25, 2022 yes, i’m replying to my own comment! 🙂
the one thing i don’t agree with is that i don’t think we have to wake everyone up to achieve some level of freedom. some people just will never want to wake up. i guess that’s their right, right? i’m not really into forcing anyone to do anything.
i think that we only need a certain number of people to wake up before we have the numbers to at least make waves if not real change. and i’m feeling like we might already be there. even though i know it often feels like we’re the only ones we know who are awake in the real world.
but #### the real world! we can organize virtually! why isn’t everyone who reads caitlin working together? i mean, i’m guessing we aren’t. are we? if so, i want in! if not, let’s do it! 🙂
it would be easier if her site let us chat with other readers. might that be something we could do, caitlin? i’m guessing at least one of your readers knows how to do shit like that. 🙂
and then we could get down to business! actually collaborating and strategizing ways we can best utilize our collective resources globally for the cause. like @max girard said, no one is coming to save us. it’s up to us. however many of us there are. 🙂
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MAX GIRARD / JULY 25, 2022 Some things, like survival of our species, dealing constructively with climate change, etc. are just too important to leave to politicians and corporations IMO.
We need desperately to come together around policy, and leave ideology behind if just until we can get on the path toward a sustainable future.
99% of humanity is being guided by the 1% who have no interest in us or our problems. But just as those living in the top 20 floors of a hi-rise feel privileged, have more of the good life, and enjoy their status, while the rest live in the lesser floors of this 100 story building, when it collapses, all floors will be first floors! Gone will be the prestige, status, & good life.
It falls to us, the ordinary people, to pull together, to design better systems, to agree to get some things done even if we dont agree on everything. No one is coming to our rescue!
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JARRET WOLFMAN / JULY 25, 2022 so let’s do it! have any suggestions? 🙂
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BB BENDERHAUS / JULY 25, 2022 Sure, take cold showers, get rid of you car and use a bike instead, wear more clothes in winter and less in summer, abandon air conditioning, grow your own food, stay home and dont travel except for necessity, dont take vacations, basically revert back to the 19th century.
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INNA / JULY 25, 2022 Of course we have been lied to – the hierarchy existing in our “civilized” society needed to mold us to build and strengthen itself. Therefore, the most powerful country on earth, the USA, also has the highest inequality, which is the main force on which this society and economy operates.
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L8917 / JULY 25, 2022 Always worth the time, thanks.
FWIW, there appears one deception I missed-egotism, with all it’s expressions and iterations, is not my friend. At best, it’s a necessary liability, too easily weaponized against the person who can’t let it go.
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