OFP2:Dragon Rising

We were inserted nearby to the ambush location. I carefully spotted possible enemy locations and carefully studied the terrain for height advantages and cover. Took out some early opposition – a sniper post at the top of the hill we were on. I was worried about our gunfire attracting too much attention so I moved towards POW location as soon as possible. Drone had already taken out lead vehicle and POW’s had armed themselves and were defending their position. I tried to approach using cover. I almost used ruined building as cover above enemies but thought better of possible attack heli’s seeing us there. Flanked enemies from side as POW’s divided their attention. Then moved to higher ground behind enemies and moved in.

POW’s OK. Enemy special ops suddenly inserted nearby. Time to go ! Took unlikely (not obvious) route away from special ops team moving to higher ground and back to orginal insertion hill top location. Careful use of cover and encountered light resistance but avoided. Dropped to ground whenever heli was nearby although had problems with POW’s as I had not ordered them properly to hold fire (giving away position). This may have been why we encountered a special ops team at the top of the hill, but they seemed surprised and quick return fire by my fire team and POW’s got the upper hand.

Extraction was 2km away ?! Took zig zig route away from spec ops encounter which threw them off. In fact I mistakenly went in the wrong direction (away from objective) and had to correct but this seemed to save the day as when another special ops did find us I had been carefully orientating the team in strategic positions. The spec ops team encountered us unexpectedly as they came over the top of a hill and made easy targets. I forget the name of the tactic but sometimes it’s better to be on lower ground if you may encounter an attack coming over the top of a hill.

With spec ops out the way it was a case of avoiding heli’s and checking ahead with bonocs for hostiles. We reached a view of the extraction area but the enemy had some soldiers in the vicinity of the buildings there. From about 700 meters I ordered fire team to flank left and flanked right with me and the armed POW’s. This seemed to work as we quickly took out a sniper and some soldiers. As we entered the town other soldiers were possibly distracted by fire teams left flank. In fact fire team did not seem to fire and acted purely as a diversion. After we cleared the town me and the POW’s took shelter in a building. Holding extraction helo confirmed coming in for landing now zone cleared. I ordered my fire team to quickly move from their flanking position to extraction. Boarded helo and ordered team and POW’s into helo. Mission success !

Not one death and not one wound for the entire mission, fire team and POW’s. Is that a record ?

I was just finished watching the last half of Rambo First Blood complete with my favourite bit where Rambo gets attacked by some rats in a cave and there is was …

WTF ?

Shocking truth about AIDS exposed on World AIDS Day with “House of Numbers” un-cut footage

I put this here in the hope that it will help any parents tempted to use drugs to “help” their child’s development. They won’t, the drugs will just turn their life into hell !

It has been a mystery to me why my parents drugged me in 1976. An act that has left me with health problems to this day. But “why?” was simply a lack of commonsense. When I’d just started formulating my first friends and relationships at primary school, we moved. What a stupid thing to do ! Just when your first son is at a crucial stage of development. No wonder I developed problems at our new place. I was in a new school. I made one friend and a few others but I found other children taking advantage of my lack of local experience. Not an uncommon experience for a child and even a growing experience, but the point is that my parents did not take stock of this situation. All I might have needed is some reassurance and understanding of the stressful after effects of moving house, but it was like it had never happened. So, stupidly the drugs were reached for to “fix” a problem that never was. Drugs that would leave me with such a major problem for the next 30 YEARS (!) that it is only now, when I’m 39 (!) that I’ve realised what the original situation REALLY was.

Thanks to Bruce Levine’s book Commonsense Rebellion for nudging me in the right direction. Thank you too to JUNO magazine (A Natural Approach to Family Life) and their article “The problem with boys. Or with us ...” that talks about “modern” (read – STUPID) approaches to childhood development. The crass culture of “cool”. “Battery reared boys” (yes like BATTERY HENS). Cognitive favoured over right brain “artistic, feminine” learning and teaching. The erroneous assumption that boys are purely male and girls are purely female, when we are all a mixture of both. Health and safety obsession – “cotton wool culture”. Political correctness – the author of the book reviewed in this article heavily criticises feminism, but only the areas that have gone too far. Boys and Men are not the “enemy”. Yet despite us all being a mixture of male and female there are essential differences between boys and girls.

Again this is all a call to commonsense values and ancient values that have always worked. I was going to write a separate article about a BBC4 broadcast that I was watching last night but it seems highly relevant here. It was about a period of Spanish history where Spain essentially went “mad” and lost contact with reality. The age of the Conquistadors.  These pious men of God who fought and pillaged their way across the world. “Such was the strange logic of 16th century Spain” as the narrator put it. He examined paintings of strange lifeless figures staring up to an abstract God. Resigned from life they pursued a path of destruction of the world and themselves, justified by an abstract idea that could be used to explain and justify any act, however unreal.

As I thought, some of the current situation HAS HAPPENED BEFORE. Far from being “just” a little bit of history repeating, it is HISTORY that holds all the answers. The Spanish in that period behaved the same way as we do now – abstracting our existence and decisions to an abstract idea. It does not have to be to an abstract idea of “god”, that abstract idea can be money, or drugs, or “mental health”, or “progress”, or “careers”, or “success”. All are equally pernicious in their abstract nature to deceive.

It was Diego Velázquez who was eventually to brilliantly capture and a dawning of a new sanity after the demise of the Conquistadors when they had consumed themselves in their own madness. In a departure from the purely religious paintings that went before he painted these astounding scenes or “ordinary” people.

Here are all the relevant sources …

http://www.diegovelazquez.org/The-Waterseller-of-Seville-1623-large.html
http://www.diegovelazquez.org/Three-Musicians-(or-Musical-Trio).html
http://www.diegovelazquez.org/Infante-Felipe-Prospero-(detail)-c.-1660-large.html
http://www.diegovelazquez.org/Three-Men-at-a-Table-(or-Luncheon)-large.html
http://www.diegovelazquez.org/Prince-Baltasar-Carlos-as-Hunter-(detail)-1635-36-large.html
http://www.diegovelazquez.org/Two-Young-Men-At-A-Table-large.html
http://www.diegovelazquez.org/Old-Woman-Frying-Eggs-1618-large.html
http://www.diegovelazquez.org/Juan-de-Pareja-c.-1650.html

Look at their faces ! This is Spain in the 1600’s ?! That boy putting his thumb up could be from a photo you might see today in modern Spain. These images are astounding and far more than just a work of art. They are magick, an act of a master capturing what should not be able to be captured on pure canvas. A photo could not do this work however many mega pixels your camera has. Who was it who said “we are all artists now” ? It’s funny, I have not seen anyone producing the quality of work that Velázquez has created … shining on to THIS DAY. I think we’re all kidding ourselves that we have become geniuses when the truth of the matter is that we have become very stupid.

According to the BBC4 piece Velázquez intent was to show the “God” in the reality of everyday people. THE CHURCH OF WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW as Coldut put in their DJ mixes. I want a God I can see and touch that is in front of me now ! Not some abstract force in the sky. Well there we have it. Look at the paintings, look around ! It is all here in THIS LIFE. This truly is paradise now and we don’t have to go on some path of suffering and destruction as the Conquistadors did to reach it. Of course the narrator did not put it this way …he said “We don’t know what will happen after death. All we have is our life and everyday reality. Maybe this is all we need”. I don’t think you have to be religious to appreciate his point.

Look at the third painting. Astoundingly Velázquez actually speaks to us there after all these years. The singer mirrors the pious paintings of religious suffering that came before ..BUT IT’S A TRICK ! Notice the guitar and the pious grimace suddenly becomes a singer caught in the act of reaching a note. And to cap it all, a relieved looking boy shares the moment of relief with us. Thank God ! This is pure genius of human expression and human communication coming to us from over 300 years ago. Where is this kind of intelligence these days ?

Far from being some distant part of history “back there” this period is informing DIRECTLY what is going on here. The Mental Health field that drugs children IS the same mentality as the Conquistador. There is a no “comparison” or remote “anaology” here. We are repeating THE SAME MISTAKE. Look at these further images from the broadcast …

They show the censorship of an astronomical text by the Spanish Inquisition. Scribbled out passages and cut out pages. This is what is going on today. It is a kind of mental disease that hides evidence and censors information that conflicts with doctrine. It does not matter if it is God or the “Bible”, or the DSM – the human behaviour involved is identical. This is shown beyond a shadow of a doubt in the paintings of Diego Velázquez. The relief on those faces that things have changed for the better.

Here is the revolution in mental health that MindFreedom has been looking for. It is history that holds all the answers because the situation that MindFreedom campaigns to change so we don’t have to drug our own children, has happened before.

What is it with this debate about abusers and bullies in the system ? Why do I keep coming across people who are “fighting” or “campaigning” for change who act exactly like the “psychotics” they claim to “fight” ? They exhibit the same mealy mouthed “I am right you are wrong” behaviour. They are unwilling to get into a discussion in case – horror of horrors – they might have to adjust their viewpoint..

Well I’ve got news for you people, I do it all the time. I listen to people who tell me things I don’t want to hear and it ain’t easy. But MAN ! Is it rewarding. I find out things about myself and the situation that I never could have found out myself.

Where is the humility of these people ? They seem to play the same game AS the abusers and bullies. They subtly wind you up over months. Ignore your viewpoint, change the subject until you feel invisible and unwanted. Play a game of double bind where it is THEY who are the good people “fighting for justice”. MAN OH MAN ! Have these people ever lived ?! Do they go back to a little cave ? The EVIL is inside as well. We have to do personal work as well and not fight this ridiculoulsly monolithic game of “good guy vs bad guy”. Spy vs Spy. Psycho vs Psycho. Lock and load and face the madness !

Upgrading now. Wow ! Look at all these spyware, malware and viruses you have ! How did you live with those ? They must have been driving you nutz ! Oh, well, you can say bye bye to them now.

Upgrading your common sense….

Upgrading your community …..

Upgrading your language ……

Upgrading your morals …..

Upgrading your culture ….

PLEASE STAND BY

Yep, you read that right. A self help book about how to make a quick buck by using the teachings of Jesus. Bob Dobbs would be proud. What brand does Jesus smoke ?

Reich tried to warn us over 60 years ago, but it’s like his work never existed. No, instead of listening to him you burnt his books and now you’ve got what you deserve. Your society is sick. You have become sick and you insist on blaming all on mental health diseases and other ailments.

So I guess it’s time to admit the truth. It’s our society that is sick. That is where all the “mental health diseases” come from. The fallout from decades of mismanagement and corruption. Guess it’s time to pick ourselves up and work to salvage some shred of a future for the next generation. We owe them that much. You failed. We failed ! Get over it. Move on. Build a better future. Be an adult .. be a man about it, or even a woman !

If I can heal myself then so can society.

Looking at the meaning of this expression has been interesting. It all sounds very familiar. People who have “dangerous mental health problems” being drugged into a more dangerous state. Society as a whole then has to pick up the problem of more expensive care costs, legal costs. Increased crime in society. People being more scared to speak out about emotional problems which in itself causes even more messes to clean up for society. I could go on with the list. It’s a classic example of how far this has all gone. Well over the red line to such an extent that the original problem is almost forgotten. The moves made to fix the problem do indeed seem to “cut off our nose despite our face”.

I think for anyone working in this field it’s important to remember how fundamental common sense principles are. I see some activists in this field exhibiting pre-juvenile behaviour of bad anger management, as well as simple psychological and sociological behaviour that blocks real change and could really be easily cleared up by the exhibitor. I can see this and I say this because I exhibit some of this behaviour myself !

An examination of the word “Freedom” might be in order. That means Freedom for everybody, good and bad. That word so often ends up meaning “Freedom for us people”. Where’s the “Free” in that ? Freedom is a difficult concept to grasp. It means allowing your enemies to do things “that they should not be allowed to do” and watching your friend for behaviour “that they would never do” because you are so sure they understand that little word “Freedom”.

Maybe some Taoistic or other principles of Mysticism would be in order here. There is no duality only a harmonious dance of opposites. We see the world of appearances as “opposites”. Hot and cold, good and bad, yet the truth is more profound, more mystical. Taoism presents the Ying/ Yang symbol in order to “explain” this mystery but goes on to state that there is no word to express the “Tao” which remains ultimately mysterious and impenetrable.

In my journey as an activist I have found the relationship between “good” Psychiatric Survivors and “bad” Mental Health system employees to be a lot like this Taoistic relationship. It’s not easy. Preconceptions have to be changed. Painfully wring assumptions have to be thrown out. But that is good. It means that the basis for real change is being setup and the fear of that actually happening is being revealed. Sometimes it seems to me that Psychiatric Survivors and Mental Health “abusers” are caught in a sort of cosy relationship. Many have found their comfortable niches with rich food supplies – activist and MH employee alike. To talk of really kicking in change seems to upset even some of those who claim to want it.

Could this be because they have stopped at a place of duality and are not really looking into the unknowable mystery of all this ?

Keep your nose on.

I’m so fed up with this “there are so many people taking antidepressants now”, or “they have plans to drug us all you know”.

It’s fear mongering, it’s stupid and it’s also being a nice little advert for big companies. All companies want you to believe that “everyone” is using their product. Look at Microsoft who inflate installation figures when there are a lot of PC’s converted to Linux that go unrecorded. No one knows what the numbers are.

Same with the pills. How many get flushed down the loo, shut in a cupboard never to be used or just thrown away ? What about all the people who don’t use those therapies and never go near a Doctor ? We don’t hear about their “miracle cure for Schizophrenia” because they never got diagnosed with it. Whatever problem they had they used some other solution and moved on.

So please don’t be a free sales person for these big companies. I know it’s tempting to join in. If you really want to then why not send in a job application ?