What The Hell Is Going On Here, Anyway? by Caitlin Johnstone!
(2019-07-27 at 22:38:00 )

What The Hell Is Going On Here, Anyway? by Caitlin Johnstone

Over the course of my young career here I have amassed a very eclectic group of readers from all across the political spectrum, which I quite enjoy.

Sometimes I read the comments sections just to watch what happens when you bring people together from wildly different worldviews who would not normally interact with each other very much and see how those reality tunnels dance together in a conversation or debate.

I can not rightly call my whole audience left-wing or right-wing, conspiracy theorists or anarchists, activists or intellectuals, or almost any other label I can think of.

There is only one attribute that comes to mind which unites pretty much all of my readers and social media followers, and that is a drive to know what is really going on in the world.

Their curiosity about what is going on in what specific field may differ from person to person, as do the conclusions they reach, but basically I think we are all united by a desire, perhaps often an obsessive one, to come to some understanding of what is really happening in the world.

If schools, news media and politicians told people what is really going on in the world, this curiosity would not exist.

There would be no need to do deep investigations into what is really happening, because it would be public knowledge, right there in our faces every day, and I would be out of a job.

The only reason people like me get to make a living trying to expose what is really happening in the world to as many people as possible is because the teachers, news reporters and politicians do not do that job for us, and instead dedicate themselves to the craft of filling public consciousness with power-authorized lies.

So people gather in little fringe communities like this one in an attempt to help each other slice through the fog of propaganda and disinfo.

We are truth seekers.

We seek in different ways and we find different answers, but we are united by a burning desire for truth.

By the question, "What the hell is going on here, anyway?"

And this is why I do not make any distinction between the quest to punch through the veil of establishment narrative management and the quest to come to a deep understanding of our own true nature.

Some readers complain about the way I will be writing about Russiagate or Venezuela one minute and then suddenly pivot to the illusory nature of the ego or processing early childhood trauma the next, but to me they are all exactly the same thing: it is all an attempt to describe the truth about what is really going on.

I made a conscious resolution long ago to always try to tell the truth as I see it rather than to say what people want me to say, and sometimes talking about human consciousness and the importance of inner work is the most truthful way I know to speak about what is going on.

So I am sorry if I do not always stick to writing about what you want to see me write about, but the alternative would be just seeking popularity and clicks, which would quickly lead to support for mainstream partisan narratives since that is where the most clicks are, at which point I might as well whore myself out to the Main Stream Media.

So I just stick with telling the truth as honestly as possible based on how it looks from behind these eyes, which sometimes looks like a discussion about inner exploration.

Because here is the thing: the investigation into what is really going on goes two ways. It extends outward into discovering the truth about events and power structures underneath the fog of propaganda, and it extends inward to discovering how we really operate underneath all our fundamental assumptions and beliefs.

Both directions of investigation are equally important, because the truth about what is going on in each direction is equally obscured.

In exactly the same way that world events are not happening the way most people believe they are happening because of what they were taught at school and in the news media, internal phenomena like thought, self, consciousness and perception are not happening anywhere remotely like the way most people assume they are happening.

Sincere inner work leads to a clear perception of the way ones internal dynamics are occurring that makes it possible to live wisely and joyously, in the same way that sincere research into what is going on in the outer world makes it possible to skillfully address the dilemmas that our species faces on this planet.

Most of us prefer the outer stuff. It is fun to make fun of shitlibs and war whores and expose the corruption and lies of our rulers for everyone to see.

It gets us plenty of accolades on social media, which give us highly addictive neurochemical rewards.

It is egoically pleasing.

Much less fun, and much less egoically pleasing, is honoring the fact that ones own ego is actually part of the problem, and setting to work unburdening the world of our own inner bullshit.

But it is so important, because it happens that you can not effectively investigate what is going on in the outer world when your eyes are clouded by your own inner illusions, and you can not help the world when your own actions are being ruled by your own unconscious conditioning.

If you do not resolve the sources of your own suffering, your attempts to help the world are like a child covered in mud trying to help his mother clean the house; you are just spreading your suffering around.

(As an aside, there are also lots of people who much prefer inner exploration to outer exploration, and they are just as useless and deluded as those who neglect inner exploration in favor of outer exploration. Many spiritual types will happily sit in meditation for hours on end, go on spiritual retreats and immerse themselves in contemplation while compartmentalizing away from their political responsibilities to the world using spiritual-sounding arguments. I am not addressing these types here because they do not read writers like me, but it is worth noting that the delusion can go either way, and in both cases it is ultimately about running from aspects of reality that one finds uncomfortable instead of courageously facing the truth, come what may.)

I am not interested in recommending any particular path to inner investigation here, and you do not need me to.

Everyones journey to self-realization is different, and you already have what you need to guide you to all the necessary tools: your burning desire to be free from illusions and know the truth about what is really going on.

All you need to do is turn that burning desire to know what is true onto your own inner processes, and you can be confident that you will discover the truth there in the same way you have discovered so much truth about what is going on in the world.

There are plenty of teachings, pointers and tips available online to show you how to do this. Your burning curiosity will guide you to the best ones for you.

There is a lot of bullshit in this world, and it just so happens that we each own an acre of it over which we have total and complete control.

Turn your attention toward eliminating your own acre of inner bullshit, and the world will be less one acre of bullshit.

From there, your newfound clarity of vision will help you find and eliminate all the bullshit in the outer world as well.

Thanks for reading!!
Everyone has my unconditional permission to republish or use any part of this work (or anything else I have written) in any way they like free of charge.

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, throwing some money into my hat on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my "sweet merchandise", buying my new book "Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone", or my previous book "Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers". The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for "my website", which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I am trying to do with this platform, "click here".