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If you want to talk about reads that hold, within mere pages of paper, the power to fill you with disgust, bring you to tears, and change your life, Fredy Perlman‘s essay Against His-story, Against Leviathan! is one such read. I’ve read it countless times now, and every read resonates deeply within the core of my being in a new way each time. AHAL! is more or less like “The Rise of Human Civilization 101.” Perlman goes over the rise and fall of human civilizations, and gives gut-wrenching explanations on how they each have impacted our birth in the belly of an artificial beast, Leviathan, who thrives on the disconnect between man and natural world. This essay was written by Perlman in 1983 and served to shape anarcho-primitivist thought.

Here are some killer excerpts:

“The secret is out. Birds are free until people cage them. The Biosphere, Mother Earth herself, is free when she moistens herself, when she sprawls in the sun and lets her skin erupt with varicolored hair teeming with crawlers and fliers. She is not determined by anything beyond her own nature or being until another sphere of equal magnitude crashes into her, or until a cadaverous beast cuts into her skin and rends her bowels,” (7). 

“Civilization is a humanly meaningless web of unnatural constraints, it is the organization of repression within the entrails of Leviathan. Civilization is the “culture” of Leviathan’s springs and wheels,”  (208). 

“Communities were able to possess the Leviathanized. But Leviathan cannot possess living subjects. Leviathan can only possess things, dead things, objects. Communities could remove masks and armors.  Leviathan removes the scalp, the skin, the flesh. Communities could help the repressed recover their humanity. Leviathan dis-covers unrepressed humanity and consumes it. Dis-covery, the removal of Earth’s cover, the liquidation of free beings, is in fact Leviathan’s central project, and communities that nurture free beings are its greatest enemy,” (254). 

You might be reading this thinking, “yeah whatever… I’m not into that tree-huggin’, earth-worshipin’ bull.” You could be be way too bleak and apathetic to care about the decaying of the human spirit, and rotting of the earth. That’s cool. I get it. If nothing else, this book is awesome for those times when you are suffering from a brutal case of writer’s block, and need some despairing imagery as inspiration… tell me “leviathanic armor” doesn’t sound rad enough to be dropped into the lines of some doom and gloom tunes.  It’s also excellent for people that are a fan of beautiful, poetic writing. Usually I am not into dry history, but Perlman is such a captivating and phenomenal writer that one can’t help but thirst for more. Against His-story, Against Leviathan! is a total crushing heart-punch of a book.

You can read it for free online here too: http://noblesavagery.blogspot.com/2007/03/fredy-perlmans-against-his-story.html

Or if you can’t read really heavy stuff on the computer, like me, and have about 10 bucks to spare you can pick  it up from Black and Red Books (or the many other sellers on amazon, or wherever you get your books).

Definitely read this book if you are down to get mad, and get sad. Forever.

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Against Leviathan! appeared first on CVLT Nation.

The origin of the name Baphomet is not clear. It appears to be a combination of two Greek words baphe and metis meaning “absorption of knowledge.” Other authors claim it is a corruption of “Mohamet” (Mohammed), but the first definition seems to be more accurate. Baphomet has its origins in the “Goat of Mendes.” Baphomet was also one of the aliases of Aleister Crowley. Baphomet has also been called the “Goat of Mendes” and the “Black Goat.”

The goat also has to do with fertility and is symbolic of the Magnum Opus of alchemy when one’s energies from kundalini increase. Spiritual alchemy is of Ancient Egypt and is the transformation of the human soul into the godhead. This is completing our Creator God Satan’s work.

The most famous historical account of Baphomet began with the Knights Templar. The Baphomet at the time of the Templars was believed to be an idol, represented by a human skull, a stuffed human head or a metal or wooden head with curly black hair, or sometimes a black cat. The idol was said to be worshipped by the Knights Templar in their latter days as the source of fertility and wealth. The Knights Templars also known as the “poor knights of christ” was founded in the year 1118 by Hugh de Payens of Champagne France.

The order began with nine or eleven men who were sent to the Holy Land to dig beneath the “Temple of Solomon” for several European families of wealth who had claim to certain artifacts buried there before it was destroyed in 70 CE. The order took on the oath of asceticism, celibacy, devotion to the Catholic Church and poverty. They were forbidden ownership of any personal property. Any wealth accrued by the order was to be shared in common. When excavating beneath the temple, the knights discovered gold and ancient relics, and also many scrolls.

Shortly thereafter, magnificent cathedrals and other buildings sprung up all over Europe. Most of the Goetic/Gothic Demons are known for their expertise in architecture and there are legends claiming many bridges and buildings in Europe were built by Satan and his Demons.²

The true meaning of the “Temple of Solomon” is the TEMPLE OF THE SUN. “Sol” “Om” and “On” are all words for the Sun. “Sol” is the Latin word for the Sun and is close to the English word “soul.” “Om” is a name given by the Hindus to the Spiritual Sun and “On” is an Egyptian word for Sun. The symbolism of the Temple of Solomon was stolen and made into an actual character, as with the fictitous nazarene and nearly everything in the Judeo/Christian Bible.

The Templars were eventually appointed to protect the Holy Land and keep it from the Moslems during the wars of the Crusades. The order grew into the thousands and groups were organized throughout Europe, but France remained their stronghold.

Their seal depicts two men riding one horse because in the early history of the order, the knights could not afford a horse each.

During their journeys to and from the Holy Land in the Middle East, they encountered many different peoples. It is possible, they learned of the Goat of Mendes as the Moslems kept records and had knowledge of the history of Ancient Egypt where the Goat of Mendes originated.

The Templars grew in both size and wealth, reaching their peak in the 14th century. The ending of the wars of the Crusades did not have any impact on the order as they used the opportunity to travel and enter into commerce and money lending. They established a very profitable business relationship with the enemy in times of truce. The order accumulated vast wealth and power. They eventually became the victims of both the greedy Catholic Church that was aware of their forbidden knowledge and King Philip IV of France who was said to be heavily in debt and owed the order a considerable sum.

*From what I have researched, it appears the real reason the Templar order was persecuted by the Catholic Church was for their occult knowledge and power they obtained from excavating beneath the Temple at the Dome of the Rock. This power brought them vast wealth as it is supposed to do for those who have it and the knowledge on how to use it.

Philip IV plotted along with Pope Clement V to destroy the order. October 13th 1307, Philip IV had Grand Master Jacques de Molay and 140 other knights arrested in the Paris Temple. More arrests followed throughout France.

The Templars were subjected to torture en masse. The Catholic Church with its inquisitors, accused them of Devil worship, blasphemy, sodomy, and idolatry. There was secrecy surrounding their meetings and wild rumors spread concerning bizarre initiation rituals that did much to promote public suspicion of the order. Under torture, members of the order admitted to renouncing the nazarene, spitting, trampling and urinating on the crucifix, engaging in intercourse with Demons, indulging in “sexual perversity” and to worshipping the idol of Baphomet. Many of the Templars were burned at the stake and murdered by the inquisition, the most noted being Grand Master Jacques de Molay. After being imprisoned and tortured for seven years, he was burnt alive at the stake.

The Shroud of Turin was of the blood and body fluids of Jacques de Molay as he was laid on a soft feather bed to recover for more torture from the Catholic inquisitors. Upon close examination, it is obvious given the position of the body (the top part is shown below), there is no way this was the Nazarene.

The shroud was also inspected by several diverse scholars who proved beyond any doubt, given the material and constituents, the item was no older than the 12th century. The Catholic Church being the prolific liar that it is, continues to scam people to this day

**I would also like to add in revising this article in light of new knowledge, Christianity appears to have manifested with the Inquisition. It is nowhere near as old as the “two thousand years” they claim it to be. History is and has been rewritten with lies, while being destroyed at the same time.

A very blatant example is what is now and has been occurring in Iraq. What we have been indoctrinated to believe in history class is not necessarily the truth. Ancient relics and architecture speak for themselves. In addition, history was written and told by the winners of every war. Remember, there are always two sides to every account. ONe side is usually the only one that is heard along with permissible opinions only. Along with the “Shroud of Turin lie (the Nazarene is fictitious and was stolen from an alchemical concept of a working which had its origin in some 18+ PAGAN Gods, such as Odin, who hung from a tree and Set who was crucified on a Furka, Osiris who died and was resurrected, etc.), many PAGAN Gods have been passed off as the Nazarene such as Apollo Images by the hundreds of Pagan Gods are now labeled as the Nazarene. This is no different from the Christianization of Pagan holidays, such as Easter (of Astaroth), the Yule (which originally had nothing whatsoever to do with the fictitious Nazarene) of which xian fundies are now weeding out the Pagan traditions and replacing them with lies, as they have done with Pagan Temples which were destroyed and had xian churches built directly over them.**

Before he was murdered at the stake, Molay cursed both the Pope and the King and predicted the death of both within the year. (Both did die within that time period).

The Baphomet evolved over the centuries. The most widely known representation of the Baphomet is the drawing by 19th century French magician Eliphas Levi called “the Baphomet of Mendes.” Levi combined the images of the Tarot Devil card and the he-goat worshipped in the city of Mendes in Ancient Egypt. It is unclear whether the Ancient Egyptian women had intercourse with the goat during religious rites for fertility, but the Catholic Church claimed this and this is more than likely where the notion that the Devil had intercourse with his witches came from.

Levi’s famous drawing of Baphomet depicts a male/female image representing the dualistic nature of life. Female breasts and the phallus, one arm masculine, the other feminine, one arm pointing up and the other pointing down representing the Hermetic principle of “as above, so below.”

The Levi Baphomet is very similar to the Egyptian Akhenaton, which is both male and female (note the male and female features of the body and the serpentine facial features which symbolize the serpent kundalini) portraying the hermaphrodite which is symbolic of merging the male and female aspects of the soul, the ida and the pingala and achieving the godhead. The “monotheism” is another allegory, as the “gods” are in many ancient writings, code-words for the chakras of the soul and when one works to achieve the godhead of the Magnum Opus, all of the chakras are transformed and united into gold. Yoga is a branch of alchemy and the word “Yoga” means “union.” This is the unification of the soul.

His illustration combines the goat headed Devil of the Witches Sabbats, the God of the Templars and the Devil in the Tarot cards. In Levi’s view, this image represented the power of the universe depicting both good and evil influences.

The image continued to evolve over the years. Anton LaVey spotted an illustration in the book “A Pictorial History of Magic and the Supernatural” by Maurice Bessy © 1961, English edition © 1964. This was the first known published work where the goat headed pentagram was surrounded by two circles and included the Hebrew letters reading “Leviathan.” The names “Samael” and “Lilith” were also included in this depiction. “Leviathan” also known as “Cthulu” is a name for the kundalini serpent.

Anton LaVey eliminated the Samael and Lilith and decided this particular symbol best represented the Church of Satan and made it the Church’s logo in 1967. Because of the Hebrew lettering and the circles which are highly offensive to Satan and his Demons, JoS Ministries has removed them and replaced them with cuneiform script reading “Satan.”

The sign of Capricorn, symbolized by the goat represents the new winter sun being reborn again as the days get longer. The goat is one of Satan’s sacred animals. In the fifth century BCE, Herodotus reported that the people of Mendes in the Nile delta venerated all goats, particularly male ones. For the Greeks and Romans, the goat represented virility. Goats are fertile and known to be lusty. The city of Mendes reached its cultural peak when the Ram-God was worshipped, whom the Greeks later equated with Pan. Pan was known as a “satyr.” Satyrs had the horns, legs, hooves, and beards of goats. Pan’s symbol was the phallus and he was invoked for the fertility of the flocks or an abundant hunt. He tended flocks and danced through the woods, playing his panpipes, which he invented. As the lusty leader of Satyrs, he chased the Nymphs.

The goat (sometimes a ram was used) was the master of fertility and was celebrated as “copulator in Anep and inseminator in the district of Mendes,” where women were blessed with children. During rituals, women danced naked before the image. The Order of Nine Angles claims another perspective to Baphomet. 7,000 years ago a civilization known as Albion had various rites associated with a Dark Goddess who was known as “Baphomet.”

References:

¹The Second Messiah : Templars, the Turin Shroud, and the Great Secret of Freemasonry by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas. Published Shaftesbury, Dorset ; Boston : Element, 1997.

²Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy by Grillot de Givry 1931; translated into English 1971.
Chapter XI: Involuntary Demoniacs

The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft by Rosemary Ellen Guiley © 1989 Entries on “Baphomet” pages 21-22 and “Knights Templar” pages 186-187

Cassel Dictionary of Witchcraft by David Pickering © 1996 Entries on “Baphomet” page 11, “Knights Templar” page 161

Secrets of Western Sex Magic by Frater U D ©2001 “The Ritual of the Goat of Mendes, page 192

At the Heart of Darkness, Witchcraft, Black Magic and Satanism Today by John Parker © 1993 page 202

Lucifer Rising by Gavin Baddeley © 1999 page 164 “The Sinister Dialectic”

Lammas, Celebrating the fruits of the Harvest by Anna Franklin and Paul Mason © 2001 Article on the Goat- page 166

© Copyright 2003, 2005, Joy of Satan Ministries;
Library of Congress Number: 12-16457

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A History of the Baphomet appeared first on CVLT Nation.

If there was any music that articulated the feelings of hatred towards Margaret Thatcher in the early 80s, it was anarcho-punk. Fiercely underground and independent from the rest of the music business, the genre was a grass roots movement that delivered on punk’s original promise to actually be politically threatening.

Over thirty years on, it’s stronger than ever, with more bands taking up the torch and citing anarcho-punk as an influence. Chris Low was there at the beginning, drumming for a number of the seminal acts while barely into his teens, with his current band, PART1, scheduled to make their first reformation show at Rebellion, the world’s largest punk festival, this summer. Following a year playing anarcho-punk DJ sets in Tokyo, Low’s compiled a monster mix of his favorite tunes and answered a few questions about the whole thing. Scroll to the bottom for the tracklist too.

Noisey: So how does anarcho punk differ from the gazillion other variations of punk that have come along since 1977?

Chris Low: I think the characteristics that separate it from the other sub-genres of punk is that punk usually has ‘rock’ appended to it. With anarcho, that element was removed. Crass’s “Feeding of the 5000” was the first record I ever heard that sounded from start to finish like I had always imagined punk would, and should, sound. No pub rock riffs, fifties R’n’B scales or wanky guitar solos. It was angry, brutal, uncompromising and a total aural and ideological attack on the senses. Listening to that LP and reading the lyrics at the age of nine or ten felt like a bomb going off in my head. Even though there’s loads of different music I’ve been into since the 80s, there’s still something about the raw energy and sheer diversity of anarcho punk that no other sub-genre of punk can equal. Even though the majority of the tracks come from 1980 to 1984, the ‘golden age’ of anarcho punk, I hope that comes across in the mix.

You really, really wanted us to publish this mix. Why is it so important to you to publish right now?

I spent the late 1980s and 90s DJing at techno and house clubs and as no one had ever really done an anarcho-punk mix before I thought I’d just go for it. It was recorded in my bedroom with a few bottles of wine and a mate pulling out the records from my racks so it might be a bit rough around the edges but I think that keeps it in the spirit of the music. “DIY not EMI,” as we used to say.

How did you become involved in the scene yourself?

I started playing drums when I was eleven and had already played two gigs before the drummer of another band pointed out that my kit should have a kick-drum and that you didn’t just crash the hi-hat like a cymbal. Also, around that time Crass played my local town hall and after picking up a couple of fanzines that night I did my own one, conducting postal interviews with all these bands who you could send questions to and would actually write back replying to them. There was a strong element of communication and exchange of ideas and music unique to the scene. Every week I’d receive letters and packages of records or tapes from America, Poland, Finland…. some places I’d never even heard of but somehow they’d got hold of my ‘zine or heard my band. It was an incredibly exciting secret world and alternative reality for a kid stuck in a small Scottish town to be part of. As years went on I got more involved with the scene, playing in bands, publishing my fanzine. At the age of 14 joined the Apostles, drumming on their first few singles and spending half my time staying in squats in London when I should have been studying for exams at school. They were one of the bands who were involved with the running of the original Anarchy Center, which was founded from the proceeds of Crass’ “Bloody Revolutions” single. That was where anarcho-punk originated from: it was the term given to the anarchist punk bands that played at the Anarchy Centre.

Why do you think there’s all the interest in anarchy-punk today?

While you could argue it was a music and subculture that was a part of it’s time, anarcho-punk has great parallels today. Anarcho-punk and much of its aesthetic form referenced post-cold war anxieties, where-as recent generations have had Iraq and Afghanistan; it emerged out of the depression of the late 1970s and our economy isn’t much better today, plus then and now Britain has been under Conservative government. Right up to her death, Thatcher remained the consummate symbol of hatred for the anarcho-punk movement, which is why there have been so many of the songs in my mix posted up on Facebook over the past few days.

Was anarcho-punk ever commercially successful?

There were more commercially popular sub-genres that came in the wake of anarcho punk, like certain strands of hardcore and crust. Anarcho-punk may be raw and basic but there’s an integrity to it you won’t find in many other styles of music. Above all else, it’s in opposition to mainstream culture and anti-establishment. There’s a clear and direct blood-line from the anarcho-punk movement of the early 80s to the anti-globalization movement that sees people rioting against their governments and leaders throughout the world today. If that’s the legacy of anarcho punk I’m pleased to have been part of it then, and I’m pleased to be part of it now.

Tracklist:

Antisect – “Four Minutes Past Midnight”
Flux Of Pink Indians – “Take Heed”
Rudimentary Peni – “Farce ”
The Mob – “Witchhunt”
Honey Bane – “Girl On The Run”
The System – “Dogs of War”
Discharge – “Decontrol”
The Apostles – “Mob Violence”
Zounds – “Can’t Cheat Karma”
The Ex – “The Sky Is Blue Again”
Six Minute War – “Nurses”
Part 1 – “The Corpse”
Sinyx – “Animal”
Dirt – “Unemployment”
Conflict – “Berkshire Cunt”
Oi Polloi – “Hands Off Nicaragua”
Ad Nauseam – “Crazy World”
Flux Of Pink Indians – “Neu Smell”
Flux Of Pink Indians – “Tube Disasters”
Crass – “Banned From The Roxy”
Anthrax – “Capitalism Is Cannibalism”
Antisect – “Tortured and Abused”
Discharge – “State Violence, State Control”
Rudimentary Peni – “Rotten The The Core”
Fallout – “Tell Me About It”
Crass – “Shaved Women”
Amebix – “Belief”
Exit-stance – “Mankind’s Hand”
Born BC – “Dear Jesus”
Discharge – “Ain’t No Feeble Bastard”
[Martin Wright speaking at 1985 class war rally]
The Apostles – “Pigs For Slaughter”
Oi Polloi – “Lowest Of The Low”
The Rondos – “A Black and White Statement”
The Intestines – “New Recruit”
Fallout – “Democracy”
S-Haters – “Research”
Lack Of Knowledge – “The Uninvited”
Soldiers Of Fortune – “Stars”
The Clefts – “Red White and Blue”
The Ex – “Weapons for El Salvador”
7th Plague – “Rubber Bullets”
Counter Attack – “Don’t Wanna Fight For You”
The Apostles – “Stoke Newington Eight”
Amebix – “Curfew”
Discharge – “Realities of War”
Crass – “Big A Little A”
The Mob – “Another Day, Another Death”
Crisis – “Holocaust”
The Mob – “No Doves Fly Here”
Poison Girls – “Persons Unknown”

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Chavez and the Latin American Spring: This is what democracy could look like
By Murray Dobbin via Rabble.ca

One of the many things that Hugo Chavez, the charismatic and revolutionary president of Venezuela contributed to the world, was his demonstration for people everywhere the difference between democracy and liberal democracy. Chavez’s hyperbolic style, his tweaking the tail of the Imperial tiger and his willingness to be just as ruthless as his U.S.-backed opponents, gave Western leaders and journalists lots of ammunition to demonize him.

But what really made them all crazy was precisely the fact that he took liberal democracy — the term applied to a political system designed to manage capitalism in the interests of the wealthy and corporations — and turned it into genuine democracy. It highlighted for those struggling for social justice that liberal democracy is an oxymoron — liberalism being the principle that capitalism (inequality) rules and democracy being its opposite: equality. As witnessed by the outrageous levels of inequality now characterizing Canada, you can have one or the other but not both.

Nothing threatens leaders of the Western powers — especially the U.S. — like good examples of real democracy and they will do anything to destroy them, demonize them or threaten any other country that dares think about emulating them. No example is too small to destroy as was witnessed by the 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada (population 110,000).

The strategy was called “destroy the dream” — which explains, perhaps, why U.S. troops totally destroyed a rural, all-women jam-making co-operative. In the 1980s it was Nicaragua. There they forced the Sandinista government to change its system of electoral democracy from a constituent assembly (made up of elected representatives from all sectors of society) to a multi-party system that the elites could control. The result: the Sandinistas lost.

The U.S. and its imperial junior partners like Canada have always had some excuse, however transparent, to crush good examples in the past. But Chavez shamed them at their own game, winning more democratic elections than any Western leader in the past century: Since coming to power in 1999, he won 15 of 16 elections and referenda defeating his opponents by a margin of 10-20 percentage points, landslides by our own standards. And he did it through elections that were determined by Western observer groups to be perhaps the most fair on the planet. Former US President Jimmy Carter, representing one of the most respected observer groups, claimed that Venezuela’s electoral system was “the best in the world.”

None of this matters to politicians dedicated to global corporate dominance. Henry Kissinger’s infamous justification of U.S. support of the fascist coup in Chile was brutal and unapologetic: “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist because of theirresponsibility of its own people.” It is only the most chilling expression of capitalist elite’s contempt for any democracy that takes equality seriously.

Stephen Harper has the identical mentality. As a result of Chavez’s death, said Harper, “… I hope the people of Venezuela can now build for themselves a better, brighter future based on the principles of freedom, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights.” This would be laughable if weren’t sinister. Harper no doubt knows all about the incredible social progress achieved under Chavez’s government. But for Harper democracy is clearly not about the substance of what it delivers. When he talks about freedom it is freedom of the wealthy to do as they please; and the rule of law means the laws that protect corporate privileges. As for democracy it is risible that Harper has the gall to even utter the word given his record.

Just what did Chavez accomplish in his fourteen years in power? There are far too many examples to list here but according to Latin American researcher and journalist Salim Lamrani in “50 Truths about Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution”

Here are some of the more notable:
-In December 2005, UNESCO said that Venezuela had eradicated illiteracy.

-The number of children attending school increased from 6 million in 1998 to 13 million in 2011 and the enrollment rate is now 93.2 per cent.

-The rate of secondary school enrollment rose from 53.6 per cent in 2000 to 73.3 per cent in 2011; the number of tertiary students increased from 895,000 in 2000 to 2.3 million in 2011, assisted by the creation of new universities.

-Between 2005 and 2012, 7873 new medical centers were created in Venezuela. The number of doctors increased from 20 per 100,000 population in 1999 to 80 per 100,000 in 2010.

-Infant mortality rate fell from 19.1 per thousand in 1999 to 10 per thousand in 2012, a reduction of 49 per cent.

-From 1999 to 2011, the poverty rate decreased from 42.8 per cent to 26.5 per cent and the rate of extreme poverty fell from 16.6 per cent in 1999 to 7 per cent in 2011.

-In the rankings of the Human Development Index (HDI) of the United Nations Program for Development (UNDP), Venezuela jumped from 83 in 2000 to 73 in 2011, and entered into the category of Nations with ‘High HDI’.

-Since 1999, 700,000 homes have been built in Venezuela.

-Since 1999, the government provided/returned more than one million hectares of land to Aboriginal people. Land reform enabled tens of thousands of farmers to own their land. In total, Venezuela distributed more than 3 million hectares.

-Five million children now receive free meals through the School Feeding Programme. The figure was 250,000 in 1999. The malnutrition rate fell from 21 per cent in 1998 to less than 3 per cent in 2012.”

-The unemployment rate fell from 15.2 per cent in 1998 to 6.4 per cent in 2012, with the creation of more than 4 million jobs.

As for that core meaning of democracy — equality — acccording to the UNDP “…Venezuela is the country in the region with the least inequality.” Equality apparently matters as, according to the 2012 World Happiness Report put out by the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Venezuela is the second happiest country in Latin America, after Costa Rica, and the nineteenth in the world beating out Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Spain.

Harper and other Western leaders’ reaction to Chavez and his legacy is an important revelation regarding their visceral hostility to using state power in the interests of the poor. They cannot hide their contempt and their media cheerleaders go along with them — with the term “dictator” and “strongman” still being used routinely to describe Chavez (while no such term was ever used to describe George Bush who took power illegally).

But if they simply ignore the stunning social progress made under Chavez it is his other accomplishments that have them worried. Chavez’s foreign policy has severely weakened the grip that the U.S. and institutions like the IMF and World Bank had on the region. This legacy goes well beyond Venezuela’s borders and threatens the centuries-long domination of giant corporations and finance capital.

In 2011 Chavez was instrumental in creating of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) which brings together the 33 nations of the region making the Organization of American States, the decades-old tool of U.S. political domination, almost irrelevant. On the trade front, in 2004 Chavez created the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) with Cuba establishing the basis for an alliance (now with eight members) based on cooperation and reciprocity. Its explicit aim is “combating poverty and social exclusion” and again challenges the historic domination of the region by the U.S.

The question remains what effect Chavez’s death will have both on the future of Venezuela and the region. Now that the U.S. has extricated itself from two Middle East wars it will turn its attention once again to its “back yard.”
The empire will strike back. But the “good examples” (and there are many in Latin America including Bolivia and Ecuador) are robust and inspiring. Short of a return to concerted covert action or military intervention the Latin American spring seems secure. Viva Chavez!

Murray Dobbin is a guest senior contributing editor for rabble.ca, and has been a journalist, broadcaster, author and social activist for 40 years. He writes rabble’s bi-weekly State of the Nation column, which is also found at The Tyee.

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Writer Sam McGuire presents an eye-opening profile of skateboarder Hillary Thompson for Jenkem Magazine that captures the ever-changing obstacles that those in the LGBT face in the world of sports. Noting the struggle of being true to herself, the editorial spans many of the universal human emotions that sports offers and notes “many times, when people transition they feel the need to shed previous gender habits. Some people do it for survival and some out of societal pressures but Hillary’s desire to skate helped her ignore all of this and she picked up her board again.” While a choice excerpt appears after the jump, head over to Jenkem Magazine to read the enthralling editorial in its entirety.

It was pouring when I pulled up to the strip mall to meet Hillary for lunch. We had talked for about year on Facebook. A few messages back and forth about things and a handful of, “shoulds,” until one day I put a date out there. She obliged and well, there we were. Meeting.

Hillary was born September 10th in Raleigh, NC, the middle child of 3. Raleigh if you haven’t been, is a mid-sized liberal city located in a southern conservative state. It was there where two life-changing things happened when she was around 4 or 5 years old.

First, she started skating. Her first board was a single kicktail with big plastic wheels and it was love at first sight. The cool kids at the end of the block were doing it, only they had wide boards, 80’s style and they could do ollie’s and kickflips. Naturally, she wanted to be cool too. “They were like, 13-14, which was old compared to me so they would go off and do cool teen stuff and I would kinda just skate around the block. But I wanted to be like them,” Hillary says, describing her eagerness to skate. Her younger brother started to skate with her shortly after.

The second big event happened around the same time and this is where society’s imposed ideas of sex, gender and sexuality started to cause some issues for Hillary. Although society defines gender by one’s anatomy at birth, some people physically born boys or girls, don’t always feel like them. “I was naive then and I just assumed, well, yeah, of course I’m just gonna grow up and be a woman, that’s how it works. That’s who I am.”

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Hillary Thompson appeared first on CVLT Nation.

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by Mike Hill of TOMBS appeared first on CVLT Nation.

Text via Wenhousecrafts

Hell is said to be a world at the bottom of the universe, or more precisely, at the inner most layer of the cosmos. And Hell itself is again divided into many layers (or say, many levels), each characterised with a particular kind of terror. Following is one of many versions of the Hell’s floor plan:

Hell, though terrifying, is as solid and as illusive as this human world. Since it is a universally shared perception, like the sun the moon and indeed the universe itself, it won’t burst into Nothingness because you do not believe in it, just as the moon won’t disappear because you do not see it – unless, of course, it is a moon or a hell in your dreamland and being sustained by your solo consciousness.

The post The Eighteen Layers of Hell…
BURN! appeared first on CVLT Nation.