Who Are The Powers That Be?

I am still relatively new to the internet, (a little over two years now.), and before actively engaging in sites such as this and others, I had never really seen the acronym TPTB. I had heard the phrase before but had never heard it used as often as I do on the internet and nowhere have I seen it used more often than in ATS.

It is a strange term to me and always has been since I first heard it. I feel compelled to start this thread because I often see this phrase used side by side with very wise words of wisdom and the association of these words of wisdom with TBTB, in my estimation, only seems to undermine the words of wisdom.

An example of what I am referring to would be the assertion that the left/right paradigm is merely a construct created by The Powers That Be to keep We the People divided. The assertion that the left/right paradigm is only a construct I believe is a correct perception. However, it is a perception rooted in a very high level of awareness...an extremely high level of awareness. So high is this level of awareness that it seems to me if one was that aware they would also be aware that The Powers That Be, used in the context it is often used in this site, is merely a construct as well.

First, let me address this awareness of constructs such as right/left or good and evil. On a high level of awareness there is no right wing or left wing anymore than there is good or evil. There simply is what is and even what is, is because of agreement. On a higher plane of awareness it is entirely possible for two contradictory truths to exist together and both be true. It is only when our level of awareness drops down to lower levels that these contradictions take on the effect of being either right or wrong.

In order to operate on a high level of awareness, and I am surely not one who has mastered such operation, it seems to me that one is impervious to the effects of right/left, right/wrong, or good/evil. We can all, at times, and some of us often times, posses that high level of awareness but don't always effectively operate at that level. Thus, while we may be aware that right/left or good/evil are simply constructs we have created to measure our own deeds, if we are not operating functionally at that level we become susceptible to the constructs we are aware are only constructs.

If we become aware that good and evil are simply paradigms by which we use to measure the deeds of our own actions and others, but are not impervious to these constructs, we all too often fall prey to the construct and whats worse, we fall prey to the wrong one. If we are not impervious to the construct of good/evil but dismiss the construct as not being real we too often then find ourselves sucked into evil deeds and thoughts rather than embracing good deeds and thoughts.

I have heard it said that no good deed goes unpunished. What form of evil is this? What insidious act of disinformation is it when an idea is presented that warns against doing good deeds? Of course, on a higher level of awareness, there are no such things as good deeds or evil acts there are simply the choices we make. Yet, I have also heard it said that good is that which all things aim. It strikes me as a truism, that good is that which all things aim.

Even those who commit evil acts are aiming towards a good, even if that good is merely a construct and there really is no good or evil. If we all operated on the highest level of awareness there would be no need for constructs such as good and evil as we are all operating on a level where our actions, indeed our very thoughts, are free from harming others needlessly and even the qualification of needless harm becomes moot as no one is harming anyone else and because of this there is no need to defend oneself and justify causing harm to them.

Tragically, we do not all operate on the highest level of awareness and because of this the constructs we create become necessary gauges by which we decide how to act. Throughout this musing I have made many references to cause and effect. We are all beings of cause, even when we are being the effect of someone else and their cause. Their cause becomes our effect and that effect becomes our cause.

If it is true that we are all causative beings, then why abdicate that power to an artificial construct such as The Powers That Be? To point ones finger and declare that it is they, The Powers That Be, that are the source of our own problems, is to lay blame when blame is, quite simply, irrelevant. Blame doesn't help us fix problems and all too often distracts from getting those problems fixed.

Problems are not good or bad, they may or may not be fixed by relying upon perceptions from a right wing point of view or a left wing point of view and the consequences of fixing that problem may or may not lead to perceptions of good or evil, but problems are merely opportunities to be cause over or the effect of. It is easy to be the effect of a problem and difficult, sometimes very much so, to be cause over a problem, but to be cause is who are.

Who are The Powers That Be? They are us and we are either the cause of that power or the effect of it. I have heard it said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It strikes me there is truth in this as well. We are all powerful beings and that power collectively is a remarkable force, but if it becomes a force to be used absolutely then it is a corrupt force that brings only more problems. We are pretty damn powerful as individuals and not well equipped to handle anymore power than what we all ready posses and for good reason; power corrupts. It is good this collective power remains evenly spread amongst us and we all do ourselves a great disservice when we willingly grant more power to others than they can handle.

We do them a great disservice and we do ourselves a great disservice and we do all of us a great disservice. The Powers That Be, if they are not you and instead some consortium of people with an agenda, can not make you do anything you do not agree to do. They have no more cause over you than the effect you are willing to be.

These are my thoughts and I offer them not as words of wisdom, I certainly have no intentions to lecture anyone, merely discuss The Powers That Be and come to know them here as we together might agree that it is We who are that Power and We who would be Cause over the problems we face.

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux


We cannot always operate on the the higher level of awareness, what many in the conspiracy theory community call being "Awake". This is because as human beings we all learn how to define our world through the fairly simple "good versus evil" paradigm you mentioned. We use these dualities to define our world and give us an easier understanding of complex situations. To operate at that higher level all the time would disconnect us from others. If you've ever seen the movie They Live, in it the main character discovers that otherworldly beings are controlling the Earth, he can see them using a special pair of sunglasses, these glasses essentially "Awaken" him, but he can't keep them on all the time, it hurts to be awake for too long and he has to take them off from time to time. That's much the way I see being awake, it's too painful to always be aware and sometimes you need to take the glasses off and blend back in with the sheep for a little while if for no other reason then to remind yourself how glad you are not to be one of them.

Some claim this is the reason the powers that be look down upon the rest of the world, perhaps they have risen above it all, perhaps they truly believe they are leading the world down the right path. Perhaps they don't believe there is a right or a wrong path only that there is a path and they are on it. See how confusing it becomes when your remove the simplicity of duality, when more choices than right and wrong become available. It's very ambiguous. It all reminds me of a phrase from the video game Assassin's Creed, the game itself deals with secret societies vying for world control (among other things) and one of the teachings of the Assassins is that "Nothing is true, everything is permitted."

The powers that be, the Elite, they have taught us that we are powerless. The individual no longer feels independent or powerful anymore and because of the false paradigms and distractions they are able to keep us divided. We can no longer unite against them, they keep us too fat and apathetic to do anything, too busy with our cell phones and reality TV shows to remember that we are powerful and can take back this world from their greedy hands. Perhaps they have been aware for so long they have lost all objectivity and have no idea how bad this road they are taking us down seems. From my point of view this is a dead end road. If we do not take this world back from them I'm not sure we can survive as a species, let alone progress to a Type 1 Civilization.

There is also the idea that the whole Universe simply IS. No right or wrong; no real purpose to it all is needed. It merely IS and everything is part of that no matter how we choose to define it.

Anyway thank you for sharing your thoughts. Star and Flag

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux


Look up the Bilderberg Group , they are meaner than the Hamburgerler

Then try Council for Foreign Relations


Always remember Past, Present admins , that should get you started

I definitely believe that it is we who are the power. I mean, we can win in numbers easily.

We're all in sleeper mode, though. We'll just have to see how the near future maps out. If this place runs the way it does in 20 years, then there's really no hope of change.

When you think about it, we're all just a bunch of passive aggressive rebels. We meet evil face to face and then talk about it behind its back.

[edit on 26-12-2009 by Whine Flu]

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux


i enjoyed reading your post. it went pretty well to Opeth songs i am listening right now.

Interesting post. Quite a worthwhile read.

reply to post by Titen-Sxull


Thanks for your input as well, Titen-Sxull; As to your assertion that it is The Powers That Be who have taught us to be powerless, they could not have done so without our willing agreement. In that regard, "they" did not teach us to be powerless but we taught ourselves to be.

I most wholeheartedly agree with you that we can not continue down a path where the masses are in agreement to be powerless. I do not, however, think all of us embracing our power without existing in higher levels of awareness will do anything worthwhile towards fixing the problems we face.

It seems to me that existing on a higher level of awareness should bring with it a serenity of being that wouldn't hurt at all. I have seen the movie you speak of and understood why he had to take the glasses off, and I don't propose we all go through life wearing rose colored glasses. Indeed, I don't propose we all go through life existing at a constant state of sereneness. There are times when we must act and action, it seems to me, is a level below serenity.

We must act because we must survive and in order to survive we must act! But, what good is action if we can't at some point sit back and enjoy the fruits of that action? Serenity should be a plane we exist on when we are not busy acting. I think we often find ourselves not at serenity when we have ceased to act because we spend too much time regretting our actions.

It is, as you put it, a somewhat confusing existence when we abandon the simplicity of dualities, and duality is not a bad thing, nor is it a good thing, it is merely the polarities of universe and of ourselves. I think there is truth that the universe simply IS, but I strongly suspect it IS because we made it so. I suspect the universe, a closed system that inevitably tends towards entropy is that construct by which we measure ourselves. If this is true then we are more than the universe and exist not just in it, but outside of it as well.

I can not offer any proof of this and it remains a strong suspicion, a postulate or hypothesis I harbor. In terms of We being The Powers That Be, I suppose it is testable enough to justify calling a theory. I only offer this theory that We are The Powers That Be in hopes that We all do what We can to be more Cause and less Effect and to be acutely aware of how we wield our Cause and the Effects it Creates.

Hard work for us all, but that is the game, is it not?

reply to post by Sean48


Meaner than the Hamburgler? Dang! That's pretty mean!! I am aware of the Bilderberg Group and the CFR and I never intended to dismiss the Cause these Power grabbers are attempting to Affect and the Effect "they" presumably want us to Be.

What I have read about the Bilderberg Group is that this is such a super secret top secret organization that no one is allowed to record the words and deeds of this group and no secretary keeps minutes of their meetings and all that is discussed is kept super secret top secret. Then I read quotes from people such as Henry Kissinger and others who are apparently being quoted from a speech they gave at a Bilderberg meeting. Do you understand the contradiction in this?

Not that contradictory ideas can't be both true, but if they are both true then this suggests that it is the Bilderberg Group who believes themselves to be super secret top secret and the quotes leaked from this groups meeting reveals just how powerless they can be.

Not to imply they are not a group we shouldn't be concerned about, only to assert We are more Powerful than "they" would have you think.

reply to post by GrandKitaro777


Thanks GrandKitaro; I've read many an interesting post and thread by you and would love to hear your thoughts on this matter in this thread.

reply to post by marsvolta


I've never heard of Opeth, I will try to discover them sometime tonight. Thanks for the kind words and sharing.

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux


Yes, we allowed ourselves to be conditioned into the powerless sheep we are today. It was a gradual process though it took generations of slow wearing us down and brainwashing to get us to the state we are in today. We are willing slaves who have forgotten we have any choice in the matter.

I doubt we will take action but I think if there is any chance of survival for us we need to, there are many more of us than there are of them. The trouble is how to rally six billion people to a cause when most of them are still unaware or so busy just trying to get by.

Being awake can seem a burden while everyone else is asleep, that's one of the many reasons ATS is a haven for people who have awakened to discuss the world using that higher level of awareness. Sometimes it is very painful being awake and seeing so many others who are asleep, seeing ignorant minds buying into the illusions and shouting the truth to deaf ears can be disheartening.

We are the powers that be only if we chose to be... right now we are choosing to be powerless, even most of those who are awake only put forth rudimentary effort to awaken others... Only a massive global awakening could put us on the right track and get us to take the world back and after the world is stripped from the hands of the Elite great care must be taken to give everyone a voice in the new world we build and to make sure that greed and darkness do not again gain control.

Whatever our place in the Universe is it can only be discovered if we learn to stop destroying ourselves and stop hurting this world.

reply to post by Titen-Sxull


We are all at the level of awareness we are at. It comes down to gradients and for those who are at a lower level of awareness, they can't be expected to understand communication coming from a higher gradient. Conversely, it would be folly to look down our noses at some and assume they are at a lower gradient only to discover they are not, and sometimes even operating on a higher gradient than we.

It is just plain hard work, but hard work can be fun when we realize it is just a game, and if our sense of play is intact, then we probably are functioning at a higher level of awareness and if that sense of play is for real, no matter where others level of awareness is, many will recognize the fun that comes from playing and will endeavor to join us, and do what they can to raise their own level of awareness.

I think this is how sites like this rise to the top. No matter what level of awareness one is at when they discover this site, they join because they recognize the fun and play involved and their decision to join necessarily raised their level of awareness, even if it was just a bit, it was a beginning and from there a foundation gets laid.

Your pessimism is understandable, but don't fall prey to it. Optimism is a much better place to be when you are engaged in play. Who wants to play when they are convinced they can't win? There has to be the opportunity to win or people won't want to play. Sometimes the rules of a game can be rigged to make it a no win situation, but when we are confronted with such Tomfoolery, the only real viable option is to change the rules of the game, and level the playing field.

Ah the Powers that Be, the first time I heard someone say that phrase it was from a new client calling my office for services and he introduced himself by saying “The Powers that Be told me to call you”.

Seemingly innocuous except this particular caller was a just elected to office as a freshmen United States Congressman and I knew precisely who he was referring to when he discretely simply said the “Powers That Be”.

For the person who he was referring to had in fact introduced me to the new congressman two years prior at a dinner he invited me to for the sole purpose of me meeting him.

I was asked to give a character assessment of the man, I wasn’t told why until the following evening when once again I was invited to dinner for the expressed purpose of meeting someone and to render a character assessment on that person as well.

When I inquired of my friend why he was so interested in these two people he explained to me that the one I had dinner with the night before would be the new congressperson for my district and the person we had just met for dinner would be running on the other party ticket and be the looser.

He then informed me that neither of them knew they would be running for congress or against one another, but to rest assured that they would be, and to rest assured once in office I would enjoy that congressperson’s business.

Now had the man who told me this had not had ancestors come off the Mayflower I might not have believed him. Had the man who told me this not introduced me to the first at the prestigious Jonathon Club in downtown Los Angeles and the second at the prestigious California Club I might not have believed him. Had this person not had membership cards for the Bohemian Club and similar clubs in Texas and New York and Boston and London I might not have believed him. Had he not been personally involved in some of the biggest mergers and acquisitions in the corporate world to that date I might not have believed him.

The reality was as one of my company’s best clients and one who was making my phone ring by a growing very exclusive clientele he kept referring to me I found no reason not to humor him.

We had of course already developed an intimate friendship replete with a shared trust but there was no mistaking that shark like wary gaze in his eyes as he stared intently at me waiting for my reaction.

I was not a blue blood which he knew, but someone who had literally clawed my way up and out of the streets to gain entry and access to some of the loftiest corridors and halls of business and power, and being an Attorney he wasted no time in leading me to a conclusion. “Surely you more than anyone can appreciate why my friends and I can not allow just anyone to hold office”.

He knew, I knew what a dog eat dog world it was, and that most people were not just destined to be mindless sheep of little ambition but were in fact happy to be mindless sheep of little ambition.

He went on to explain to me that this was how they managed the political process from the President on down. They would select the candidates on both sides of the aisle and fund both and feed both issues, their issues that were important to them to run on. The one they liked the most was given better funding, better press, and the choice issues to run their campaign on.

Yet even then as much as I was prepared to accept it, I also accepted that my friend was quite an eccentric character and it would be wise to humor him in an accepting way which I did. That prompted a further confidence, that the man we had dinner the night before with would be the winner and that they had high hopes for him and planned to groom him for bigger and better things beyond Congress, “maybe President one day, maybe something even more important”.

I asked genuinely if there were more important jobs than President in Government and he laughed playfully at my youthful ignorance.

I was 26 years old at the time and almost every suspicion I had from a child regarding a secret corporate government was now being laid out for me as fact by the man who may have been most responsible for making that corporate government work.

The goal is simple a handful of the most prominent attorneys who specialize in the most lucrative area of law which is mega corporate mergers and acquisitions choose the attorneys who will go to congress to write the laws to make that process so lucrative for them and the corporations.

These corporations represent the vital infrastructure it is their planning and investment that makes sure there is food in your grocery stores, cars in your showrooms, entertainment to watch on TV, and so on and so forth.

It is they not the government that makes life as you know it possible and big cities habitable and keep the cogs of all that functioning.

These men feel not just entitled but that it is imperative to them to have control over the political process.

Imagine my surprise when the man entered the race for congress and won, and called me for my professional services as I was promised he would. I am sorry to say it was not as great a surprise as it ought to have been.

By that point in time I had been asked to access many other people’s characters, and a veritable who’s who of some of the wealthiest and influential and powerful people in the nation had been told to call me and use my services.

Yet that beginning of my understanding of the Powers that Be which were no fictional abstract conspiracies but some of the very real and most influential amongst them would haunt me for years to come as it does to this day as true to his word, that congressman was groomed for something extremely big, and would go on to head perhaps the single most important and lucrative agency of government and oversee perhaps the greatest illegalities ever to transpire in the history of the United States.

I won’t name names, or specific positions, I will not betray a trust, but I will simply say this.

The Powers that Be in fact resent the populace for basically being fat, lazy and stupid. Yes a box is created for people, yes people are purposefully misled, but the reality is though they are few and far between there are too people like me, who from an early age see through all the lies, and fight, and scrape, and pull and push to get out of that box and to do everything they can to rise up and be their own person, make something of themselves, really contribute and make a difference.

It is such people that they are always on the lookout for. In my case I simply provided a common everyday service that most people but especially the wealthy and powerful need. I did my job well, and was extremely personable, and discrete, all of which gave me a value to such people.

Yet though the Powers that Be might be deluding themselves they do believe if they left it up to the masses to decide their own course, there would be no food in the grocery stores, or cars in the showrooms or electricity when you go to turn on your lights, because they truly feel most people are ignorant by choice, lazy by choice, and complacent by choice.

I always got the impression that they would like for us to all grow up and take real responsibility for ourselves but they had come to give up hope that we ever would a long time ago.

Who are the powers that be? In fact you, should you ever decide to be one!


[edit on 26/12/09 by ProtoplasmicTraveler]

Originally posted by Jean Paul Zodeaux
I am still relatively new to the internet, (a little over two years now.), and before actively engaging in sites such as this and others, I had never really seen the acronym TPTB. I had heard the phrase before but had never heard it used as often as I do on the internet and nowhere have I seen it used more often than in ATS.

it is new to me, too - i've been at ATS for 4 1/2 years and only just saw "TPTB" in a thread here a couple of days ago.
it took me a few seconds to know what it was but i immediately found it useful in my own writings.


but when i use it, without fail and unless otherwise noted, i will be referring to *THE POWER THAT IS* above all other *powers that be*
not anything lesser than *ultimate deity*
*ultimate deity* is generically worded in order to encompass all belief and even non-belief - including the FSM (flying spagetti monster) and the FCCM (flying cupcake monster).

and i mean that

An example of what I am referring to would be the assertion that the left/right paradigm is merely a construct created by The Powers That Be to keep We the People divided. The assertion that the left/right paradigm is only a construct I believe is a correct perception. However, it is a perception rooted in a very high level of awareness...an extremely high level of awareness. So high is this level of awareness that it seems to me if one was that aware they would also be aware that The Powers That Be, used in the context it is often used in this site, is merely a construct as well.

yes
that's correct
so TPTB is a totally relative term....to most, that is


that word, that idea, "construct" has been something on my mind for several months lately, pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable rather than the second, as you no doubt are using it.

it's a very descriptive term and i see it coming into more frequent use, and understanding, in the months ahead of us.

There simply is what is and even what is, is because of agreement. On a higher plane of awareness it is entirely possible for two contradictory truths to exist together and both be true.

yes
it is what it is
why??
it just IS

without the two contradictory truths existing concurrently and equally, there would be no balance.
and if there were no balance, there would be no anything
no thing at all
in balance there is strength

it is the strength inherent in balance that maintains absolute impartial justice in the universe; without which, we would no doubt destroy ourselves with our delusion(s). or maybe it would be more like the ultimate suicide - death by self-asborption.

In order to operate on a high level of awareness, and I am surely not one who has mastered such operation, it seems to me that one is impervious to the effects of right/left, right/wrong, or good/evil.

well, something to the effect of it is love that enables the soul to operate on higher and higher levels of awareness

it is during this elevation of the mind that JUXTAPOSITION gradually becomes not only obvious, but undeniably profound and eventually quite literally exquisite in its logical perfection!

and in the face of such beauty...one becomes more than impervious...one becomes impartial in the purest form of the word.



(((ABRAXAS is not a hideously formed monster in appearance but rather a thing of beauty beyond even divine description - the mysterious "Ancient of Days")))

We can all, at times, and some of us often times, posses that high level of awareness but don't always effectively operate at that level. Thus, while we may be aware that right/left or good/evil are simply constructs we have created to measure our own deeds, if we are not operating functionally at that level we become susceptible to the constructs we are aware are only constructs.

absolutely!
and to be fair to ourselves, as humanity, we must remember that this, in itself, isn't so much dysfunctional as is the tendency to keep ourselves susceptible to the illusion through SELF-JUDGMENT.

if we could each let go of the idea that our actions do NOT make us anything other than human - whether heroic or criminal, we are all human beings.
also, when we see ourselves as either a victim or catching a lucky break, we put ourselves in a position of powerlessness than hides the truth about creation, mind, and will.

because it is this very powerlessness, this placing of accountability for our actions and reactions outside of ourselves, that causes us to choose to harm rather than help and to lie to ourselves rather than face our truth, eye-to-eye, in the mirror...

the acceptance of responsibility/accountability requires no further declaration, either inwardly or out.
"Never ruin an apology with an excuse."
a friend's father

it is not a belittling thing to be a construct, ourselves; if we can wrap our minds around BIG and LITTLE in the same thought, we will begin to see that we are not only part of the creation but also have a part in/with/as the Creator.

If we are not impervious to the construct of good/evil but dismiss the construct as not being real we too often then find ourselves sucked into evil deeds and thoughts rather than embracing good deeds and thoughts.

how true!

I have heard it said that no good deed goes unpunished. What form of evil is this?

i've never liked that either! not at all.

from a semantic perspective (essentially irrelevant) i see it not as "evil" but rather just reactive B.S.
an exception to the rule regarding old wives' tales, imo

Of course, on a higher level of awareness, there are no such things as good deeds or evil acts there are simply the choices we make.

that's the ultimate truth of it, though - above all the hubris and delusion, NO deed goes unpunished - good or bad.
and in the case of a good deed, the *punishment* is something rewarding

karma is perfect in her workings

Yet, I have also heard it said that good is that which all things aim. It strikes me as a truism, that good is that which all things aim.

even though it is true that like begets like it is also true that the darkness lacks the ability to extinguish a candle flame
and just one candle flame destroys absolute darkness, without exception

We are all beings of cause, even when we are being the effect of someone else and their cause. Their cause becomes our effect and that effect becomes our cause.

i think about that a lot. it is one of those things that fascinates me - the same as when i was a little kid and i'd think about GOD never having not been.

If it is true that we are all causative beings, then why abdicate that power to an artificial construct such as The Powers That Be?

huh!!!
especially when there's a bigger dog laying under the porch!

Who are The Powers That Be? They are us and we are either the cause of that power or the effect of it.

or perhaps both?

I have heard it said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

an exception to every rule....
LOVE is the only power that does NOT corrupt.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."
Jimi Hendrix

i won't draw out my reply any longer....this is an EXCELLENT topic for discussion and i look forward to more.

Parts of your OP confirm my view point of the one infinite creator.

A creator that's objective and blinks neither at the light or darkness and see's either path as a unique road of experiencing and knowing itself as creator.


I have nothing to say really.










[edit on 26-12-2009 by GrandKitaro777]

[edit on 26-12-2009 by GrandKitaro777]

Originally posted by Titen-Sxull
We cannot always operate on the the higher level of awareness, what many in the conspiracy theory community call being "Awake".

sure we can. why not?

it is true that at first, the candle flickers randomly and sometimes it seems as if it will surely lose the battle against the whispering wind of "doubt."

but eventually the flame strengthens and grows and becomes beyond the power of the wind to extinguish.

To operate at that higher level all the time would disconnect us from others.

this appears, to many, to be so.
but, in truth, it is not the case at all

to operate (vibrate) at that higher level (frequency), one must be energized with the purest energy available, which is LOVE

pure LOVE is a connector rather than a divider

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


What a great post! What a compelling story!! Thank you so much for sharing that. You not only support my assertion that anyone of us at any time can rely upon the power we possess to affect cause, you also illustrate the idea that two contradictory ideas can both be true. Is there a group of elite people out their controlling the outcome of events? I believe there is, and do We the People have the Power to do so as well? Of course we do.

I love how you grant these so called Powers That Be a decency and dignity not often granted them by those who would simply blame them for their ills. I have in the past few years discovered I have a proclivity for understanding law. It was through a series of events I would have preferred to not experience that I came to understand law, but now that it has happened, I am wiser for it. What struck me while coming to understand law, was how remarkably obtuse and ambiguous so much legislation can actually be.

Take, as just one example, the 16th Amendment. Here is an Amendment that many have come to believe authorized Congress the ability to lay a direct tax on income without having to honor the rule of apportionment. Some are even so unaware of law and the Constitution that governs it, they don't even think this but think the 16th Amendment actually gave Congress the power to tax income. Of course, Congress already had the power to tax income prior to the passage of the 16th Amendment and only had to honor the rule of apportionment in order to do so.

However, Congress also had the power to tax income indirectly prior to the passage of the 16th Amendment and what caused a need for the 16th Amendment was a strange and remarkable ruling by SCOTUS that struck down an income tax because it was viewed as a direct tax on income without apportionment. The 16th Amendment was written not to rebuke or overturn that particular ruling but was Congress flexing their own muscles reaffirming that they had the complete and plenary right of taxation and that they could indeed pass an non-apportioned tax and that if they did the courts could not just decide to view it as a direct tax but must necessarily view it as an indirect tax.

Now, if what I just said is true, then why is it that so many, including many, many lower court judges, read that Amendment in a different way? It is because the 16th Amendment is an example of brilliant ambiguity and obtuseness. It is because the 16th Amendment was written by lawyers and brilliant ones who did not waste a word, who did not concern themselves with the ignorance of people and in all likelihood used the reality of ignorance as a way to accomplish what could not be accomplished through Constitutional means.

The 16th Amendment is wholly harmonious with the Constitution because as an Amendment it has not made any person or corporation liable for a tax or subject to any revenue laws, it does not name any person, property or activity as the subject of a tax, it just very subtly makes clear that Congress doesn't have to apportion an income tax in order for it to be Constitutional. Most people in the U.S who read what I am asserting now, will have no idea what I am talking about, and indeed, I am not talking about taxation or the legality of income taxes, I am talking about brilliant lawyers who use their own skills to create legislation.

It is hard not to admire such artfulness and skill and just as hard not to fear such remarkable power. But there is no point in cowering from this power or contracting and telling myself I can't be just as artful and wield power just as fearsomely. The point is to learn how to be that artful and be disciplined enough to make sure I wield my own power responsibly and mightily.

Again, I thank you so much for your terrific post, I enjoyed it immensely!

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux


Thank you friend, I thought you might enjoy hearing a bit from someone who has interacted to an extent with the Powers that Be.

The truth is that the United States Constitution became an obsolete document in 1861 when the lawful congress disbanded and set no date to reconvene.

President Lincoln declared a rump congress in session and in that process prevented the legal congress from ever calling itself back into session again.

That congress of course lacked a true quorum to vote since half of its members were from the Southern States so nothing they passed into law was constitutionally legal and as a result when a document like the Constitution falls out of use for a prolonged period as it did then; it is no longer legally enforceable.

Lincoln actually turned the Government into a Military Dictatorship and began operating as a provisional de facto war time government.

Believe it or not, the Southern United States is still carved up into military districts and is still under military occupation to this day.

Because the Constitution was no longer valid and the Congress passing laws was no longer a legal congress the United States Codes became the new law of the land.

They are basically nothing but corporate contract law and while few people are aware of it the actual real 13th amendment was passed in 1821 and barred anyone from title or nobility holding office in Government. This was done during an anti-Mason backlash that was sweeping the land as some disturbing revelations regarding the founding fathers and the treaties they had made came to light after the war of 1812.

Lawyers which are esquires are one step below a Knight on the nobility chart. The actual reason the Southern States seceded was over Lincoln’s election, not as an abolitionist but an attorney!

During reconstruction after the war the original 13th amendment was quietly replaced with the current 13th amendment freeing the African Slaves, however the 14th amendment basically made us all employees and property of the new Corporate Government.

Constitutionally you could not kill someone in cold blood, you could not steal, and you could not commit treason.

Under the Corporate Codes the United States Codes there are over 600,000 codes/laws and growing that basically regulates almost every facet and aspect of life.

Not a single solitary one of them is actually legal constitutionally but they are all set up as contracts and people are tricked through various ways into signing those contracts, whether they be social security cards, birth certificates, drivers licenses, voter registration cards, speeding tickets, vehicle registrations, property titles are all contracts that cede everything to the state.

The last actual constitutional amendment was the original 13th amendment passed in 1821 and then suppressed in 1865.

The United States is not a country it is a corporation!

reply to post by queenannie38


Yet another terrific post! Of all the pearls of wisdom you shared with us in your post the most profound and important is the Power of Love. As the Silver Surfer used to always say: "Love is the Power Supreme!"

Hate, fear, resentment, jealousy, avarice, greed, and even lust are emotions we feel in the absence of Love. Just like the Justice you made reference to Love also works in the same way where, in the absence of Justice we have injustice and victims and pain and loss, in the absence of Love we find ourselves experiencing the same kind of painful and pointless emotions that only serve to lower our awareness.

When we are filled with Love, true love that accepts unconditionally, we are at that highest level of awareness and this is why at that level there is no right/left or good/evil there just IS what IS, and we accept it wholly and without condition. Ah, but there's the rub, for to accept everything without condition would be to place our biological constructs in peril at times. As a body we can not just accept a universe that would demand we contract and never allow us to expand. If we are to overcome our biological constructs while inhabiting them, we must expand!

Maybe we can accept without condition the beast that attempt to make us their prey in terms of Love and still defend our lives in the process. We do not have to fear the lion or hate the bear that would destroy us in order to stop that beast from destroying us, but if we are to survive we can't just accept their condition that we are their prey. It is an interesting conundrum and one I believe has given cause to spirituality. We must kill plants and animals in order to survive, but we don't and shouldn't fear them or hate them, we should Love them unconditionally and still hold true to our own condition.

I also love your continual allusions to flame. There is a song by Peter Gabriel called Biko, about Steven Biko. It has a fat sexy beat to it and a haunting melody but the lyrics are amazing too. My favorite line in that song, maybe my all time favorite line in any song is; "You can blow out the candle but you can't put out the fire, oh Biko...oh Biko...BeCause, Biko..."

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, many chills up my spine and a great smile on my face while reading your post.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


Thanks for sharing that as well, because it tends to get at the heart of the matter for people residing in the United States and The Powers That Be. If the U.S. is currently operating under contract law, and I believe that is correct, if they are doing this lawfully then they are just as bound to contract law as we are. I am by no means on contract law but because I tutor students and help them with their term papers, I have a client who has been taking some business law classes. It has come to my attention that in order for a contract to be binding, both parties have to be in agreement and fully understand the terms of that contract.

Here is where We the People, still have all the inherent political power we always had in spite of the shenanigans of a select few who would dare to be a formal cadre of those who believe they are The Powers That Be. If and when the People come to realize they have been defrauded, they can revoke such signature that would deign to enslave them, (and by the way I think the 14th Amendment is a horrid piece of legislation not nearly as artful and skillfully written as the 16th and whoever wrote clearly telegraphed their intentions from the get-go.), and reassert their own sovereign nature.

All of this is easier said than done, and often times the love for expedience becomes more desirable than the love for freedom, and attempting to extricate oneself from a corrupt system can be painful and even dangerous. A hero's journey with a very scary call to adventure. What a game!