The Weekend Vigilante June 16th, 2012

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Hello from rainy Acapulco,

There are only a few days of the year here that can be considered rainy so this is noteworthy!  We seemed to be right in the cross hairs of category two Hurricane Carlotta but it hit just south of here in Puerto Escondido and quickly fizzled last night.  The hurricane was estimated to reach here at 4am and it did.  But, by the time it got here it was just a gusty rain shower - and not much of one at that.

Most of us here (TDV staff and subscribers) were disappointed.  Many are from places where hurricanes don't roam so we were looking forward to our first one... me included.  I've never really understood why people avoid places that have things like hurricanes, tornados or earthquakes.  Sure, if it turns into a category 5 hurricane that would be a bit much (the last major hurricane to hit Acapulco was in 1997 - a category 4 named Pauline).  Or a 9.0 earthquake where the building collapses in on you would also be about the worst thing I could imagine happening.  But those are such statistically rare occurrences.  And the chances of you being in the exact wrong spot at the exact wrong time are so infantesimal that spending even a second worrying about it is the height of absurdity.

I love watching the planet show us who is boss.  In Acapulco there is an earthquake almost every day.  However, almost all of them are too small to feel.  We maybe feel one or two per year and since I've been here they have all been very light.  I am always disappointed.  "Let's go!", I say, every time!  Let's shake this thing up!

Tracking Hurricane Carlotta online yesterday it did look like we could get hit squarely with a category 2 hurricane and I began to alert my friends and family.  My wife, born in Acapulco, told me it wasn't going to be anything.  I have learned over the years that she is always right about things like this.  She'll wake up in the morning to totally blue, peaceful skies and tell me it will rain that night.  I'll always scoff at her... always to be proven wrong.  But, I asked her, how can you be so sure that the hurricane won't be bad?  She just told me, "you can just tell."  She said it is the confluence of many things but, as one example, she just noted that the birds in the sky were not acting unusual... neither were the dogs.  A two inch baby iguana came into our house from outside, which she took to mean that a storm was coming... but it was not going to be too big.

Who needs weather.com when you have a local Acapulquena!  In fact, on Friday evening I laughed as I looked down at Acapulco from my hillside home.  All the restaurants were full, the streets were busy as always and even the open air disco, Gugu, was thumping away full of people.  I seemed to be the only one in Acapulco concerned about the hurricane.  

As it began to rain my kids got all excited... especially as it was a cold rain, cooling off a hot and humid day.  They and my wife jumped in the pool and we played throughout the night in the rain.  Even hurricanes don't disrupt the natural flow of life down here.

But, I can almost guarantee you we will get some hotel cancellations at LTGPS in the next few weeks because of that hurricane.  People seem to have no understanding of how natural events occur!  An earthquake was reported here (and unfelt by almost everyone) about a month ago and two weeks later someone cancelled.  They said they were worried about the earthquake "situation".

Do they think earthquakes last for weeks?  Like, for two weeks we've been bouncing around, people dying left and right and we just come in, covered in dust and rubble, to answer their cancellation email?  Or do they think earthquakes tend to come in clusters separated by a few weeks?  Any scientific data to back that up?

Of course not.  The problem is, thanks to public indoctrination, most people don't even know how to think.  Plus, this particular stage of transition from monkeys to being human is especially frustrating as some people have clearly advanced to the next stage of intellectual capability while so many others are still in the "throwing feces at people they dislike and believing in superstitions" phase.

SAFETY, SAFETY, SAFETY

But nothing bothers me more than the near obsessive search for perceived safety that so many, mostly in the western world, have today.  If I never hear the word "safe" again, I'll be happy.  I am so tired of hearing it.  Is that safe?  Is it safe there?  What does that even mean?

As humans we have never, ever... not even close, EVER been safer on an individual level as we are today.  Only a hundred years ago if you went for a walk and scraped your leg you were almost certainly going to die.  If the wound became infected... something that happens every day to millions of people, you'd just die... or they'd chop your leg off.  Those were your two choices.  Today it is almost impossible to die.  There are so many people I wish would just die... but they never do.  Good friend of the Bush (VP at the time) family, John Hinckley, fired six shots at Reagan.  Reagan was up and walking in days.  The David "Satan" Rockefellercorpse that is David Rockefeller still walks this Earth.  Cheney still haunts around in his wheelchair in his black shawl.  We can't get rid of anyone nowadays... except the good guys.  They seem to die real easy.  John Lennon, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Bill Hicks... but for the most part, hardly anyone dies "before their time" anymore.

So, what's this fascination with safety?  The thing I find funniest are that the people most scared about death are the people who have never lived.  They cloister themselves, never take any risks, never travel and really never do anything in the attempt to live to 100 and spend a few decades alone in a dark room in a nursing home wearing a diaper.  What is the point of that?  I guess they never noticed but it is quality, not quantity, of life that matters.

I think this obsession with safety is mostly due to television programming.  I know one man who used to be one of the toughest guys around.  He had a handlebar moustache, drove motorbikes with no helmet, regularly fought people for almost no reason, had numerous mistresses and just plain lived life without much thought of 'fear'.  However, he retired about 15 years ago and he began to sit at home and watch the local newscasts.  He'd almost watch it every hour, on the hour, even though it was almost constantly repeating with the same tired stories.  A kid killed by a drunk driver... a story about a beheading in Mexico... a store robbed.  But, year after year he changed.  Now, he can barely leave his house.  He keeps asking, "Is it safe there?" when he considers going somewhere.

The fact of the matter is, there are problems in the world.  Of course there are!  If there wasn't, we wouldn't be writing this blog daily.  Out of 7 billion people, something completely heinous is going to happen to at least a few people every day.  But, because we are still evolving from apes and many can't compute the numbers and realize that this is a statistical impossibility to happen to them, they see everything that happens to everybody as possibly happening to them.  So, they double check they locked their door and sit in their apartments, closed off from the world, fearing the worst.  But, if they'd open their door they'd realize it's a sunny day, the birds are chirping... everything is just fine.

And, as someone who has been involved in a few life and death situations, I can tell you that there is nothing to fear about death.  You never feel more alive than in the moment right before you think you may die.  I never felt better in my life than after my boat sank in El Salvador and I was safe on shore.  It wasn't because I felt "lucky to be alive", it was because my body was full of endorphines and adrenaline.  I could barely sleep that whole night... not because of the "terrible experience" but because I was wired.  If there was a rave in Bahia de Jiquilisco that night, I wouldn't have needed any ecstasy, that's for sure!

As for "danger", I also feel especially good when I feel like I am in a dangerous situation.  I am rarely in that type of situation, but twice in New York I felt like I was in a situation where I could die... it was a great feeling.  It's kind of scary at the time but once it passes you are amped.

The only thing that feels better is when you are in a dangerous situation and know you have the advantage... whether it be a gun, a weapon, fighting skills or a bodyguard.  The knowledge that you are, as an individual, completely capable of protecting yourself from outside threats is one of the best feelings in the world.  If you've never felt it, get a handgun, put it in your purse or pocket and go find a sketchy area of town where you live.  This is a thing no government wants you to feel.  They want you to feel scared and needy... because then they can convince you that by stealing half your income every year they can protect you from theft.  If a more ridiculous concept has ever been created, I don't know about it.

Government preys on this need for perceived safety.  The result is what we have today, most people living in complete imprisonment and never actually living their life, for safety.

As H.L. Mencken said, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamourous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

I wouldn't mind people enslaving themselves so much if they didn't try to enslave me along with them.  I don't want any part of that kind of "safety".

YOU HAVE TWO COWS

Some of you may have seen various forms of the "you have two cows" meme.  We found it slightly off so we edited a few of them from the vigilante view.  Here they are, feel free to pass along to your stupid friends:

SOCIALISM

You have 2 cows.  You decide that things are best decided in the collective.  An especially charismatic sociopath takes charge and takes your cows and distributes them to others who don't know anything about cows.  The cows die.  You all begin to eat each other.

COMMUNISM

You have 2 cows.The State takes both, for the good of everyone and gives you some milk.  But, the state has no clue how to manage cows and soon they die and everyone begins to eat each other.

FASCISM

You have 2 cows.  The State takes both and sells you some milk.  But, after all of the inefficiencies of theft no one can even afford to buy milk anymore.  People begin to eat each other.

DEMOCRACY

You have two cows.  You decide that everyone should have a say in your two cows.  They decide to take them and kill them.  People begin to eat each other.

BUREAUCRATISM

You have 2 cows.  The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away... Eventually, no one can live off of the reduced milk and people begin to eat each other.

NAZISM

You have 2 cows.  The State takes both and shoots you.

SURREALISM

You have two giraffes.  The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

A FRENCH CORPORATION

You have two cows.  You go on strike, organize a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION

You have two cows.  You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.  You then create a clever cow cartoon image called ‘Cowkimon’ and market it worldwide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION

You have two cows.  You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows, but you don’t know where they are. You decide to have lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows.  You count them and learn you have five cows.  You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.  You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.  You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION

You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.  You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION

You have two cows.  You have 300 people milking them.  You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.  You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows.  You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION

You have two cows.  Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION

Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.  You tell them that you have none.  Because of the MSM propaganda, no one believes you, so they shock and awe the **** out of nearly one million innocent men, women and children. You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of democracy.

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows.  Business seems pretty good.  You close the office and go to the pub for a few pints to celebrate.

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION

You have two cows.  The one on the left looks very attractive.

A GREEK CORPORATION

You have two cows.  You borrow against the cows from the Germans You kill the cows and make souvlaki. You can’t pay the interest so the Germans lend you more money. You can’t pay the interest so the Germans lend you more money. You can’t pay the interest so the Germans lend you more money. You can’t pay the interest so the Germans lend you more money...

TRUE CAPITALISM/ANARCHISM (FREE MARKET)

You have two cows.  You sell one and buy a bull.  Your herd multiplies, you employ many who have no capital and the economy grows.  Everyone has more than they could ever need.  You sell some and do something you really want to do off the income.  Everyone else is well off but many chide you for your greed and demand you give them your cows.  You tell them to fuck off.

A TDV SUBSCRIPTION

Not many people know this, but we actually publish a 15-20 page newsletter every week.  We haven't even really publicized that to non-subscribers, mostly because we are just too busy working each week to even mention it.  But, the TDV newsletter, which began as a monthly issue, is now weekly with one extra-important issue each month.  Why?  Because there is simply no way to keep up with everything going on in the world in one issue per month.

If you want to be informed and hear leading edge ideas each week, check out TDV.  There are other newsletters that call themselves "outside of the box"... but here's a hint, anyone who actually calls themselves "outside of the box" is so inside the box they don't even know it.  The kind of people writing here at TDV don't even know a box exists.  We've heard about it... and we think it is funny some people limit themselves to it... but we wouldn't even know where to find it if we tried.

You'd be shocked to hear who some of our subscribers are.  Most like to stay private.  We've already told you some of our biggest fans are people like Doug Casey and Lew Rockwell.  Let's just say that there are at least a few out of the top twenty richest people on Earth who subscribe... and they didn't get that rich by reading stupid crap.  If you like the blog, you'll love the newsletter.  Try it out today.

THAT'S ALL FOR THIS WEEK

The rain has subsided, the skies are sunny and I'm about to get back on my scooter for a romantic sushi and sake dinner with my wife after three glasses of Chardonnay at Mangos.  Until next week, stay free and don't allow anyone to ever take your property!

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