Perhaps this is like a sci-fi story setting. the controllers trying to find the right people, and the right number for a long isolated, cut-off from everything they know, group of people to send on a very long one way voyage to the second star on the left and straight on til tomorrow. type scenario.

More probable though is it is like you said, just pure unadulterated greed.

The problem is with the mindset.

We don't need you is not the thing they are teaching in colleges and universities. They are training the youth on how to get a good job.

In other words, how to be a good slave. Now this slavery circle has become so vast that even if someone tries to do it on their own, they are being looked as abnormal.

Formal retirement from a career or job is attractive to some, to me it's boring! I love being engaged and doing things that I'm passionate about. I'm hoping that I can be like the critters in our government and work into my 80's like some of them do, doing not a whole lot besides being there!

I hear the elderly and benefits is going to be the next line of attack, sorry you don't get X if you don't do "Y" and "Z", no exceptions unless you're privileged. It's all about safety and the people though! I swear! 

The cash cow is the "aaS" type shit that really annoys me. Software as a Service, Platform as a Service. Health as a Service is what is the current game plan, as we can clearly see. You are completely right, this is an outright attack on healthy people because we keep to ourselves and that's unacceptable to the psychopaths in charge of the world.

You should take good care of yourself. Do not overwork yourself. ''This is not the way'' :)

Let me first say that I'll get to the point of matter but i'll start a bit seemingly off-topic. My ego just needs that intro.

Late after midnight yesterday I was still consuming content on the Tube of You. A historical channel that quite expanded my knowledge about periods we used to have mentioned in school bu in far less...I can't even twist my mind to accept it was any detail at all. Anyway, I consider this as an accelerated form of reading. Audio reading, perhaps? I value that. Since taking the responsibility of helping manage family some business that includes the jobs of quite a few dozens of random people. A Red Ocean (if you're familiar with that theory and hence the term) business. It's a war of attrition. I'm looking at lose-lose situations daily and I'm thinking of how I can turn them into win-wins...And I remember it was @theycallmedan who inspired me to finally get to read Sun Tzu. I did. It was important but also small and I kept looking for more.

Off-topic to the off-topic...wow, I think I just blinked and BTC shot up about 2 k...

Back to that content. It was about the _**slave revolts**_ in the Roman Empire (ancient globalization at its peak), the two Sicily cases and then the one of Spartacus. If I were to guess what went wrong for the leaders, I'd say none of them had any plans for the end game. And it looked like a zero sum game, each time. You can't just be left alone while the other side gains more than it loses by controlling you. It's also a matter of expendable resources at your disposal vs those of your opponent.

Ultimately, the Roman Empire did die the _Death by a Thousand Cuts_. About five centuries later. After inventing fiat money.

> That question has many possible answers, but I suspect the root to all of them boils down to greed and the desire for more profit. Healthy people do not generate as much income as unhealthy, they do not consume as much, especially when it comes to things like pharmaceuticals. Sick people are a money spinner, whether physically or mentally. They tend not to generate the most direct income or earn the most, but they do likely generate the most on average for the corporations.

I will slightly disagree here. I agree that unhealthy people generate a lot of income, but the so called _healthy_ one do as well. Just look at how much _stuff_ there is now for all them joggers: you've got smartwatches that will help you monitor your heart rate etc, you've got super fancy shoes and super duper fancy jogging clothes, and then you have a thousand phone apps that will let you keep track of your workouts and share it with others (don't mind the paid plan and occasional ads). Oh, you're tired after the whole day in your job? Here's a premium meditation/mindfulness app for just $79 a year (but only if you buy now and for the entire year!).

Aaaaaaand of course you can't perform a single freaking workout without telling the entire world that you just did! Share it to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or whathever else is _hot_ at this point in time. Don't mind the algorithms.

***

I'd say that nowadays it is possible to generate income on virtually _everything_. Slowly and slowly every possible activity is becoming tightly coupled with some sort of economical reward or income generation—either for us (crypto tokenization), or for the croporations (Web 2.0 social media, new technologies). The essential skill is to be able to separate the action and the economical implications of this.

For example, I know many people who are virtually unable to go for a walk without taking pictures and sharing them (at the instant) to some social media of theirs. They are constantly connected to the Matrix. I do sometimes like to take a walk and not take my phone with me—just enjoy the air, the sun, the trees, maybe do some thinking, knowing that it will not generate an instant income for me nor someone else. That it's just this beautiful moment that cannot be taken away from me in any way.

>as long as they get their immediate needs met.

That's almost like survival mode. Perhaps it's instincts kicking in, especially with the last two years where it's hard to even predict a future. 

Time flies by way too fast! You mention 2024 for retirement and I still think that's ages away, but it's only a couple of years now. 2000 only seems like yesterday, it can't be nearly 2024 already! 

>Slavery today isn't working for a wage - it is not working for a handout.

I wouldn't have thought to put it that way, but it's an accurate assessment. Actually you description of it as being like a pet is even better. Unfortunately, we are being squeezed more and more into a position where we are reliant on the state in some form. Even to get work now there are so many hoops to jump through. Last time hubby had a medical, the drugs test required him to pee in a pot and there was a camera in the cubicle to make sure it was his urine...for women they have someone standing just outside the cubicle, although thankfully no camera, as far as I'm aware. The feel is more prisoner than slave at that point...

> That question has many possible answers, but I suspect the root to all of them boils down to greed and the desire for more profit. Healthy people do not generate as much income as unhealthy, they do not consume as much, especially when it comes to things like pharmaceuticals. Sick people are a money spinner, whether physically or mentally. They tend not to generate the most direct income or earn the most, but they do likely generate the most on average for the corporations.

> **Am I still?**


![Cogito.jpg](https://images.hive.blog/DQmdu1WfDQ1JeYCDrEtbeKkGJmZKZALe3jsSTs8A1cFxDKJ/Cogito.jpg)

>sitting at home on a pension doing nothing of value for the money. 

I wonder how many people actually do this. If anything, I seem to be busier now than I was before I retired. There aren’t enough hours in the day.

>  I was meant to be looking into retirement villages around about this time of year

With a small child after buying a house? XD

>  sitting at home on a pension doing nothing of value for the money

I wanted to ask: What kind of retirees do you know? o_O

Then I remembered that usually when you write "work" you're meaning "job" and that's probably normal, I tend to use "work" to cover pretty much everything that requires effort.  The only retiree I know that sit around doing "nothing of value for the money" is my 96yo grandmother and I think the only reason she doesn't do much is because she has dementia.  Everyone else is constantly doing stuff.

Unless the stuff they're doing is also considered "nothing of value for the money" XD

> I am starting to hear mention of "post-pandemic stress disorder" which some people are predicting will lead to a sharp increase in heart conditions, especially among the 30-45 age ranges.

I keep hearing that there's an uptick in heart conditions coinciding with covid vaccines and seeing as the vaccines are absolutely infallible it cannot under any circumstances possibly be even tenuously remotely associated (correlation not being causation and all), but the last explanation that I had was that it was most definitely a covid thing.  I guess this also makes sense given how much stress some people are under and also 

>  the high amount of people who have become more sedentary over the last two years and the impact globally would likely kill more than the virus has itself.

> Sick people are a money spinner,

Yes, but what happens when no one can afford medication? O_O

> unless there is a paradigm shift in those who are the most affected

This has been happening for a while now though right.  Just waiting for it to be more of a thing than it already is :)

This is a really important post and I’ll be re-reading this as it had a lot to digest and think through. Thankyou for the clarity in which you write and talking about these issues. I feel like I’m still forming my words to articulate how I also feel about the current state of the world. 

>"I might very well have gone insane."

Indeed, indeed.  Who's to say?  

I do not think you are insane, my friend, as you grasp that decentralization is the cure to centralization, and overlords are the perpetrators of tyranny, while freedom is the fruit of independent means, the very definition of decentralization of means of production.

Reason is the opposite of unreason, sanity the opposite of insanity.

Stay sane!