Categorie archief: Geschiedenis & Politiek

The Doorway (1): LSD

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

“A fraction of a milligram and everything changes. A molecule that alters your consciousness. An unforgettable experience.”

On April 16, 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, working at the Sandoz laboratory in Basel, accidentally ingested a small dose of LSD. Suddenly, he felt as if he were in another world. Fear gripped him: he worried he might never return to his wife and child, and panic set in. But later, the fear gave way to a positive wave. Afterwards, Hofmann felt he had crossed to the other side and returned.

Hofmann had been searching for a medicine to improve circulation. His work led him to ergot, a fungus that grows on rye and related plants. From this he synthesized LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), a substance chemically related to psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms. At first, Hofmann did not know what had caused his extraordinary experience, but he soon realized it must have been the compound he had created.

At Sandoz, researchers recognized LSD’s potential value for psychiatric research. Samples were sent to Stanislav Grof, a Czech-born American psychiatrist and consciousness researcher. This marked the beginning of Grof’s decades-long exploration of non-ordinary states of consciousness.

Grof saw LSD as a catalyst. It does not create these experiences, he argued, but makes them accessible. “In that sense”, he said, “LSD is comparable to what a microscope is for biology or a telescope for astronomy. We don’t think the microscope creates worlds that are not there, but we cannot study these worlds without the tool.”

During the Cold War, the CIA became interested in LSD as a possible truth serum. The problem was that they were seeking predictable outcomes and LSD does not work that way. It was also considered as a potential weapon to incapacitate the enemy.

So how does LSD work? Our consciousness is the sum total of everything our senses perceive. LSD amplifies these senses dramatically. Psychedelic sessions can take people further than years of psychoanalysis.

In a positive experience, users may feel the ego dissolve, boundaries melt away, and control loosen. This can be deeply pleasant. Space and time lose their meaning; experience flows freely until one becomes pure experience itself.

In the 1960s, the psychedelic revolution erupted. The Merry Pranksters, led by Ken Kesey – author of ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ – embraced LSD and drove a brightly painted bus across America, inviting people to experience it for themselves.

In Millbrook, an abandoned estate in New York, psychiatrist Timothy Leary and Ralph Metzner established a psychedelic research center where anyone could participate. LSD was seen as a great equalizer. No matter one’s social background, the experience could dissolve hierarchy and expand cosmic understanding.

“We teach people to turn on, go out of their minds, and tune in”, Leary said. “The country is an insane asylum, focused on material possession, war, and racism.” His ambition was nothing less than a spiritual revolution, achieved by millions of people using LSD regularly.

Hofmann strongly objected to this approach. LSD, he warned, was a powerful instrument that required a mature mind. Promoting it indiscriminately to young people was irresponsible.

LSD often triggered strong anti-war sentiments, rooted in transpersonal experiences of unity with nature and all living beings. This directly challenged conservative values. In the United States, amid the escalating Vietnam War, tensions between the counterculture and the establishment grew. LSD became a convenient scapegoat for social unrest, and the government launched an aggressive – and often absurd – propaganda campaign.

In 1966, LSD was outlawed in California. In 1967, President Nixon declared Timothy Leary “the most dangerous man in America.” Grof later remarked, “In the irresponsible hands of Leary, it came to be seen as dangerous and that killed nearly all possibilities for research.”

Some clinical work continued for a while. Grof conducted LSD sessions with terminal cancer patients, profoundly altering their relationship with death. Many became reconciled with the fact that they were dying. “In our culture”, Grof said, “we are programmed to think we are only our bodies. LSD can show you that you are part of something much larger.”

Soon, however, LSD was internationally demonized. Research disappeared underground and remained there for decades.

Albert Hofmann died on April 29, 2008, at the age of 102. He never denied LSD’s risks, but he also believed its greatest danger lay in misunderstanding it. For Hofmann, LSD was not an escape from reality but a doorway… A doorway that, if approached with care, could reveal how vast and mysterious consciousness truly is.

The documentary ‘The Substance: Albert Hofmann’s LSD’ is available for rent on the Apple TV app.

Revenge of the Sith is 20 Years Old. It Is a Prophetic Vision of America Today

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

TRUMP WARS

Episode III

REVENGE OF THE MAGA

War! The republic is crumbling under ruthless attacks by Maga Lord Elon Musk.
There are assholes on both sides. Evil is everywhere.

In a stunning move, the fiendish president Donald J. Trump, has wiped out trillions in stock market value with an insanely stupid and useless trade war.

As the separatist MAGA-republicans attempt to siege the Capitol with their law enforcement hostages, Bernie Sanders is on his way to kick some Republican ass…

The Dark Side Calling
Exactly twenty years ago, Star Wars Episode III – Revenge of the Sith hit Dutch theaters as the dark turning point in the Star Wars saga. I remember the Darth Vader posters hanging all around the city where I worked. It was a monumental cinema experience, but it was also a dark movie that depicted the fall of a Republic, the rise of an Empire, and the death of democracy at the hands of a terrible authoritarian. Not to mention the tragic fate of all the characters we had grown to love.

Today, it feels less like science fiction and more like prophecy, as the United States of America – once the leading democracy in the world – is now rapidly becoming an authoritarian dictatorship.

The opening shot of Revenge of the Sith is a real triumph. Anakin and Obi-Wan fly through the besieged airspace above Coruscant, and it’s all filmed in one terrific and dizzying shot. Technically, this might be the best of the Star Wars movies.

When Anakin and Obi-Wan board the ship where Palpatine is held hostage by Count Dooku and General Grievous, we notice that Anakin is wearing black clothes. This is already a symbol of where he is heading. But he is still a good guy here, unwilling to leave his friend behind in a time of trouble.

Obi-Wan looks a bit like J.D. Vance, the vice president in Trump’s regime. But make no mistake – he is nothing like him in character. He is a great Jedi Knight, just as Qui-Gon Jinn predicted he would become. Vance also looks like Count Dooku (the great Christopher Lee), and he is closer to this Dark Lord in character, though nowhere near as smart.

Then – in the showdown with Count Dooku – we get the first warning sign of Anakin’s approaching downfall. “My powers have doubled since we last met, Count.” Overconfidence, pride, anger… these are all hallmarks of a character vulnerable to Dark Side manipulation. Add fear to that, and Palpatine will have an easy mark.

Count Dooku provokes Anakin, leading him to tap into the Dark Side. He uses his anger and aggression to defeat Dooku by cutting off both his hands. Then Palpatine urges him to kill Dooku, and he does. It turns out Anakin had told Palpatine about his mother and the slaughter of the Sand People. Palpatine is using that information to turn Anakin.

So he already has his hooks in the young Jedi. But Anakin is still a good person at this point. He refuses to abandon a wounded Obi-Wan and ensures the entire team escapes from the cruel cyborg General Grievous.

Then Anakin pulls off an amazing emergency landing with a spacecraft. Visually, this parallels the Trump era, where burning planes and helicopters seem to fall from the sky regularly due to Elon Musk’s firing of air traffic controllers.

Fear is the Mind Killer
The Senate gives the Chancellor permission to continue the war against the Separatists. Dictators always use emergency powers to dismantle democracy – and Palpatine and Trump are no exceptions. Trump’s emergency powers are invoked for bogus reasons. The USA is supposedly at war with Venezuelan gang members. That is ridiculous, but in Trump-land, that doesn’t matter.

The reason for these powers in Revenge of the Sith is that General Grievous is still alive. But we see that Grievous secretly works for Palpatine. The General is worried about Count Dooku’s death, but Palpatine assures him, “Soon, I will have a new apprentice. One far younger and more powerful.” He is clearly preparing for his masterstroke.

Revenge of the Sith has a terrific cast. Ian McDiarmid is especially powerful, delivering his lines as though in a Shakespearean play.

Meanwhile, Anakin learns from Padmé that she is pregnant. This is the happiest moment of his life, he tells her. Of course, their love is extremely dangerous in a time of Dark Side seduction. And then it happens: the nightmare. Anakin sees Padmé, his great love, dying, and it terrifies him.

A coaching session with Yoda seems to bring some enlightenment: “Be mindful. Fear of loss is a path to the Dark Side.” If only Anakin had truly understood what those words meant.

Missed Warning Signs
Anakin and Obi-Wan meet, and Obi-Wan is worried about Palpatine, who is about to receive even more executive powers from the Senate. This parallels America today, where Trump has already made Congress powerless and is actively ignoring the courts.

Anakin meets with Palpatine, who flatters him by proposing he become the Chancellor’s representative on the Jedi Council. There are beautiful shots here of Anakin and Palpatine – clearly staged to resemble Darth Vader and the Emperor walking together. “I need you to be the eyes, ears, and voice of the Republic.”

He gives Anakin a special task – just as Trump did with Musk, sending him into government agencies to extract data and build a massive surveillance system, yet another weapon for his dictatorship ambitions.

Anakin is brought before the Jedi Council. They accept him, but do not grant him the rank of Master. His angry response should have been a clear warning sign. There were plenty of warning signs during Trump’s campaign too – like mimicking Hitler and other fascist leaders in his speeches.

“It’s unfair”, says Anakin. That’s practically a direct copy of Trump. Narcissists like Trump are always playing the victim. “No country has ever been treated as unfairly as the United States”, Trump often complains. And he constantly claims to be the victim of a political witch hunt.

Standing With the Underdog
In that fateful Council meeting, Yoda utters one of the greatest lines of the film when learning that the Wookiees are under attack from the Separatists: “Go I will. Good relations with the Wookiees I have.”

The battle on the Wookiee planet Kashyyyk recalls Ukraine – a country with limited arms being attacked by a massive mechanized army (Russia). Yet they are stronger, because they are defending their freedom.

In the Ukraine war, Trump has sided with Russia, because he doesn’t care about Ukraine. It is just a pawn in a much greater battle for global control. Russia could be seen as standing in for the Separatists, though they see themselves as an empire.

The Ultimate Gaslighter
Things in Revenge of the Sith turn ugly very quickly. This is another hallmark of establishing a dictatorship. Events accelerate so fast that the good guys – in this case, the Jedi – can’t keep up.

They ask Anakin to spy on Palpatine, because “our allegiance is to the Senate, not its leader.” Most Republicans in the USA seem to have forgotten this pledge. They are 100% loyal to Trump, which is the heart of Project 2025.

Anakin argues with Padmé, who suggests that maybe the democracy they were trying to protect no longer exists. The parallel to the USA is stark: the political system is heavily influenced by money, and democracy is no longer functioning.

Palpatine’s final move is to portray the Jedi as attempting to illegally seize control of the Republic. Trump similarly convinced Americans that “evil” Biden was doing the same through the so-called deep state. By encouraging conspiracy theories, anti-science views, and mistrust in institutions, Trump sowed the seeds for victory.

“All who gain power are afraid to lose it. Even the Jedi”, Palpatine tells Anakin at a beautifully staged space opera. Also: “Good is a point of view, Anakin.” Indeed, we now have two competing truths: the Trump-Fox News truth and the Biden-CNN truth. On social media, we live in separate bubbles.

“The MAGA rely on their passion for their strength. They think inward – only about themselves.” “And the Jedi don’t?” This is classic MAGA: twisting narratives to vilify their opponents.

Palpatine tells Anakin the Sith legend of Darth Plagueis and the secret to immortality. This is the film’s Faustian moment. Many in the Trump administration made a similar bargain: loyalty in exchange for power.

ORDER 66 – PROJECT 2025
Before Palpatine’s rise in the Star Wars prequels, the Sith had been extinct for a millennium. Trump was also in a deep hole after losing the 2020 election. But he made a comeback – first by taking over the Republican Party, then by preparing for a return to power through Project 2025.

Trump is like Palpatine in many ways, particularly in his hunger for absolute power. Even physically, his grotesque expression mirrors Palpatine’s post-transformation face. And make no mistake – Trump is a manipulator, exploiting anyone in his way. While he lacks subtlety or strategy, he remains extremely dangerous. His bulldozer tactics may hinder him, but America’s fate remains undecided.

When the Jedi try to arrest Palpatine, the fate of the Republic is sealed. “I am the Senate!”, he screams. That’s typical Trump, who also believes his executive power should be limitless.

He kills three Jedi and convinces Anakin to kill Mace Windu. “He is a traitor”, Palpatine gaslights Anakin. Windu makes one last attempt to persuade him: “He has control of the Senate and the courts. He’s too dangerous to be left alive.” If there is one line in the film that best reflects the current Trump predicament, it is that one.

But Anakin – afraid of losing Padmé if Palpatine dies – makes a fateful choice and cuts off Windu’s hands. Windu is then killed by the now monstrous-looking Palpatine. “UNLIMITED POWER!!!” Anakin’s descent to the Dark Side is complete. Then he carries out Order 66. “Once more, the Sith will rule the galaxy, and we shall have peace.”

Trump seeks to rule the galaxy like Palpatine. He wants control over universities, the media, and the courts. He wants to own Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Panama, and Gaza. And he wants world leaders to bow before him in the Oval Office.

A pressing question remains: will Trump have his own Order 66? Will he use the military to suppress his own people and further his autocratic goals? The first steps already seem underway.

Final Transformation
Palpatine quickly consolidates his power. He sends Darth Vader to kill the Jedi younglings and Separatist leaders, then holds an emergency Senate session to declare the Republic reorganized into the first Galactic Empire.

Padmé utters the now-famous line: “This is how liberty dies – with thunderous applause.”

Exactly. This recalls Trump’s victory, cheered by many – including business elites. His sycophants continue to praise him no matter what terrible things he says or does.

The finale of Revenge of the Sith is painful and heartbreaking – as it should be. Yoda and Obi-Wan discover the murdered younglings. Obi-Wan tells Padmé what Anakin has done. Then, after their brutal duel on Mustafar, Anakin is burned alive. It’s dark, powerful stuff.

In their final confrontation, Anakin tells Obi-Wan he now sees the Jedi as evil. Just like Trump and Musk view Democrats and the values they once stood for – like climate protection, freedom, and diversity – as evil.

“I sense Elon is in danger. His Tesla stock is burning.”
Elon Musk has similarities to Anakin. A smart, energetic kid with a passion for technology, he once did good – like supporting Ukraine with Starlink satellites. But he crossed a line. He’s transformed into a Dark MAGA figure and caused massive harm.

Like Anakin kills the Jedi younglings, Elon Musk is responsible for the deaths of thousands of children by slashing USAID funds. He has sunk to a level of evil that few would ever imagine to be possible. The only solution to the Trump-Musk regime is now complete destruction.

That shot where the Vader mask closes over Anakin’s burned face is powerful. His transformation is complete.

Final Thoughts
After the death of Padmé and the birth of Luke and Leia, Yoda and Obi-Wan go into exile – like Harris, Biden, and Waltz, after failing to stop the Trumpian menace.

After all that darkness, the film ends on a hopeful note. Leia is delivered to her adoptive parents. Obi-Wan brings Luke to his aunt and uncle on Tatooine as they look out at the twin sunset.

The message: there is always hope.

This is the Significant Moment When Everything Went to Hell for America

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

America is turning into an autocracy very fast. Every week there are new lows – like last week the arrest of a judge and the week before that Trump (He/him) regime’s refusal to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison camp – despite the supreme court ordering them to do so.

Of the 71 million Americans who voted him in office, some might be wondering; how did we get here? I’ll argue that one significant moment played a key role in creating this disaster.

On the eve of the election day, on October 26, 2024, the extremely popular podcaster Joe Rogan interviewed Trump. I couldn’t bear to listen to his horse crap, but I recently watched one minute of the three hour interview on YouTube. In the fragment, Trump asked Rogan: “Come on, you’re not a Harris guy”.

And you see Rogan thinking: ‘shit, this guy is right. I am not a Harris guy’. Joe Rogan is manipulated at the spot. He lets himself be fooled by this con man. After that, he lets Trump get away with blatant lies about the 2020 election, which looks very bad for his interview ethos. I stopped viewing right after that.

What I took away from this short moment is that Trump – terrible person that he is – has at least one ‘quality’ that enabled him to become the 47th president of the USA: he knows just what to say to people to make them vote for him.

Of course this won’t work with everybody, but then again, he didn’t need everybody. He needed 71 million voters. He already had his loyal fan base secured, so he had to convince millions of others to vote for him. He and his campaign team put in all their efforts to convince right leaning people like Rogan to go for the Orange Turd. They were successful.

After the show, Rogan did something he had previously said he wouldn’t do: he endorsed Trump. With his immense reach amongst people for whom Rogan is their single source of news – tragic as this may be – he may have decided the fate of the United States.

How will he feel now, three months after Trump took office, and the country is sliding fastly into an authoritarian regime?

What we are watching right now might be the End of the American Empire.

The country is ruled by a mad king. Trump’s cabinet meetings are excruciatingly horrifying to watch. Every cabinet member that speaks, including Musk, first praises Trump for the absolutely brilliant leader that he is. And what an incredible honor it is to serve in his cabinet.

Then they proceed to tell absurd bullshit to cover up for their criminal actions. In the last cabinet meeting, Musk – in full Dr. Evil mode – bullshits about how he found 150 billion dollars in waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. He says that ‘people are receiving social security that aren’t even born yet.’

This is just too much bullshit to handle.

Everybody knows how he is going to get this 150 billion. He will do it by slashing social security, medicaid, and other programmes for the poor – and recklessly fire tens of thousands of essential government employees. And Trump is gonna let him do it. The money saved will be given to billionaires like them as a tax cut.

Some still consider Trump a brilliant businessman, but he’s terrible in business – and that’s a fact. I mean, he bankrupted a casino once. Now, he’s going to bankrupt the country. He’s a fuck-up and a major fraudster.

The financial markets – who foolishly believed Trump would be good for business before – have now realised the terrible truth. Trump is so totally unstable and deranged that the risk for the world economy (countries, companies, currencies, and debt) is great. They finally realised, just like some voters did, that having a psychopathic gangster in charge of the largest economy in the world, might be bad for business.

It would have been exactly the same if they would have handed the reigns of the American government to Vladimir Putin or Kim Jung Un. That’s what the American’s did who voted this nut job into the White House.

Thank you, Joe Rogan.

Now maybe I am thinking too much of his endorsement. On the other hand, Trump thanked Rogan especially at his inauguration. Imagine that; that you would be responsible by having a cruel psycho elected who would then go on to create terrible suffering for millions of people. Who would send innocent people to an El Salvadorian prison camp to be tortured.

I have no idea how he feels about it, but this is a wound that he will have to live with. The same goes for all Americans, whether they voted for Trump or not. This is a national trauma and it will take decades to recover from it.

But first, they will have to remove Trump from office. Can it be done?

It will be very hard, that’s for sure. And even if they succeed, they will have a massive challenge waiting for them.

Let’s say they’ll have a revolution and remove Trump from office, will the two sides – the MAGA and the WOKE – reconcile and together restore the damage the Trump regime has caused? Will they think: ‘let’s go look at the root causes of this whole thing? Where did we go wrong? What laws are we going to introduce together to make sure something like this never happens again?’

The probability that this will happen is very small. Trump is a very severe symptom of a lethal disease: a mind virus that once it spreads through society – enhanced by anti-social media and AI – makes the country divided and ungovernable.

To stop this mind virus, we – the world – must regulate social media and AI. With AI becoming more powerful every day, we need to move fast to prevent every other democracy from sliding off the rails in the coming years and decades.

This will not be an easy feat – and America is in terrible shape. Still, the possibility also exists that the right leaders arise out of this sink hole and put the country on the right course again. A crisis can do that sometimes.

Right now, the crisis is not yet big enough. There are still many people, inside and outside of the USA, deluded by Trump and think it might not be so bad. But if enough people conclude: ‘this is not what we want’ and start fighting back in every way they can, it might bring about a new era of hopeful change.

Is this the end for the USA of merely the passage into a new prosperous era? Only time will tell.

The Worst Dealmaker in the World

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

AI-GENERATED POLITICAL CARTOONS: Ghibli-style cartoon of Putin and Trump cutting and dividing a cake as a symbol of Ukraine.

In the early days of his young presidency, Donald Trump’s cabinet members couldn’t stop praising his dealmaking skills. I think it was his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who said Trump was probably the only person in the universe who could negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

Lately, it’s been a little quieter on that front. Now that America is heading towards a recession and trillions in stock market value have been wiped out thanks to Trump’s tariffs, it’s hard to argue that he’s a great dealmaker – especially since he hasn’t secured a single trade deal to make up for the carnage he caused. How embarrassing.

During the campaign, Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours – a promise anyone with half a brain could see was complete nonsense. After all, to negotiate a successful deal, you need information about the other party that’s hard to come by. Trump doesn’t know anything about the conflict, and he doesn’t care either way. He just wants them to stop fighting and freeze the conflict as it stands. In other words: he wants to reward Putin for starting a war of aggression by handing him over occupied Ukrainian land. And when Zelensky refuses, Trump blames him for the war. Anyone can end a conflict by rewarding the bully and punishing the victim.

The USA has made it clear in the past week that they want both Russia and Ukraine to agree to a peace deal. In this proposed deal, only Ukraine is expected to make significant concessions – like giving up large swaths of land. Russia, on the other hand, is rewarded with the lifting of Western sanctions. If they don’t agree, the USA will simply walk away from the conflict.

J.D. Vance said the USA has engaged in “an extraordinary amount of diplomacy”. That’s total crap. What did they actually do? First, they sent an amateur delegation to Saudi Arabia to meet with Russia’s hardened negotiation team. The main topic of discussion? Restoring economic relations with the USA. Before that, Pete ‘Bourbon Pete’ Hegseth – already the worst Minister of Defense of all time – gave away all of Ukraine’s bargaining chips before negotiations even began.

Trump also proposed a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, which Zelensky agreed to – only for Putin to reject it without facing any consequences. More recently, the USA sent another amateur diplomat to Russia, special envoy Steve Witkoff, who praised Vladimir Putin in glowing terms as such a nice and trustworthy guy – while women and children are being raped and murdered in Ukraine under Putin’s orders.

Through all this so-called “extraordinary diplomacy”, the Trump regime hasn’t made a single demand of Putin – the aggressor in the conflict. Not one. What it has done is try to extort Ukraine – the victim – out of its rare earth minerals and natural resources. That effort failed, too.

You don’t have to understand negotiations to know this is the lowest level of dealmaking imaginable. It’s not even a serious attempt. It’s obvious that Trump wants nothing more than a cozy relationship with Putin, whom he so deeply admires. He couldn’t care less about what happens to Ukraine.

At this point, a few things are crystal clear. First, Trump is a terrible dealmaker who doesn’t understand history. Second, there’s clearly some kind of relationship between Trump and Putin, the nature of which remains mysterious. Is Trump just a fan of Putin’s authoritarian style – or is he a Russian asset?

Finally, it’s time for Europe to take the lead in Ukraine and step up efforts to pressure Putin and ensure a long-term Ukrainian victory. In its current state, America is a useless friend and ally. Let them first get rid of the disaster that is Trump – then, maybe, we can be friends again. Until then, it’s best they get out of the way.