The world is undergoing a transformation, writes Caitlin Johnstone, and it’s taking us in a direction that none of us can predict.
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com
2020 is the year of Julian Assange’s extradition trials, the Kafkaesque proceedings by which the U.S. government is attempting to imprison the WikiLeaks founder for the rest of his life as punishment for exposing U.S. war crimes. Assange started an innovative leak-publishing outlet on the premise that corrupt power can be fought with truth, and corrupt power responded by silencing and jailing him. They’ve proved him right about everything, right in front of everyone.
2020 is the year people began protesting police brutality, and police responded with ferocious and widespread acts of brutality. The massive deluge of video footage from these brutal police responses went viral all over the world. The argument about police brutality culture in the U.S. police state was won clearly and decisively, right in front of everyone.
2020 is the year the most powerful government on earth responded to a pandemic virus with the largest upward transfer of wealth in history, leaving massive global corporations with record-high stocks while killing small businesses and throwing the rank-and-file public to the wolves after handing some of them a paltry $1,200, all while failing spectacularly to address the threat of the virus itself. This financial abuse is happening right out in the open, right in front of everyone.
President Donald J. Trump during briefing on Covid-19 testing capacity May 11, 2020. (White House, Shealah Craighead)
2020 is the year this same government’s electoral process is being exposed in front of everyone for the sham it has always been, as two corrupt racist right-wing warmongering dementia patients who’ve both been accused of rape are placed head-to-head in what will inevitably be the single dumbest presidential race in the nation’s history. Neither of these two men is capable of forming a coherent sentence, and their presidential debates will make them a laughing stock of the whole world, right in front of everybody.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden, official portraits from Wikipedia. (Andrea Widburg, Flickr)
2020 is the year the aforementioned pandemic virus brought more and more awareness to how insane it is that the most powerful nation on earth lacks a normal healthcare system and the basic social safety nets that are afforded to everyone else in every other major country on earth.
2020 is the year increased public consciousness was brought to racism and race relations, as the cultural inertia against actualizing an insight humanity experienced decades ago finally begins to truly fall away. The gaping racial wounds caused by centuries of white supremacism are finally being dragged into the light of consciousness before the people who’ve resisted looking at them because they have benefitted from white supremacism. The ugly things our society has kept hidden from itself are getting brought into the light in front of all of us.
Protesters in Oakland, California, May 29, 2020, after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. (Daniel Arauz, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons)
2020 is the year of the raging debate about “cancel culture” as a critical mass of people begin to shove hard against injustices and perceived injustices in the world. Some factions shove hard against things they find objectionable, other factions shove back hard against their shoving, and in the back-and-forth movement long-stuck objects are becoming unstuck as all the commotion shoves more and more previously unconscious dynamics into public awareness.
Everywhere you look, the common thread across all plots and subplots of the story of 2020 is revelation. The movement from the unseen to the seen, from the unconscious to the conscious.
Graffiti in Bilbao, Spain, February 2012: “We want to know. (Zarateman, CC0, Wikimedia Commons)
Even the coronavirus itself seems to be doing this to people on an individual level. Over and over again I’m seeing anecdotes from people who’ve been badly stricken with the virus repeating the same thing: that it has made them seriously reevaluate their lives and where they choose to put their energy and attention during their time in this world. People are forced by the way Covid-19 punishes needless movement to sit still with themselves and reflect on just what they’re doing here on this planet.
It reminds me of the “ordeal medicines” or “ordeal poisonings” in shamanic traditions around the world that didn’t have psychoactive plants. In ordeal poisonings you receive a toxic but non-deadly substance that puts you through a terrible existential ordeal which causes you to re-evaluate your life, from which you emerge with a newfound appreciation for life and a brand-new perspective. This same sort of phenomenon is arguably happening around the world on a mass scale right now. Many have long had the thought that the world would be improved if a critical mass of people experienced psychedelics; 2020 may be the year where humanity received something ultimately even better.
What I’m getting at with all of this is, maybe try and relax a little bit. I know everyone’s really scared and stressed out and some are in danger of losing their homes or their loved ones, so obviously this suggestion can only go so far and apply to such an extent. But, to the best of your ability, perhaps try and relax. This might just be what it looks like when a thinking animal suddenly finds itself being hurled into expanded consciousness by forces it doesn’t understand and cannot control.
Milwaukee jetty. (Corinna Barnard)
Anyone who’s done serious inner work knows that it is seldom pretty when things we’ve kept hidden in our subconscious begin moving into consciousness. But it’s also the only way things can heal, since you can’t fix what you can’t see. It’s always awkward and uncomfortable to uncover things you’ve kept unconscious; that’s why you kept them there in the first place. But it’s also the only way forward.
This may be all we’re seeing, but on a mass scale. It ain’t pretty, but it’s what’s needed for healing to take place.
So, maybe just try and relax. Maybe invest less energy in stressing and bickering about masks and cancel culture and the U.S. election and if the left or the right are going to get us all killed, and see if you can enter into a state of deep listening. The world is undergoing a transformation, and it’s taking us in a direction that none of us can predict, because we can only see what we can see. Maybe relax as much as you can and try to enjoy this weird and exhilarating tumble from the unseen into the seen, from unconsciousness into consciousness.
May all be revealed. This is the authentic human being’s foremost desire. May all be revealed, from our own innermost subconscious dynamics to power structures which affect the whole world. Let it all come out into the light.
Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium. Her work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking her on Facebook, following her antics on Twitter, checking out her podcast on either Youtube, soundcloud, Apple podcasts or Spotify, following her on Steemit, throwing some money into her tip jar on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of her sweet merchandise, buying her books “Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone” and “Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers.”
This article was re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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Caitlin, you are an amazing person and one hell of a writer! Keep on keeping on…
Millions of Americans are getting a taste of the very austerity the imposed on the masses whop became jobless before them. Remind them to consider a little suffering as “an incentive to pull themselves up by the bo9tstraps, looking for a hand up, not a handout.” (Or at least, not another one.)
On race, the great majority of US poor are white, but yeah, that fact is a little too uncomfortable for hard-working white Americans to consider. It hints at the possibility that they, themselves, could become a part of the masses of despised homeless poor.
Bless your for saying this. For having the courage to say that the result is unpredictable. Subconsciously I’ve been angry at so many things I’ve read and now I know why. So many people are so friggin’ certain that they know what is going to happen next. From Laura Ingraham branch predicting a grand alliance against China where the U.S. finally bringing them to heel to the other extreme that Covid19 exposing the frailty of the U.S. and hastening the ascendency of China. Wow. While I have a preference, I could see it going any number of ways.
Another long held prediction … ‘the collapse of U.S. shale oil’, this has been going on for 2yrs but it has only retrenched from 13m bpd to 11m bpd. Where will it be in 4yrs? I have no idea. Personally, I would love to see it go down to 8m bpd because this is an instrument of U.S. aggression. I would regret the hardship it would cause U.S. workers but I regret more the starvation our production is causing on millions of people today.
Another prediction, the pending collapse of Saudi Arabia, been hearing that for years. Truly I’d love to see that loathsome regime collapse but that cockroach will not die.
Oh and one of my favorites, the debt induced collapse of the U.S. dollar. Truly we deserve this fate but when?
Unfortunately, you fail to address delusions and treat them as factual. This will also lead to a painful awakening.
“as two corrupt racist right-wing warmongering dementia patients”
I think I cannot fully agree. I take an exception to the last word: patient is someone under medical care for a condition, these two people may be cases of dementia, but I never heard or read about them being treated. And Trump does not seem to be a dementia case, one could even argue that he is astute. Namely, as a member of the upper echelons of the elite he does not have any need to change anything, but he has a genuine talent, namely to create a brand and make a unique impression on a sufficiently large segment of the public. Thus he verbally strays from the orthodoxy, most frequently by mangling grammar etc., but also making statements that drive his opponents to conniptions that are not shared by the public. Plus he is (or used to be, I am not watching lately) very innovative in insulting people and countries. More of a unique impression.
Of course, one can also make a case that Trump is simply inept. To give one example, tf he wanted to make any positive changes through talks with North Korea etc., what could possess him to nominate Bolton and similar crazies to key positions? But Trump is not the only one who applied strategic ineptitude. I did not notice any books like “Strategic Ineptitude — Guide for complete idiots”, but you can spot many instances where this method is applied and works. Say, your name is Obama and you want to show that you can handle Israel — Palestine issue better than predecessors, and announce that you will force Israel to freeze illegal settlements for the duration of negotiations with Palestinians. The boldness appeals to the impressionable, drives opponents to conniption proving presidential boldness (Biden did some efforts in this directions too, he could actually brandish his progressive efforts, he he), but then you let the whole train to go off track. It would actually be a bother if that worked. All rich and crazy Zionist donors would decamp to GOP, Democrats would have to rely on donations and volunteers, little by little you could wake up in a Communist country! Naaaay.
Biden is indeed a sad example of cognitive decline.
Bravo!
Keep writing.
Wow! Those closing paragraphs reveal a truly contemplative soul! Beautifully written and so true!
Well written..The only part that perplexed me
was the accusation of “rape” on Left Wing, not Right Wing , Biden…Of course I am aware of the sexual assault allegation…Keep up your good works!
Excellent piece once again from Ms. Johnstone – thank you Caitlin and Consortium News.
Thanks Caitlin a welcome force of sanity. Unconsciousness to consciousness, important observation and also about the only positive from Trump.
I am not sure about the forces transforming and redirecting the world, my present concern is the power of corporations being dramatically and appallingly enhanced while, among other things, mostly local, medium and small business get gobbled up, and corporate power becomes even more concentrated, powerful and globalised.
In NZ we had an opposition leader newly appointed and then soon after resign, very curious, but written up by the Australian owned NZ corporate media (ownership a NZ responsibility) with most of the emphasis on the wonders of agribusiness and its links to this short lived opposition leader and the Political Party he belongs to. As some NZ journalists, ie Suzy Dawson, indicate, what happens in NZ must always consider the ever present CIA.
The last thing the world needs is a buy up of local land and a complete take over by global agribusiness – one of the reasons the world is vulnerable to pandemics (or ‘so called’ pandemics).
Including the role of a dangerous corporate media, which report a narrative fast and loose with facts but which will always emphasise what will cause corporate profits to increase, regardless of whats best for the majority of humans on this planet.
Thank you Ms. Johnstone for this insightful piece that finds a ray of hope in the otherwise gruesome series of events that have been 2020. Your ability to synthesize seemingly disparate current events into a coherent alternative narrative is a gift.
“Everywhere you look, the common thread across all plots and subplots of the story of 2020 is revelation. The movement from the unseen to the seen, from the unconscious to the conscious.”
I agree with this statement as it regards the issues of racism and political corruption; however I’m not sure that the general public is experiencing any kind of revelation about what’s happening to Assange. As you say,
“Assange started an innovative leak-publishing outlet on the premise that corrupt power can be fought with truth, and corrupt power responded by silencing and jailing him.”
Well, I can’t afford to donate money, but I do send Caitlin Johnstone’s essays to everyone with an ear to hear. Once again, she has pointed out the nonobvious, but blatantly obvious take on a subject, “right in front of everyone.” Well done. An act of wisdom worth taking to heart.
Nice piece Caitlin. I see a number of deep thinkers taking a step back and doing some deep fundamental rethinking lately.(eg. Michael Krieger, Edward Curtain). On another level however, I’m not so sure that “relaxing and putting your feet up” is such a good idea at a time when it is most imperative that people WAKE UP!
On the deeper thinking side, we might consider that it is Black DEATHS that matter more than LIVES.