"The Fox Den"

It's interesting to note that with the increasing bouts of synchronicity in my life, the amount of irony has increased as well. The starkest bit of irony would be that I have resigned from the Matrix while at the same time increased the amount of online computer time required of me. This doesn't bother me much, and that is mainly because it's winter, and what else am I going to do? Winter is definitely the time for reflection and personal psychological investigations. Winter also lends itself magnificently to the writer in us. One doesn't have to look out from a window at a beautiful spring or summer day that is begging, indeed demanding, assistance from us in our many post petroleum endeavors. During the winter one looks outside and is thankful to be inside, where it is warm. Not only are we thankful, we are aware that this is the time for guilt free planning for the year ahead. Even the most adept muddler increases his success by thinking and planning about what changes he must make in reality to continue following his (or her) bliss (I see people use "her" in place of "his" often and I'm always struck by how it reads differently...I use the male version simply as a matter of habit...not out of a sense of chauvinism).

In the month that has past I have been busy paying attention to my changing life circumstances. The 15th is the day that our POD will be picked up, and it's also the day that we will be leaving the house we have called home for the last five years. There has been a small amount of melancholy on my part in response to this move. Mostly I reside somewhere between equanimity and joy when I think about my life now, but there are times when sadness is not only desirable but healthy and needed. It seems, here again, that Winter lends itself to these emotional states of mind. "The Winter of Our Discontent" comes to mind here. John Steinbeck has long been my favorite American author, and I've read about 50% of the work he left behind. I always identified with him on a personal level. My favorite aspect of John Steinbeck are the true human idiosyncrasies that he had such a brilliant way of writing about. He was sort of like the arbiter of commentary on the condition of man in the 20th century. He wrote about everyman and his struggle. He wrote about me.

The Winter of our Discontent applies directly to my current Resignation from the Matrix. The protagonist, Ethan Allen Hawley, is every American following the dictates of the American Hologram in pursuit of the American Dream. He thinks he wants success, and in typical American fashion that means anything goes. Robbery, extortion, usury, bribe, black mail, and all other measures of moral turpitude are fair game where "success" in the American sense of the acquisitive life are concerned. The logical conclusion to a life spent absorbed in hucksterism is one of suicide and this is largely what The Winter of our Discontent is about. Ethan is saved by a talisman that his daughter sticks in his coat in place of the razor blades that were to assist him in the dispatch of his own failed huckster lifestyle. His own lack of a moral North (beyond the hologram that is) fructified into a son whom saw no dilemma in plagiarizing his way into society’s recognition. After getting an honest man deported, and taking advantage of a drunken friend to service his endless desire for more, what could he say to his son about a simple plagiarism? In perfect symbolism his son is given an accolade from society for his ethical nihilism.

Herein lies the difference between the life of following your bliss and the life of following the dictates of the Matrix. On the one hand you are true to yourself and therefore everyone else, and on the other you are the mythical embodiment of the trickster. One you can stand beside your soul and hold your head up amongst your own harshest critique, and the other you must hide and never reveal who you are lest somebody take advantage of you. One leads to happiness, joy, and equanimity, and the other leads to losing the will to live. It's important to note that the acquisitive lifestyle will always end in misery, because in servicing all of the material acquired, your life force gets siphoned out from you by inanimate objects. This while those in your life vie for your attention and time. America has no soul because it has been transferred to all of the loot we busy ourselves with jacking from whomever isn't strong enough to defend against our infectious wanting.

What is the "Matrix" exactly. I've had more time to think about this lately since I resigned from it. In many ways it's the perfect metaphor from within the Myth of the Machine (MOTM). This myth is a dying myth. It was the myth that serviced the 20th century, and the one that Steinbeck busied himself with outlining through all manner of magnificent fiction (he contributed much more than that to the American psyche, but he was living in the apex of the MOTM thinking). The 21st century needs a new Steinbeck, and one that will busy himself with writing fiction at a time when all that is left is a dying myth. What is to replace the MOTM? It seems to me that scavenging will be the default winner. John Michael Greer calls the economy of the future the "scarcity economy." By future one should understand that this is the very near future. For many Americans this has already become the way in which they live, and not by any voluntary means either. For those of us who see the future clearly, we are entering into the "scavenge economy," as I like to call it, now. It is a largely untapped economy that is literally found at the ass hole end of the empire. The American Empire is a gluttonous and inefficient digester, and so it's quite easy to find whole and undigested bits of wealth in said shit pile.

This is what it means to be a scavenger. It helps to look at the animal kingdom to glean some information about how to scavenge. Look at the Crow, the possum, or the perfect embodiment of the scavenger...the Raccoon. Raccoons are professional scavengers that grow fat amidst our gluttonous society. A raccoons life is a good life and they don't want for anything. I've watched many a raccoon help themselves to the cat food that gets left over by my outdoor cats. Urban Raccoons are a fearless lot, and I have had them walk to within a foot of me to get the cat food only slowly scampering off if I make the wrong move. They move at night and they seem to me to be overly satisfied with their place in our shit pile. However this is not the animal that I want informing me. The animal that is coming into view for me as a mentor is the Fox. This is an animal steeped in mythic lore. Yet again, here is more of that irony I was speaking of in the beginning of this essay because the fox is the mythical trickster. However this is not the same trickster as the one that keeps us from enlightenment. The evil trickster is the one Steinbeck wrote about in The Winter of our Discontent. This is the animal trickster whom gets what he needs by taking it as if by magic. In fact, the fox is amongst the magical adept of the animal kingdom and this shows up in fox lore. I must be honest and admit that I know very little about fox lore, but I intend on educating myself on the matter and reporting about it here. For now, I can simply say that the fox has introduced himself to me by way of dream epiphany.

Michael Ruppert recently found himself being ruthlessly teased by Joe Rogan when he brought up "fox magic." Indeed, fox magic is the magical path at who's gate I am standing and about to enter in earnest on the 15th when my POD is picked up. I see myself as a trickster fox as viewed by the matrix. Rather than hustling within the Matrix, all while paying homage to the corporate Bankster masters, I'll be hustling just out of reach of the Matrix. Don't misunderstand me, cause like the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar, I'll be stealthily dropping in on the Matrix when need be. I spoke of bending the rules in my resignation, and I have begun doing just that. Dumpster diving is a great place to start bending the rules. It's probably not going to get you arrested around here, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did.

The scavenge economy (black market) is booming right now. There is a lot of cash circulating in the black market because we can't afford to waste our cash on the empire any longer. We can't afford to pay ridiculous amounts of currency for things we can barter, thrift, or otherwise acquire for free. People, especially women, still have the want to shop for things. These things can be gotten for free and sold at a very fair price to gain the cash that one may find themselves in need of. All of this can be very easily done under the radar of the Matrix while also using the Matrix. This is what my wife and I are doing now. Last night, when the fox came to visit me, he gave me a nod as he scampered off back into invisibility. He imbued in me the source of his invisibility just as I presume he did with Mike Ruppert. It seems to me that the fox should be the animal mascot of our movement out of the Matrix. The fox is the perfect candidate to uncover the myth that we will write together. The myth that will service the 21st century Scavenge Economy of the Post Petroleum Human Nation. I can think of no better animal. As I've said I intend on writing more about the Fox and what kind of myth he may uncover for those like me (and likely you since you find yourself reading this). There is a business descending in my life, and it's been dubbed "The Fox Den." Good luck finding it...however if you are prepared it may find you.