Showing posts with label Beliefnet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beliefnet. Show all posts

9 August 2016

Two years of posts end at Beliefnet

Harry J. Bentham


My work for the L'Ordre blog held at Beliefnet is at its close. All posts will be retained by the website as its intellectual property.


In descending order, I would like to embed some of my most memorable Beliefnet posts below, with their greatest relevance to The clubof.info Blog's mandate to watch technology, politics, and technopolitics.


I would like people to know that the quality and reach of my written work will only increase now I have left paid blogging behind me. From this point forward, I will release only quality book reviews and commentaries about the subjects and issues I am most passionate about.

With such works, a new chapter in my writing and political advocacy begins. These will appear at well-known web-based and possibly print-based publications as they become available, like the recent review I authored of Kevin Carson's book The Homebrew Industrial Revolution, and can be followed at my Twitter account.

In addition, I will be revising and advertising my 2013 Catalyst booklet once again as I still stand by every argument and prediction I made within that short futurist work. This could include releasing more free audio readings of sections of that book, created when I tried to prepare an audio book version of the thesis (that project turned out to be too costly).


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , , ,

24 June 2016

Islamic faith irrelevant to Omar Mateen

The Blog


Commenting on the work of investigators looking at the attack by US citizen Omar Mateen that took the lives of a high number of LGBT people in Orlando, Florida, Beliefnet's Hesham Hassaballa argued it was nothing to do with Islam.


Investigators currently believe even the connection between the gunman and the ISIS terrorist group was nothing more than posing for publicity at best. The shooter had his own reasons for committing his crime. With extremist ideology not an important motivation for Mateen, his Islamic faith was even more irrelevant.

Nevertheless, many other commentators in the media are convinced the attack is just additional evidence to claim all Muslims are terrorists in waiting. The rhetoric of politicians such as Donald Trump is therefore likely to take a boost in popularity, as a result of the shooting.

In conclusion, Hassaballa writes, "it is becoming increasingly clear that this crime had nothing to do with terrorism and ISIS. Omar Mateen fit the typical profile of a mass shooter, and this time, he happened to be Muslim."

Many critics of western media and legal responses to mass murder sprees focus on how Middle Eastern attackers are quickly judged to be religious terrorists even if they were mentally ill, whereas white attackers are only ever judged to be mentally ill or incorrectly medicated.


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

10 May 2016

Labour's anti-State of Israel scandal

The Blog


The L'Ordre blog based at Beliefnet comments on the recent so-called anti-Semitism scandal creating controversy in British politics.


This anti-Semitism scandal relates to comments by Labour Party members about Israel, and the view that Israel is responsible for conflict in the Middle East. Not tolerating this view, some MPs within the Opposition are responding with vicious rhetoric against anyone - including all British Muslims - who consider Israel guilty of war crimes in the Middle East.

From the blog on Saturday:
To ban boycotts and stifle criticism of Israel in Britain’s democracy... would be against diversity... and will destabilize British society, even creating escalating violence in coming decades. It is also likely that the Muslim population will then grow in even greater isolation from politics, while believers in “democracy” shrink, during such a period. Faith in democracy will be lost, and, once censored and prohibited from the democratic Opposition, youths will be more likely to choose the path of violence rather than debate.
Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/lordre/2016/05/cracks-in-british-society-due-to-israel-or-muslims.html#Gca07CAUijpLO2PE.99
The post notes the views of Security Studies scholars that countering extremism depends more on making people feel included and making the political process work rather than excluding, ostracizing and banning minorities for their feelings about political issues. In view of this, the idea that extremism is to be countered by suspensions, bans and other crackdowns on anti-Israel views in the Labour Party is "the worst move ever".

In fact, the post argues for opposite measures to be taken, compared with what the Labour Party seems to be doing now. "Allow the minorities to find expression, give them a greater platform in Britain and a role in governing the country", the blog says.


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , , , , , , ,

6 May 2016

Mont Order society letting everyone join

The Blog


The Mont Order society, despite being called a "secret society" often, is letting everyone join it.


Recently announced over Facebook is a fairly large group called the "Friends of the Mont Order", the same term used by various actual members of the group. In a matter of hours, it had over 400 people signed up to it.

So if you ever wanted to be part of a mysterious and arcane order, now's your chance. Influence the world... or at least influence a group that is influencing the world:

Friends of the Mont Order (Facebook)

One Beliefnet blog commented, "It joins as part of a broader tapestry of groups, movements and contact circles who know of the Mont Order and are sharing its messages of global enlightenment and progress every day."

The main purpose of the Facebook group is to bring people together to talk about the "intersection of technology and politics", one of the areas of interest mentioned in the Order's code.


Info on the Mont Order

The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , ,

26 April 2016

"Liberation technologies" to come?

The Blog


The following video is narrated by Harry J. Bentham, author of Catalyst: A Techno-Liberation Thesis (2013), using the introduction from that book as a taster of the audio version of the book in production.


As the book opens, "The gravest danger to hegemony and oppression lies at the transformational crossroads of liberation and technology".

In the book, the version of futurism used by the author to influence readers at the Beliefnet website's L'Ordre blog is presented in detail. Watch the clip below to get an idea of what it's all about.



Writing on the planned audio book release at Beliefnet, the author explained the grand vision for advanced technologies hidden in that short book:
I think new industrial refining and manufacturing technologies will emerge with the intent to keep certain (western) countries in economic favor. But these are going to become small enough (synthetic organisms, micromanufacturing devices, additive manufacturing machines, nano-factories) to be shared quickly with the world’s poorer countries, allowing the global poor to develop faster, achieve their aspirations and settle their score with the rich and exploitative countries.
This "techno-political" standpoint is also the main influence on The clubof.info Blog, which focuses on global injustices and the power of technology to change power relations for the better.


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , , ,

22 April 2016

Audio book of "Catalyst" coming?

The Blog


The Catalyst thesis this blog is based on may be coming in audio form soon.


As announced at a post to the L'Ordre blog on Beliefnet, "I do indeed plan to produce an audio book version of it once I get the time, narrated in my own voice of course" (Harry J. Bentham, author).

Catalyst: A Techno-Liberation Thesis is a short educational futurist book from 2013 about how to use technology to diminish monopolies of wealth and power, and liberate millions of people from poverty-stricken, economically sanctioned or oppressed regions in which they were born. The book can currently be ordered in print or, if you love your Kindle e-reader, downloaded over Amazon.

According to Catalyst, extremely consequentially technologies involved in manufacturing will continue to get smaller, and eventually the act of one person stealing single objects like synthetic life-forms or items of micro-manufacturing atomically precise manufacturing (nanotech) equipment will be able to change the entire balance of power between countries and regions of the world.

This is a good thing, Catalyst theorized quite radically, because it will undo the global exploitation perpetrated by the few high-tech western countries against large poor regions of Africa, Asia and South America.


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

19 April 2016

"Age of information" creates ignorance

The Blog


Reflecting on the ironies of the internet and the prior incredible growth of the sum of scientific knowledge in the previous and current century, Beliefnet's L'Ordre blog mentions the sheer volume of information available as a source of intellectual laziness and confusion.


The result is that, surrounded by more knowledge than ever, people are increasingly starved of actual information because they don't know what to read. Describing information as "worthless" without adequate guidance alongside it, the post notes conspiracy theories are the "worst outcome of all" to come from amateurish attempts to quickly grasp the meanings of vast information available on the internet.

 While referencing Carl Sagan's book The Demon Haunted World, the blog post aims to discredit the somewhat famous quote that "in the age of information, ignorance is a choice". Noting that the author of the quote was fairly ignorant himself, the post goes into detail on how the complexities of modern life, technology and science have only made it harder for the average person to grasp it all.

The result is that people are finding it hard to grow up and become adults, never mind obtain enough information to be adequately informed about the world and unclouded by falsehoods and online mutterings by amateurs. Concluding that "ignorance is an accident of birth, not a choice", the post notes with great irony that the unlimited ability to self-publish is to blame as "If anyone can tell you how the world works, no-one can".

Also of mention is the technological singularity, at which people hand over all governance and control of human knowledge to machines as it is too complicated for them to manage it anymore.


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , ,

22 March 2016

Would a Brexit make any difference?

The Blog


Britain's future in the European Union has been on a lot of minds leading up to the 23 June referendum on whether the United Kingdom should remain a member.


One view is that it ultimately doesn't matter. It is a hollow debate, with either outcome of the Brexit referendum doing nothing to prevent the further subversion of political power in the UK for the interests of corporations.

Blogger Steve Topple draws attention to numerous media materials featuring his work and the European Union in a recent post on 20th March, including seven articles and one video. In one article, Topple notes, "I don’t think a vote either way will make one damned bit of difference as both the EU and UK Governments, as institutions, are controlled by forces greater than themselves – the multinational corporations." He promises to sleep through the entire thing, not caring much for either outcome.

A similarly abstaining view is given at Beliefnet, where a post takes note of the threat to scientific research funding and welfare posed by Britain exiting the EU, but at the same time praises the referendum as "a crucial step in pressuring the EU to rethink its future". The post speculates that Britain leaving the EU could destroy the EU, something that is not in fact the intention of Brexit campaigners who are concerned merely with Britain's future.


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , ,

18 March 2016

Existential risks don't matter to politics

The Blog


Current political science and ideology concentrates on the liberties of the individual, therefore lacks any and all theoretical grounds to bother opposing "existential risks" to human progeny or civilization, a blog post asserts.


This view, based on an unpublished review of a Lifeboat Foundation book, appears in a Beliefnet post. The argument goes that there is a lack of support in existing political theory for the pleas of Stephen Hawking, the Lifeboat Foundation boards, and countless other futurists and scientists who say space colonization should be pursued to ensure the perpetuation of the species.

No one in modern politics will be moved by the notion of safeguarding human posterity. In fact, most governments and political movements do not care for the long-term survival of humankind and will never invest any effort in it as their priorities are very clearly elsewhere:
[worrying about posterity] it is contrary to existing political norms. The prevailing liberal, centrist, libertarian and even socialist philosophies in the west today mainly focus on the rights, pleasures, and just treatment of individuals. Where they are concerned, it doesn’t actually matter if no humans exist a couple of centuries from now, as long as people didn’t die painfully.
To put it more consequentially, this means no electable politician or political scientist in the west would be swayed by negative-minded futurist arguments about saving humans from existential risks. Basically, the idea of posterity - of saving future generations to inhabit the world or even other worlds beyond - is completely unheard of to politicians and social science experts and cannot be expected to impress them.

Calling this problem a "gap on all our bookshelves", where there is simply no valid political theory and a lack of literature about why to save civilization or ensure posterity, the blog repeats its earlier value judgment that global injustice is ultimately worse than extinction in any binary choice between the two.

Maybe the political science is on the right track. If the current social system is unjust, efforts to save civilization are only about saving injustice.


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , ,

11 March 2016

Wallerstein: Is it left to be nationalist?

The Blog


Observing why a new unified global political left ideology or platform has become so difficult to create, social scientist Immanuel Wallerstein tackled the question of whether the left should be nationalist or globalist in outlook.


Prominent left wing anti-imperialist theorists, going back as far as Frantz Fanon or Edward Said, held a belief in a strong patriotic movement by colonial subjects to gain their freedom from the international capitalist bourgeois class (if we are to use old Marxist terminology). Samir Amin is possibly the one who best expresses such thinking at a theoretical level today.

 Other left wing theorists are avowed antistatists, who emphasize the boundless nature of class, with exploited and oppressed people existing in all nation-states and their oppressors hopping freely from country to country to maintain global exploitation. In theoretical terms, it is starkly clear that proponents of left internationalism and antistatism are more faithful to the social science behind left wing groups and movements. By comparison, left wing nationalism has been ad hoc or influenced by cultural details, and usually justified by the needs of the moment to oppose wars of meddling and intervention by the west (e.g. Algeria in Fanon's time, or Syria now).

Immanuel Wallerstein's commentary from 15 February points out the problem of the ideological gulf between anti-imperialist patriotic and cultural movements and globalist left-wing social theory and liberation, by asking the question:
Is it left to be internationalist, one-worldist, or is it left to be nationalist against the intrusion of powerful world forces? Is it left to be for the abolition of all frontiers or for the reinforcement of frontiers? Is it class-conscious to oppose nationalism or to support national resistance to imperialism?
Wallerstein doesn't answer from his own heart, but asks us to think about this. However, as a Beliefnet response points out, there is a "strongly seductive anti-nation-state thread" in all of Wallerstein's writing. It is clear that he would fall onto the globalist side in such a debate, as would any left wing proponents of technological modernity and digital activism such as the technoprogressives (including this very blog!).

The inability to reconcile left wing national liberation causes with theories of global oppression and liberation is crippling the left's ability to appeal to people as a united and coherent ideology (the way Socialism did in the old days of the late 19th and early to mid 20th Century) according to Wallerstein. As Wallerstein concludes, "the failure of the global left to enter into a collective internal debate in a solidary manner undermines the ability of the global left to be a principal actor today on the world scene".


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , , , , , , ,

8 March 2016

Charlie Hebdo 'should be called idiots'

The Blog


What happened to Charlie Hebdo when their artists were attacked and killed by terrorists for publishing offensive images was a result of "stupidity and lack of vision" on the part of the artists, who provoked their own deaths.


A blog published via the multi-faith Beliefnet website advances, "If artists are killed for offending people, you should call them idiots, just as you would call any prankster an idiot for insulting the wrong person and getting beaten up or killed as a result."

The blog writes that the idea of expanding the mandates of free speech to protect any offensive publisher from reprisals by the general public is actually "anti-freedom". It would require security cameras and armed guards everywhere, and for people's opinions to be monitored and suppressed brutally. For example, eight-year-old children were detained and interrogated by police for not supporting Charlie Hebdo in France, yet Charlie Hebdo still pretends to be advancing the frontiers of freedom of speech.

In its conclusions, the post asserts that rather than a war on Muslims and further insults against people's religious sensibilities, "People should not be offensive. They should censor themselves for their own safety from everybody else, as the vast majority of people wisely do." The blog notes that "even in the “freest” society imaginable" certain images or statements can go too far and incite members of the public to violence.

Much of the media portrays Muslims as exceptionally easy to provoke and prone to violence, while ignoring the violence and oversensitive behavior of other social groups and the fact that anyone else can also be provoked to violence if their feelings are constantly and deliberately being hurt.


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , ,

4 March 2016

Russia broke its own Syria ceasefire?

The Blog


Despite the fact Russia organized and demanded the current Syria ceasefire in the first place, pro regime-change sources insist Russia is violating its own agreements and commitments that it set for itself within mere days.


Because the illegal armed groups propped up by the west against Syria are facing collapse and defeat, increasing hysteria and irrational thinking is overcoming the supporters of these so-called "opposition" or "rebel" groups.

 More than ever, idiots are lobbying for a larger-scale war that will target Russia and involve the United States in a potential nuclear armed confrontation about the war in Syria.

Pushed up against the Turkish regime's border and begging for the despots in Saudi Arabia and Turkey to send troops to rescue them, Syrian "opposition" forces are again whining throughout the international media for foreign powers to refuse peace and instead invade the country. Rather than accusing the Syrian government of using chemical weapons or accusing Russia of bombing hospitals, for which they don't need any evidence to convince war hawks in the US government of the need for regime-change, they are accusing Russia of breaking its own Syria ceasefire within two days.

The claims were already being reported in the Qatari dictatorship-controlled media outlet Al-Jazeera, which has always advocated in favor of the Saudi regime and its massacres of the people of Syria and Yemen, only days after the Russian-drafted ceasefire was implemented.

None of these claims can be taken seriously as they are too farcical. If Russia's plan is to destroy the ceasefire, why did it create the ceasefire in the first place? The absurd allegations were predicted accurately at Beliefnet before they were made. One thing worth noting is that while the US indicates a "Plan B" to dismantle the Syrian state (something all the current traitors and foreign militants responsible for butchering Syria's people advocate strongly), experts in Russia warned that "Plan B" will lead to a nuclear war with Russia if the US attempts it.

From one point of view, it is unsurprising that anti-Syria advocates are accusing Russia of such an absurd crime as conspiring to destroy an agreement it created. They get their information from such faulty and propagandized sources like the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) that they can be expected to believe and react to anything except reality.


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , , , , , ,

West-Islam dialogue on values needed

The Blog


A dialogue on values between the west and Islam is needed as an alternative to the "clash of civilizations" and "imposition of western culture by force" on Muslims and others.


This is the advice given by Sonia Mansour Robaey at her own blog Les Politiques as well as at the publication Iran's View.

  • Read the version at Les Politiques here
  • Read the version at Iran's View here
  • Read one response at Beliefnet here

From the author's conclusions:
As I wrote in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo tragedy, a dialogue on values is urgently needed to silence the voices of confrontation.  The clash of civilizations is an idea as backward as the barbaric terrorism it sets out to explain... and fight... by curtailing our civil liberties and creating an artificial wedge between civilizations destined to increase their common ground in an era of rapid communications where societies are becoming more open and more welcoming. 
The promoters of the clash of civilizations are the new enemies of the Open Society.
Open society can mean different things. In its use in Robaey's analysis, it seems to refer to social globalization creating the borderless world, whereas in its original pre-globalization usage by Karl Popper it referred to the liberal democratic state model that only exists in western countries.

 Les Politiques was recently added to the blog listings of the Mont Order society. The Mont Order has itself managed to host an element of dialogue on values between the Muslim and western blogospheres by inviting the Pakistan-based Voice of East magazine to add views to online conferences otherwise only seating western bloggers.


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , , , ,

23 February 2016

"New World Order" is a fail at IR

The Blog


Discrediting all use of the terms "New World Order" and "NWO", a Beliefnet post asserts that most people using the terms are misreading International Relations (IR) terminology.


In the IR discipline which originated the rhetorical term, "new world order" (not capitals and never using the acronym NWO) only refers boringly to the post-Soviet global balance of power, the post explains. It means the same thing as "unipolar order", or the balance of power in which the US is the dominant actor in world affairs.

The blog explains clearly:
"As a student of International Relations (IR) I know what the new world order really is. It was a phrase used by President Bush Senior and some other politicians. More often, it is called the “world order” and just refers to the “balance of power” in the world. It is common International Relations terminology... “Old world order” is when the Soviet Union and the United States competed in the Cold War...
It is arguable that the new world order described in IR is now very old, and does not exist anymore, as the US is no longer the single dominant actor. The fact this new world order is so old and has been a failure does not affect the conspiracy theorists who still think the "NWO" is a new power taking over the world, 26 years on.

The blog goes on to say that the associated Illuminati conspiracy theory is "just nonsense", refusing to go into any more depth on that subject. Believers in the New World Order conspiracy theory think the world's governments and political elites are shape-shifting lizard men (David Icke), Satan worshippers (Alex Jones) or Freemasons and that they drink the blood of children, at the same time plotting to reduce the Earth's population.

These New World Order conspiracy theorists such as Daniel Estulin also believe transhumanists - a small humanitarian movement who try to improve longevity and other social ills using technology - are evil narcissists who plan to kill everyone else and turn themselves into immortal gods.


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , , , ,

19 February 2016

Enernet would bring "liberation"

The Blog


While continuing to bet on synthetic biology as the eventual solution to energy inequality and crises, a Beliefnet post nevertheless embraces another vision called enernet.


Enernet is the idea of providing energy to everyone for free via a type of global power supply network constructed similarly to the internet. It would adhere to a similar philosophy to the internet too, making it almost a human right that everyone can be connected to this network of sharing and mutual survival.

The post is a partial review of a Lifeboat Foundation essay series. It suspects energy firms and powerful states would prefer to keep control of global energy supplies in the hands of a small few government and industrial elites, somehow, and the enernet might be no exception to this. Although such injustice would certainly be the result of some futuristic schemes to build a small number of giant thermonuclear fusion reactors like the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) to replace fossil fuel supplies, the post sees the enernet as something different.

To cut a long story short, because the enernet would be connected to widely distributed and decentralized sources of fuel, it should not result in political or strategic imbalances, inequalities and lopsided international relations of the kind currently seen. The post reports that the enernet sounds like a fair and balanced solution to the energy needs of disparate individuals, communities and isolated states across the world. The prediction given is that, if feasible, it would bring a form of technological "liberation" to the world's impoverished and voiceless populations similar to the internet.

A complete theory of techno-liberation to follow up from the development of the internet is explained in Catalyst, the main source of inspiration for this blog.


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , , , , ,

9 February 2016

Anti-Assad forces losing and desperate

The Blog


Different analysts are of the view that the rebel groups opposing the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria are losing the war.


The view is also supported by the foreign policy comments and behaviors of Saudi Arabia and its allies, who have backed these insurgent groups in Syria for years. Desperate threats to invade Syria with foreign national armies are the result of the proxy war's impending failure.

Syria's government responded to Saudi Arabia's aggressive posturing and threats of an invasion of Syria by promising to send any aggressor back in a "wooden coffin". Although doubting a Saudi invasion is a realistic possibility, the Syrian Foreign Minister called the Saudi leadership "crazy" and said nothing is impossible in their minds.

Throughout the conflict, countries aiming to take control of Syria have usually hidden behind the so-called political "opposition" against Bashar al-Assad, claiming they are only interested in democracy, until now. At this point,  masks seem to have dropped and various dictators are lining up to invade Syria for their own selfish interests, proving what the conflict was about all along. Such dictators include the corrupt murderer Erdogan in Turkey, who is also accused of massacring Kurds and supporting ISIL terrorists.

Earlier report: Syria "peace deal" meaningless

Dismissing the Saudi leadership as cowards who would not fulfill their promise of an invasion, an Iranian military commander noted that such an invasion would be "suicide" and Saudi Arabia will certainly be defeated if its troops try to occupy Syria. A Saudi-led coalition has already been waging an unsuccessful war to punish Yemen after a pro-Saudi ruler was driven out of the country.

During their war, the Saudis have lost many troops and failed to accomplish any of their objectives. Their own territory has even been invaded and bombarded heavily by Yemen, as the poorest country in the Middle East (Yemen) manages to humiliate the wealthiest one.

A post at Beliefnet comments on the desperation of the anti-Assad forces in Syria, noting, "Really, they just want more weapons from foreign countries, and to ask other countries to invade and reinforce them." The post was rejecting the peace talks on the grounds that they are just trying to take pressure off Western-backed terrorists and enable them to continue their massacres of the Syrian people.


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , , , , ,

29 January 2016

Global injustice as an existential threat

The Blog


A Beliefnet blog points to "injustices, prejudices and other ailments of global society" as a greater priority than "humanity-threatening disasters" of the kind addressed by the Lifeboat Foundation think tank.


Appealing to the utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy Bentham, the L'Ordre blog, also authored by another Bentham, talks of the "happiness of the greatest number" being preferable to any small minority evading fallout or potential extinction in a global war or disaster.

In the brief semi-review of the Willard Wells book Prospects for Human Survival, the blog attacked the teleology of humanity wanting to avoid genetic-cultural extinction (as opposed to human suffering) at all:
...if the goal in life was to avoid extinction, in a genetic sense, then it is not only impossible (because all lines eventually die out, even the entire human species), but would lead to the absurdity of encasing human DNA in probes and sending them out into space to ensure the maximum possible survival of our genetic material for the longest possible time...
Read more: http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/lordre/2016/01/needs-of-the-many-against-survival-of-the-few.html#ixzz3ySVD7TXJ
Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/lordre/2016/01/needs-of-the-many-against-survival-of-the-few.html#tRH9ZokXciROlysP.99
If we consider that humans voluntarily go "extinct" using contraceptives and abortion everyday, the call for making sure humanity still exists in the distant future appears destined to fail because the notion of human survival already has no appeal in modern society. The only reason nuclear war and other sources of suffering are resisted by most people is due to them being unpleasant, and not due to them erasing humanity's DNA.

Even more strongly rejecting the idea of the super-rich saving humanity by saving themselves from a global disaster, the blog argues the super-rich would be to blame for any potential global nuclear war, therefore should get killed in the war rather than being tempted to retreat into bunkers. However, the blog acknowledges the negativity of such speculation, and urges more optimistic attitudes towards the future.

The small semi-review at Beliefnet appears ahead of a full-size review of the Willard Wells book, to be published separately.


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , , ,

8 January 2016

The "OffGuardians" proliferate online

The Blog


At the heart of the crossroads of radicalism and technology today is the emergence of new, off-the-spectrum political forces and media sources.


These organisations or circles rapidly expand their readership, influence and credibility at a pace that alarms mainstream journalists and politicians. Because our blog is all about that irrepressible reformation at the tip of the sword of modern communication technologies, we are reporting again following our similar post last week in response to Steve Topple's predictions.

Petition: Google must end its censorship

According to the Mont-friendly L'Ordre blog based at the world-famous Beliefnet website,
What of all the tech-empowered bloggers from a background of powerlessness – that group Steve offers himself as an example of? What of media disintegration, the formation of the OffGuardian and the thousands of other OffGuardians that are tearing readers away from the Guardian? What about all the small Alex Joneses tearing people away from the real Alex Jones. These hundreds, perhaps thousands of independent radicals (the kind the Mont Order has intended to gather and support) have no real strategy but they corrode and disintegrate the more authoritarian media environment. There are no authorities on the web.

 Read more: http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/lordre/2016/01/media-disintegration.html#ixzz3wSz0Yae9
Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/lordre/2016/01/media-disintegration.html#pDz6kUPtj4C0vAHS.99
The OffGuardian was a website set up to host the conversations that the Guardian would not tolerate, and preferred to delete. It is possible that the website was set up due to the Guardian's staunch support of British regime policies after its hard drives were smashed and it was forced to never displease the regime again. This spectacle followed after the Guardian printed stories from whistleblower Edward Snowden on NSA (US National Security Agency) and GCHQ (Britain's equivalent body) mass surveillance of domestic populations.

Catalyst: A Techno-Liberation Thesis (book)

Since they were threatened into submission by the British regime, Guardian journalists and editors have taken a less critical view of foreign policy, portraying Western government authorities as morally superior and taking a jingoist anti-Russian stance on the Ukrainian conflict.


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

25 December 2015

Fusion power vs future synbio-power?

The Blog


Fusion power plants would likely mean sole power plants feeding entire continents or countries with electricity, giving incredible political leverage to the government or company with the off-switch.


Critics of thermonuclear fusion power have therefore said alternative energy must not just be renewable. It must also be decentralized and easily shared.

At Beliefnet, a post of the L'Ordre blog argues that synthetic biology is the key to developing easily shared and decentralized power sources. They will be circulated to even the poorest communities.

Some attention has been given to developing sustainable fuels using new biologically-engineered bacteria that excrete types of petroleum or diesel (see the BBC report here). Although it has not been covered much in the media, such developments have been frequently successful. However, the microbes currently need such specific feedstocks (namely sugar, which has its own problems of labor, land and cost that make it hard to sustain forever) to create difficulties in supplying the microbes. They may also not be used on an industrial scale due to fears of them escaping and contaminating the environment or being stolen for commercial gain, which probably limits their use to highly secure scientific premises.

In the past, the Beliefnet blog expressed a disbelief in the explanations above, pointing instead to the preeminence of corporate greed over global human welfare as the only reason for the failure to make the microbes available more quickly. This theory was in turn challenged by a post at Afflictor.com, which pointed instead to the idea that synthetic biologists are a marginal minority of scientists, which means a lack of human resources to develop that industry.

J. Craig Venter, the scientist-entrepreneur father of synthetic biology, has since become less interested in developing synthetic biology-based fuel and chemical industries than in medicine and longevity, although the idea of inexhaustible fuels is occasionally used in his writing and lectures.

The new Beliefnet post declared using synthetic biology to make a new fuel industry as highly promising but also potentially dangerous, stating, "It could also literally set the world on fire, if handled incorrectly, so the question of how to handle it and at the same time ensure fairness and equal development in the use of synthetic creatures as fuel sources needs to be addressed more deeply."


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , , , , , ,

11 December 2015

British regime refuses to learn in Syria

The Blog


The British regime, which considers opposition figures "terrorist sympathizers" for not backing its illegal aggression in Syria, has learned nothing from past failures and defeats in the Middle East.


This was the overwhelming message in various media items capturing the public mood in Britain in relation to its decision to wage war in Syria.

One YouTuber commented that the UK has learned nothing from its past mistakes. He said it is unbelieveable that UK leaders admit to causing so many deaths with their mistakes, but additionally claim to have learned from them and repeat them.

It is as if Western leaders are killer doctors. Military action destroyed Iraq and Libya, and now they want Syria. Despite a history of rampant murder and incompetence, they get to try their war option again.


The examples of Libya and Iraq are offered by the YouTuber mentioned, whose video message is now embedded below.



Jeremy Corbyn is mentioned in the above video, who along with many other MPs was smeared as a "terrorist sympathizer" in despotic remarks by Prime Minister Cameron. Cameron is also on record comparing any Briton who criticizes him with terrorists such as ISIL and al-Qaeda, as previously noted at this blog.



Statements that the UK's bombings in Syria will make Britain safer in Syria amount to absolute lies, the Beliefnet-based L'Ordre blog friendly to the values of dissidents at the Mont Order society stated recently. The MPs who voted for the war immediately put everyone at risk, and in fact they "voted for the stabbing to take place in London", the blog argued, referring to the recent attack by a man shouting "for Syria" at a London Tube station.

Luckily, no lives have been lost in this Syria bombing-related violence caused by incorrect voting and warmongering by MPs in the Commons, although one serious injury occurred. A recent Syria bombing-related attack in the US did result in 14 fatalities, with Western media encouraging racial profiling of refugees as a possible solution.


The clubof.info Blog

Read More »
Topics , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Featured

Charlie Kirk: This Too Shall Pass, Unfortunately

If there’s one thing we should all be able to agree on, it’s that no one should be murdered for speaking. In the aftermath of Charlie “Prove...

Follow Me on Twitter