[On Edit: No apologies for the length of this post, because it had to be as long as it is. I nearly started a new thread for it. I was going to call that thread: "The Late Michael Ruppert vs the Spooks, Shills & Toadies". On reflection, I think it does belong here, in his obituary thread, where the spookiness started.]
self&steam » Thu Apr 17, 2014 11:12 am wrote:MacCruiskeen » Thu Apr 17, 2014 3:27 pm wrote:Laodicean » Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:30 pm wrote:Myself, I have limited patience with those who choose to self-destruct...
And this statement, sentiment, and intention expressed is what Michael Ruppert tried to convey to the world. We are choosing to self destruct. It is a choice. He did not have the patience either to watch humanity's self destruction, in doing so showing us his own. The mirror, indeed. I think Ruppert planted a seed that is so desperately trying to take root. I hope we're all still around to see the compassionate, more loving and equal "playing field" Ruppert hopefully envisioned humanity could
be before pulling the trigger. The man had more love than can currently go around.
There's a tinge of bitterness to your sweet writing.
Thanks for that, Laodicean.
self&steam wrote:[...] perhaps what I take exception to is Ruppert's approach - like he was trying to change the world in an analog way when a digital way would have caused less wear and tear and gear grinding.
I have no idea what that analogy was intended to convey, apart from a fleeting impression of your own cleverness. Do you?
self&steam wrote:This is not the visage of a happy fellow. It is the face of 22-hours-a-day apoplexy with a 2-hour break for despair.
No, it isn't. (What you're doing there is
advertising.) It is not a visage at all. It is not a face. It is an image. It is a single frozen photographic still, carefully selected -- by someone, by some human being with agency and a name -- from a lengthy film. It is one of several tens of thousands of still photographic images that a person might have chosen to choose from that film (or, alternatively, might have chosen
not to choose). It is part of the spectacle. That particular image was chosen by the well-named Vice magazine to make Michael Ruppert look crazy. Then it was chosen by you -- on the day Michael Ruppert's death was announced -- to [cue drumroll] make Michael Ruppert look crazy. This to support your diagnosis of "narcissism" and to prepare us for your wise and admirably un-"narcissistic" advice about the
unpainful way to "make the world a better place".
If the effort to make the world a better place is this overwhelming and painful, it seems a pretty fair indicator he may have been going about it wrong.
Not a fair indicator at all. It seems a fair indicator that he was at times both angry and hurt (and not for no reason), not very long before his suicide. No more and no less than that.
If I were the type to try and change anyone, I would have sat him down in a comfy chair, put his feet up and made him a jolly nice cup of tea. Then, I would have had him close his eyes, if for no other reason than to stop looking at his reflection in the outside world, and refocus his gaze inside to where we all really live. If he could sit still for long enough, he would discover an entirely new space to hang his hat. From this platform, he could have arisen from that chair to invest his 3-D time and energy effectively.
I would give him this mantra:
What other people think of me is none of my business.
It is none of my business what other people think of me.
What other people think of me is none of my business.
Do you have even the slightest idea how presumptuous
and how insufferably patronising that sounds? And how tactless,
considering.
refocus his gaze inside to where we all really live
Speak for yourself, please. At least some of us have to live at least some of the time on the outside too -- a big place (you should visit it someday, if you can tear yourself away), populated not only by our own sweet selves but by everything from bunny rabbits to oilwells, policemen, debt collectors, anonymous Internet pundits, selfless "narcissism"-spotters, David Corn, Raw Story and Dick Cheney. The weather there, as in Skegness, is bracing.
No lasting good was ever born from anger and frustration
No indeed, it was a nice cuppa tea and a guided session of un-narcissistic self-adoration that got us universal suffrage, free education, the NHS and an eight-hour day.
Do you do irony much? [Answer: Yes, obviously. But often without noticing it.]
R.I.P. Michael Ruppert.
From examining the underpinning code of your post I learned so much about breaking up large masses of text into individual quotes, thanks!
And you have the nerve to diagnose "passive aggression" in Michael Ruppert in your very first post to this thread and to this board? On the day his death was announced? You are really starting to annoy me now.
I have to disagree with those who have praised your writing. It is better-described by two posters on another board:
iorarua wrote:Thanks for saving me the trouble, Rhis. My thoughts exactly.
Had he directed his unique psychological strengths and weaknesses towards promoting the dominant power structures instead of challenging them, he'd be deemed a paragon of psychological health. He'd also have considerable wealth to comfort him in old age - instead of the bleak poverty he was facing. ...
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens ... 15070.html
My thoughts exactly.
RI regulars may wonder why your writing is being discussed on another board today. It's quite an interesting story. Because, on the very same day that you, "self & steam", posted for the very first time to RI, a poster called "A" was posting almost for the very first time to the British website Media Lens. And his very first post consisted almost wholly of a lengthy quote from "self & steam"'s very first post here at RI. From that same thread:
Posted by A on April 16, 2014, 6:09 pm, in reply to "Re: Abby Martin in tears on 'Breaking The Set' as she gives a valediction for Mike Ruppert. MLers need"
There's an interesting discussion taking place at Rigorous Intuition about this unhappy event. FTW had a big impact on me, and I've tried to follow his work ever since. But having recently watched the Vice documentary 'Apocalypse, Man,' which gave me a strong dose of mixed feelings,this comment in particular struck home and seems worth quoting in full:
'...I am compelled to say something about his passing since I grew up around people with the same spiritual 'thumbprint' as this man. It feels disturbingly familiar, anyway. I think he laboured under self-esteem so compromised that the only way he felt he existed was by observing the reactions he elicited in others. I don't think he had a sense of self outside of satisfying this need. When the attention began to diminish, he felt diminished and reacted by mounting an increasingly desperate campaign of self aggrandisement. Every video I saw since his return from self-exile in Venezuela made me cringe. The misery, anger and frustration rolled off him like a bad smell. He was the definition of a self-loathing narcissist and a cautionary tale for anyone seeking self-worth in the public eye. Trying to reclaim the attention generated by confronting Deutch and publishing Crossing the Rubicon and seeing it dissipate over the years must have been like trying to squeeze a fistful of water.
Included among his last messages was this quote: "I will be offline much of next week but will be checking emails. At 8 AM tomorrow a chauffeured town car will be picking me up from my 26 foot trailer in a very nice junkyard (with a garden) to take me to the Santa Rosa airport for a flight to Seattle where I will be until late Thursday. I'll be staying in a nice room at a Marriott. Don't ya just love the image?"
For myself, the passive-agressive subtext throughout is, "twenty-six foot trailer in a junkyard - staying in a Marriott - back to the junkyard on thursday - how did I come to this? I am better than this. How can I get back what I once had? Isn't it fascinating how much I suffer? Aren't you as fascinated with me as me? Hello? Hello?"'
By the end, he literally could not get arrested. When no one cared enough to talk about him, he did it himself, and at great length. When no one even cared enough to have him killed, he did that himself, as well. He was a product he no longer knew how to market. He was entirely dependent upon creating a reaction in other people in order to feel alive. I cannot imagine how lonely he must have felt in his own company. Even his dog appeared to need a break and took off for a few days.
He's one of the saddest stories I have ever observed. I grieve for him in the same way I grieve for any addict and feel certain he is in a better place now, but even more do I grieve for all the people who tried to keep him alive and help him create a sense of purpose and peace, gave him shelter and succor. People who demand the attention of the world in order to feel alive will never settle for the hoop-jumping ministrations of a handful of caretakers, and I can guess that helping Mr Ruppert feel alive was beyond a full-time job towards the end. My heart now goes out to the people who tried to help: please don’t feel too bad for too long and in future, it may serve you to invest your energy in something or someone with a better rate of return. Sometimes it really is better to see a lost cause and let it stay lost.'
Ruppert Died
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens ... 68187.html
A few minutes later, however, "A" felt compelled to note that he had made a silly mistake: namely, he had gotten his own name wrong:
And who will deny that it's extremely easy to forget one's own name when one barely ever uses it?
User Aster
Joined:
June 25, 2012Last Post: Sorry, posted by Aster not A.nm
Posts Per Day: 0.009View all posts by Aster(all three of them)
So of course it
is possible that "A" simply forgot that he was in fact "Aster". By no means likely, but logically possible. Just as it
is possible that both "Aster and "A" forgot that they were in fact "self & steam". Do "Aster" and "A" by any chance reside in Cymru (Wales), just as "self & steam" [allegedly] does? I think we should be told.
Certainly it's interesting that "Aster" went to the trouble of joining Media Lens in 2012 in order not to bother posting
there, while "sel&steam" went to the trouble of joining Rigorous Intuition in 2012 in order not to bother posting
here, and that one of them suddenly starts quoting the other approvingly (at the late Michael Ruppert's expense) on the very same day, namely today. What can have prompted this sudden burst of communicativeness? Perhaps a call from the boss?
self & steam wrote:From examining the underpinning code of your post I learned so much about breaking up large masses of text into individual quotes, thanks!
Intriguing choice of words.* Are you as clever as you think you are?
Unrelated:
Federal government routinely hires internet trolls, shills to monitor chat rooms, disrupt article comment sectionsTuesday, September 17, 2013 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: internet trolls, chat rooms, federal government
...
http://www.naturalnews.com/042093_inter ... ment.html##ixzz2zB49l3GM
(I'm told they're paid by the post, not by the line.)
*
...which you took the trouble of going back and perfecting, on edit, half an hour later. Though it was but a single line.
"Ich kann gar nicht so viel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte." - Max Liebermann,, Berlin, 1933
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." - Richard Feynman, NYC, 1966
TESTDEMIC ➝ "CASE"DEMIC