Escape from the North
And a message to the Third World: Don't imitate the "developed" nations! They're a slow motion, fascist train wreck!
This short reflection on the Third World, or Global South, was written in response to a video titled, Things I Hate About Uruguay. I’m going to present the piece exactly as it was written: mainly because I’ve run out of time for editing. I have at least 13 books and over a hundred articles written and waiting for me to find time to proof-read them for publication - I can’t keep up. And I need to shift my focus from research and writing, to escaping the authoritarianism of the North - and get my boxes literally packed for a move to Latin America, this year. Our house in Canada goes on sale in eight weeks. This is very real. Time to focus on the exodus. The writing will have to wait. Enjoy the musings. Maybe I will catch up with you in the South. Fare well, and God speed.
- JTR
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Don't imitate the "developed" world!
Thank you, Maddie, for giving your honest views. I've enjoyed your videos. I'm planning on moving to Uruguay from Canada this year. The positives about Uruguay are huge. I don't mind hearing about things that some people find negative about a country, especially if it is done alongside mentioning the positive things. Every country has problems. That said, one man's pleasure is another man's pain.
I am trying to escape fascism and authoritarianism, which has taken over the West, the “First World”, or the Global North, and NOTHING remotely compares to the importance of that, to me. But I am also eager to escape a stress-filled, rushed and frenzied consumer culture, that is addicted to materialism, consumerism, status and ego-obsession, entertainment and instant gratification. Old school culture in Latin America, as you call it - meaning, not everything can be done with a wave of a chipped bank card, a cell phone or an online transaction - is an extremely good thing to me!
If anything, Uruguay is TOO "developed" for my taste. (Thoreau is my great literary hero, after all, and to, “Simplify, simplify”, as Thoreau urged - in his major work, Walden, which is still the best critique of the modern world ever written - is now a moral, spiritual, practical, economic, health, psychological, and ecological necessity.) But Uruguay ranks number one in the world for civil liberties, and is a bastion of freedom, human rights and democracy; and those things are by far the most important things to me. So I will accept a measure of "development", in return for high levels of civil liberties, constitutional democracy and freedom. (Besides, I will live in the quiet rural areas, anyway.)
I am not a-gush over 21st century technophilia. I find it dehumanizing, de-souling, degrading, distracting, and inwardly and spiritually and culturally impoverishing, alienating - and also Orwellian.
Moreover, I WANT the face to face contact. I’m highly introverted and solitary, but I like to truly connect with people, at least some times, and not have all unmediated human interaction stripped away. (Shudders.)
I WANT to use only cash (or gold, silver, Bitcoin, barter or mutual aid) - wherever possible!
I want to avoid a life lived through a cell phone, a computer, a digital electronic network, an electronic control grid and digital leash, or a banking system or corporate oligarchy.
These are some of the things I want to ESCAPE, not cling to as essentials.
I want a culture where people spend the vast majority of their time living life directly - not through a screen - and relating directly to other people and to nature; and where people are NOT addicted to their cell phones, “social media”, shopping, consumerism, materialism, electronics, gadgets, and instant gratification. Those are exactly the things I am trying to escape from, by moving to rural Latin America, and Uruguay in particular; along with escaping the growing authoritarianism and literal fascism of the Global North.
I appreciate and enjoy your videos. I just wanted to share another perspective.
To me, slowing down, and reconnecting to nature, ourselves, and one another, is critically urgent now - and simplifying and unplugging from the electronic-digital grid, are major and essential requirements for us to be able to do that.
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As to Uruguay, most Latin American cultures, most African and Asian cultures, most Eastern and Central European cultures, most Southern European cultures, and most countries of the Third World or Global South, being more traditional than the 21st century neoliberal Global North, defined predominantly as North America, Britain, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand:
1. You in the Global North, or the “leading”, “developed”, First World nations, do not own the world, rule the world, define the world, set the standards for the world, or have any right in imposing your views, values, standards or tastes, on the rest of the world. Show some respect! And stop being so arrogant, self-centred, pushy and pretentious! When visiting, or even relocating or moving to another country, you are a guest in someone else’s country! When someone invites you to their home for dinner, you don’t barge in and start re-arranging the furniture and criticizing their tastes and their décor! You are a guest! And when you visit another country, or move to another country, you are a guest! Act like a gracious guest - not a plantation owner’s spoiled brat son or daughter, who is dissatisfied with the local savages! You should adapt - not impose! Don’t slavishly assimilate - keep your character, heritage, culture and roots, but do integrate and adapt, and above all, show some basic courtesy and respect! You are the guest, not the overlord!
How is it that any of this has to be explained? How utterly arrogant, egocentric, ethnocentric and narcissistic have the people of the “developed” nations become? PSE has taken over: a pathological sense of entitlement. Obviously, what they have developed most in the “developed” nations, are pathologies of the mind, disease of the soul, and a supreme arrogance and extreme self-centredness, which comes from being among the higher or lower ranks of the privileged of the colonial nations. That, and an overdose of toxic “social media” and Hollywood TV culture. Well, get over yourselves. You are mere mortals, not gods. Get down off your pedestals, and start treating people like you are a decent human being, and not an arrogant, narcissistic pig.
Remember what the ancient Greeks knew all too well: Hubris precedes a fall. Or as the Taoist sages have said, “He who stands on tip toe is not stable. He who rushes goes not forward. He who shows himself does not shine.” Or as Jesus said, Do not seat yourself next to the host; seat yourself at the foot of the table, and you will be elevated. The selfish and vain will be brought low, while the modest and generous will be raised high. This is not only the law of karma, it is also a lesson in human psychology and sociology - and it is furthermore a matter simply of good manners. Learn some.
2. A little modesty is not necessarily a bad thing. Freedom without wisdom, judgment (discernment), and a degree of self-restraint, ends up becoming self-degradation and self-destruction; which, of course, is exactly what has happened to the First World nations of the Global North, among other horrors.
The cult of “me” has to die so that humanity and the Earth can live. A bit more modesty and humility will be necessary in order to attain that new balance. Paradoxically, it is also the only road to true freedom - or to basic sanity, or peace.
3. Egocentric nihilism is not the universal measure of all cultural norms! That is what rules the West and the Global North; and again, it has been an utter and complete disaster. Just because you want to wear an item of clothing downtown, does not that mean your petty narcissism and self-centredness should automatically triumph and supersede over other people’s values, other people’s sensibilities, or other people’s culture. And again, you are a GUEST in someone else’s country, whether as a tourist, or as a new immigrant or “expat” living in that country. Stop being so narcissistic, egocentric and self-centred! Who do you think you are, a fairy tale princess among ignorant savages?! Get over yourself. Show some respect for the people whose country you are a guest in!
Just a word of advice. But self-awareness comes painfully slowly to confirmed narcissists - and the West and the Global North are now taken over by a deeply ominous pandemic of mass narcissistic regression to an infantile state (as I wrote about in an earlier essay on WordPress), so we cannot expect too much self-awareness from them, any time soon.
In Uruguay, to be flashy is a sin. Modesty and humility are highly valued. I think those are good values (so long as even moderation is kept in moderation). But again, what guest in the country, or new immigrant or expat, recently relocated into the country, has the right to come in with a wrecking ball and presume to restructure their host nation's culture? How supremely arrogant - and selfish!
It was Social Darwinism, in my view, which led to the spiritual decay that caused the decline and collapse of Western “civilization” and the Global North. Neoliberalism, corporate globalism and technocracy are simply three of its deeply interwoven, recent manifestations. And it is materialist nihilism, or more precisely put, egocentric nihilism, which underlies that, and which is the real root of the problem and the source of the disease. Please don’t bring your First World pathologies here, to the “developing world”, and spread your disease around, like you are spreading blessings and beatitude and enlightened virtue. You are spreading pathologies, insanity and disease. You can keep them to yourself. We don’t want them.
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As to your shopping angst:
Rejecting neoliberal globalization requires at least some measure of import controls and capital controls, and strong support for local, independent businesses and local and domestic products - the alternative is the cultural, spiritual, political and economic rape of your nation. Uruguay chose wisely. Your inconvenience is unfortunate, Maggie, but there are far more important issues at stake, than whether or not you can buy your favourite cosmetics online from Amazon.
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I DON'T want Uruguay to become like Australia, Canada, Britain, Europe or the US! Those countries now have far worse problems than Uruguay. And digital/media/electronics addiction, consumer culture, instant gratification, and the deep alienation and neurosis that these things inevitably create, are a MAJOR part of the problem.
It's like saying Uruguay is lacking because it has too few big box chain stores and shopping malls, and Amazon doesn't deliver there. No! Those are extremely good things to avoid! They gutted the countries and the communities of the Global North, culturally, spiritually and economically! The last thing that Uruguay, Latin America or the Third World / Global South need, is to imitate the Global North!! This should by now be painfully clear!
The "developed" nations are now a slow motion train wreck, as well as having been taken over by neoliberal fascists. Don't follow their example!
- JTR
March 22, 2022
Post Script: And as I say, I am dead serious about leaving the North, and as soon as possible - this year, in fact. I would urge others to reflect deeply on where they are located now, and how they feel about their lives and the future ahead. The shit is about to hit the fan. My destination is Uruguay. What’s yours?
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Here is the world’s leading trend analyst, Gerald Celente, talking about the current direction of the Western world - in the US, Canada, UK, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand, or the Western bubble of the Global North, as I would call it:
Here is Canada’s leading constitutional lawyer, Rocco Galati, on the rise of fascism in the West, which is going on now. After this interview you may want to hear my own interview with Doug McKenty, on The Shift, from a year later, in November 2021.
Veteran environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on The CIA and Totalitarianism:
Doug Casey on the collapse of the US and the West:
Patrick Wood on technocracy taking over the West:
Russell Brand and Matt Taibbi on neoliberal corporate rule in the West:
Russell Brand on the decline (to put it mildly) of freedom and democracy in Canada and the West:
Nomad Capitalist on the decline of the West:
Doug Casey is always worth listening to. Noteworthy is the fact that he chose Uruguay as the country he now lives in - for freedom, civil liberties and stability - over all other nations. Here he speaks on relocation and the coming collapse:
Dutch scholar talks about the rise of technocratic neoliberal fascism in the West:
Paul Craig Roberts on the rise of tyranny and the collapse of the West:
Prominent British scholar Piers Robinson on the rise of tyranny in the West:
Brilliant and extremely important concept and strategy here, which I have also been urging, myself: decouple and build parallel societies.
Another person who is always worth listening to, whether you agree with everything he says or not - and what two people agree on everything anyway? - is James Kunstler. This article sums it up well: National Assisted Suicide.
The US, and Western “civilization” more broadly, is now committing suicide. Actually, it is an assisted suicide, because the lemming masses had to be duped into a mass suicide action, which is now underway, on an economic level, a cultural level, a psychological level, and even a biological level. It’s staggering to watch. Jonestown had nothing on this. This is suicidal mass insanity on a cvilizational scale.
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/22356315-national-assisted-suicide
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I am Canadian, and I fully supported the truckers' anti-authoritarian protest, which is what it was. The protests were broken up, but the government took massive damage to its credibility for it, both domestically and abroad. The Davos fascists are still in charge, however, and still committed to their fascist agenda, and the Deputy PM, Freeland, who really runs Canada, is a Davos asset, who sits on the WEF management board. So, it was a wake up call event for many, but the great majority are still in denial, while the global fascist agenda rolls on. That's why I am moving to Uruguay this December. I'll see you both there, I hope, Matt and Doug!
Also worth a listen:
Excellent talk here, below. Thank you, Nomad Capitalist, for speaking common sense! Yes, the Davos set are now, "the de facto world government", as the leading business journal of the Western Hemisphere calls them. And yes, as Canada's leading constitutional lawyer, Rocco Galati says, they are orchestrating a global fascist coup, as the world's leading trend analyst, Gerald Celente has said, along with RFK Jr. and many others. But the Davos oligarchs dominate the West primarily, and they don't control the world, nor can they. Of course there are better and worse places to be. Uruguay, Nicaragua and Mexico top the list of best places to relocate to now, in my view, as of 2022, with Uruguay number one. Almost anywhere is better and more free than the Western world now, other than Communist China and the nations destroyed by US invasions. Get out now. The West has gone fascist. Leave now, I’d say.
One of the best pieces of news, is that the world truly is multi-polar now. The fascist oligarchs who meet at Davos, and whose power base includes the axis of Washington, Langley, Wall Street, London, Brussels, Basel and Berlin, would like to control the world, but they are not able to. They dominate North America, Britain and Europe, and not much else. That is good news for the rest of the world.
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Here is the video I was referring to, in case anyone is interested. Her other videos are much better. And she has interesting things to say about Uruguay, as an expat and a new immigrant to the country, most of which is positive.