February 4 2025

KUBA: I remember a correspondence on the AFT where Richard kept mentioning something like “this will make more sense once you see what money actually is”. I could never quite get this, because I always believed that money was a currency that was more efficient at trade vs. trading physical goods.

But yesterday I started wondering, is “what money actually is” one of the tools that can be used to enforce (in disguise) what is essentially modern day serfdom? That for those warlords money would be an extremely effective tool to keep the peasantry working away for merely crumbs without realising just what is going on. After all if I was to hand over a weeks worth of grain for a few crumbs of bread I could not help but see the blatant exploitation, perhaps eventually leading to a revolt by the peasant masses.

VINEETO: Hi Kuba,

The serfdom and exploitation of the peasants existed long before the “Monetary Crimes”. I just now remembered a story ‘Vineeto’s’ then-mother read out to the young siblings and ‘her’ on a winter’s evening about peasants bringing their grain to the Landlord in exchange for other goods in return, when one bright lad figured out that the Landlord’s scales were corrupt – so that on top of the meagre exchange rate they were additionally diddled of their ‘just’ reward for their hard work. There was no happy ending to the story, the one who had the power ‘won’ the dispute. ‘Vineeto’ was about 10-yrs at the time and I remember that this injustice affected ‘her’ deeply. ‘She’ had just found out, via this realistic story, that life in the world was not just and fair.

You are still correct in your thinking that “money was a currency that was more efficient at trade vs. trading physical goods”, while your thinking about going back to exchanging grain for other goods is highly unpractical and certainly not a viable solution for the massive monetary corruption, just like a “revolt by the peasant masses” is not a solution either. You can work this out for yourself when you acquaint yourself with some of the history of peasant revolts. The minor revolts were squashed by those who owned the guns, and mass revolutions, many of them in the name of ‘communist’ revolutions all turned into dictatorships with atrocious bloodshed by the new rulers. Here is the number of people being killed by their own governments It far exceeds war-deaths.

I tried to access the link Richard gave for the book of Alexander de Mar, A History Of Monetary Crimes 1899-1983 but it had expired. Here is a current link

It is certainly a fascinating read and I remember when Richard first told me about the book 10 years ago. Here is a short quote –

“In 1662 Charles II. confirmed this renewal (of the money-coining and monopoly privileges of the East-India company) and, for a corrupt consideration, permanently established this Company of money-changers, privateers, fillibusters and bullies. From that year dates a new order of men in England. The Estates formerly consisted of the Crown, the Church, the Lords and the Commons. To these were now added the financiers, or Billoneurs, who have since almost entirely swallowed the others. Originally the financiers consisted of 215 monopolists under the title of the East India Company: they now comprise the entire world of money‑changers and bankers. This cosmopolitan band threatens the peace of mankind.” (Page 9).

Richard’s comments on the book and money-matters and the peasant mentality in general are as relevant today as they were then (Richard, List D, Rick, 3 June 2015) as well as this one (Richard, List D, Claudiu3, 18 May 2015).

KUBA: Where it seems to really get weird is that the values which eventually spring up from this system are designed to perpetuate the exploitation and yet the peasants learn to love and fight for… To even die for those very values, to sacrifice themselves and others for ‘freedom’ or for equality etc.

VINEETO: Yes indeed, that is the very sickness of the human condition. Again, descriptions such as ‘Stockholm syndrome’ or ‘Oslo Syndrome’ come to mind while it can also be called the tragedy of hope. And yet loyalty and belonging are the predominant passionate factors. Richard said to ‘Vineeto’ several times – “the human condition is very weird and the process of getting out of it can be equally weird at times.”

In short, as long as the peasant mentality exists, there will be peasants/ wage-slaves / social climbers and their insanely rich puppet masters and anything in-between. I found it very helpful to fully understand how the system of exploitation works in order to fully recognize that, just like ‘me’ the identity, it is too rotten to improve or revamp, for a lasting solution, it needs to disappear out of the human psyche in all its manifestations.

What is needed is a bloodless revolution by implementing the Third Alternative. There is no other way.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Kuba 4, 4 February 2025).

February 4 2025

KUBA: It looks that something has shifted although I don’t have the specifics worked out yet. But before it was that I explored the various beliefs that constituted ‘my’ social identity and worked through them one by one.

It seems that his thread that was pulled out just keeps going, for those values from the social identity / peasant mentality would trickle-down even into my table manners or how I relate with the shopkeeper. It is such an incredible freedom, it’s unbelievable that this is possible whilst still remaining a ‘self’.

VINEETO: Hi Kuba,

This is excellent news and demonstrates just how important it is to be aware of and understand the mechanisms of peasant mentality. And, as Richard emphasized, you don’t have to change society –

Richard: Which neatly brings me to the point of detailing these above examples: understanding the ‘whys and wherefores’ of peasant-mentality is not about effecting social change but being free of it in oneself.

In the seventh paragraph of ‘Article 20’ (appended further below) I have highlighted the relevant sentence. Viz.:

• [Richard]: Astonishingly, I find that *social change is unnecessary*; I can live freely in the community as-it-is. [endquote].

In other words, one is then free to conform with the legal laws and observe the social protocols – to ‘go along with’, to ‘pay lip-service to’ – whilst no longer believing in them.
‘Tis a remarkable freedom in itself – with no need to rebel at all – as all rebellion stems, primarily, from that deeply-held primordial *feeling* of disfranchisement (and its associated feelings of resentment, envy, cynicism, and so on and so forth). (Richard, List D, Claudiu3, 18 May 2015)

Another point to remember is when you talk about the “exploitation inherent in it” –

Richard: Can I emotionally accept that which is intellectually unacceptable? This way intelligence need not be compromised ... intelligence will no longer be crippled. z

KUBA: I was driving with my brother to visit our dad yesterday and we got onto talking about that very exploitative system. He mentioned that something like a universal basic income would be a good thing however if this happened people would descend into depression with nothing to do.

VINEETO: Before you go further into theorising about your brother’s guess what might happen, you can find out some facts of what did happen with small preliminary pilot-projects experimenting with temporary “universal basic income” in various geographical areas – (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_basic_income_pilots). Surprising for many the outcome is not at all as anticipated.

A quick search for “universal income experiment” showed the following experimentally demonstrated benefits –

“UBI experiments?

Financial relief: UBI can provide immediate financial relief, allowing recipients to meet basic needs and support others.

Flexibility: UBI can give recipients more flexibility and autonomy.

Health: UBI may reduce the likelihood of being sick, improve food security, and increase money spent on health care.

Employment: UBI may not increase or decrease employment rates.

Life satisfaction: UBI may increase life satisfaction and well-being.” (Sam Altman, McKinsey, Wikipedia)

KUBA: I found this interesting because the only reason people would “fall into a depression” is because their entire sense of identity has been constructed specifically to forever feed back into society. All ‘my’ feelings of being a valued group member are predicated upon doing specifically this. So yes as people currently are they would fall into a depression, but this is not set in stone.

That entire edifice of beliefs, values, responsibilities, obligations etc can come crumbling down, then I no longer need to score points within the group in order to feel valued. Then I can take full due of the benefits that the modern way of living provides without descending into a depression.

VINEETO: The outcome of a permanent ‘UBI’ may be different should it ever be instituted permanently but, given that the basic income so far only provides for low-grade living expenses and not additional ‘luxury’ items, many of the “beliefs, values, responsibilities, obligations” would still be operating as before and people would use their talents, skills and creativity to obtain those ‘luxury items’. It also would not automatically do away with “scoring points”, i.e. competition.

KUBA: How twisted is it that the ‘meaning of life’ is apparently in forever having to ‘earn my worth’, that ‘my’ very meaning is to forever feed into society, so much so that ‘I’ would reject leisure and freedom and continue living as if a peasant instead.

It was fascinating to observe the gridlock in my brother, that he just couldn’t quite allow that life could be perfect without any of those values that come from society. I pointed to the example of our half brother who is still young. That we both observed him having the time of his life whilst doing nothing ‘productive’ at all. There was no “descent into depression” at all, instead there was delight, intimacy, enjoyment and naiveté.

VINEETO: Ha, you brother’s “gridlock” might increase when you tell him that people don’t necessarily fall into depression with a small permanent income. It also speaks volumes what hold your own conditioning has had on you (as it had on ‘Vineeto’), wrestling with the typical Western work-ethic of ‘earning one’s worth’, and ‘justifying one’s existence’, ‘have I done anything useful today?’ on this bountiful planet earth on which we already live. One of the most common resentments in response to this imbibed pressure is the sulkingly felt disgruntlement of ‘I didn’t ask to be born’ (so why should I justify my existence?).

It is wonderful to be free of all of this! There is no responsibility in the actual world.

Richard: I have no sense of responsibility whatsoever ... the ‘I’ that was took full responsibility and an action that was not of ‘his’ doing resulted. (Richard, List B, No. 13, 14 June 1999)

Richard: I do not know how to be serious ... I have no sense of responsibility whatsoever. Life is fun. (Richard, List B, No. 25c, 12 Aug 1999)

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Kuba 4, 4 February 2025a).

February 6 2025

VINEETO (to Kuba): Thank you for this perspective, it explains why ‘Vineeto’ did not recognize the peasant mentality and even after becoming actually free I took some time after Richard talked about it to wrap my mind around it.

SHASHANK: Hi Vineeto

So upon asking Richard about this he had clarified thusly. (Richard, List D, No. 32a, 19 June 2015). <snipped quote>

VINEETO: Hi Shashank,

Thank you for the link. I was well aware of that correspondence as I used it in the article “Basic to Full Actual Freedom” (From Basic Freedom to Full Freedom) which principally deals with the peasant mentality. I just now realized it was your correspondence.

The reason I wrote to Kuba that “‘Vineeto’ did not recognize the peasant mentality” was because when we discussed the issue of loyalty (regarding parents in the audio-taped dialogues Audio-Taped Dialogues, The Compassion Gained Through Forgiveness Binds) and regarding the spiritual community, the term peasant mentality was not mentioned, even though loyalty is the hallmark of ‘peasant-mentality’.

As Richard explained, ‘Vineeto’ “had shifted ‘her’ familially-inculcated and societally-instilled allegiance to ‘the system’ at large over onto the spiritual commune” and therefore had no issue with real-world peasant-mentality topics such as career, status, wealth and ‘disguised slavery’ except those applicable in the commune. For instance, the ‘slavery’ consisted of doing work without pay in order to belong to a slightly more privileged ‘inner’ circle.

As I explained in the above-mentioned article and in ‘Vineeto’s’ correspondence, it took ‘her’ several months to completely resolve the loyalty to the spiritual commune. By the time ‘Vineeto’ became actually free, all aspects of the peasant mentality had been fully resolved.

The penny dropped much later when it was discussed on the mailing list after the visit of Jonathan, Claudiu, Srinath, Alan and Adam in 2015 that peasant-mentality was the same issue as ‘Vineeto’s’ struggling with loyalty. Only then I fully understood intellectually how it all hangs together. I much appreciate your clarifying question at the time.

Perhaps this clears up the apparent contradiction.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Shashank, 6 February 2025).

February 7 2025

VINEETO: As Richard explained, ‘Vineeto’ “had shifted ‘her’ familially-inculcated and societally-instilled allegiance to ‘the system’ at large over onto the spiritual commune” and therefore had no issue with real-world peasant-mentality topics such as career, status, wealth and ‘disguised slavery’ except those applicable in the commune. For instance, the ‘slavery’ consisted of doing work without pay in order to belong to a slightly more privileged ‘inner’ circle.

KUBA: I was going to write this exactly that these ‘counter culture’ values can end up working in the same way as spiritual values in that they are very slimy to get hold of. They appear to offer an escape from the grind and yet it is all the same game under a different guise. Which does make it that much harder to expose. And this has been the case exactly with me, that it was so obvious for me to release those values as they applied to working a career etc and yet those same values would leave me restless unless I was constantly progressing in my “alternate endeavours”. The hierarchy, the power, the recognition, the belonging etc it was all there but hidden.

VINEETO: Hi Kuba,

Ha, you are so right. I remember when Richard in an early conversation in 1998 said that he could drive buses through the large holes in any religion/ spirituality, ‘Vineeto’ was flabbergasted as ‘she’ could not see any hole in any of their/ ‘her’ spiritual beliefs. ‘She’ had swallowed Eastern mysticism hook, line and sinker thanks to the powerful seductive atmosphere of divine love and compassion in the commune. People who haven’t experienced it personally usually don’t comprehend the power of these psychic vibes emanating from an enlightened ‘being’ and just deem followers as silly, while not recognizing their own entrapment.

If ‘Vineeto’ had noticed any structure and/or hierarchy of values and principles, for instance privileges for those with a lot of money, it was ok, because the goal was ‘good’. Hence dismantling it all took a while and questioning loyalty at the start made it a lot easier.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Kuba 4, 7 February 2025).

July 7 2025

PELAGASH: Hi Vineeto!

Thank you so much for your response, I’ve been thinking about it all weekend.

VINEETO: I find comparing yourself to “Louis XVI waiting for the guillotine in the public square” quite revealing as to what your ‘persona’ fears the most – the holder of the highest office in the land being publicly subjected to the greatest humiliation (death).

PELAGASH: Here I was, thinking I had innocently chosen that analogy, and now I can see what it says about ‘me’, it’s crystal clear. See, this is why I wanted to start posting here. As much as I find reading what others write about their journey useful, not actively participating here has been a way to hide, in a way.

VINEETO: Hi Pelagash,

Thank you for your feedback. I am pleased you gained so much understanding from the correspondence, and your story about “Louis XVI” was quite amusing.

Indeed, writing on the forum has already revealed to you an issue why you wanted to hide and that is quite encouraging.

*

VINEETO: It’s worth to keep this greatest fear from above in mind, as there is hidden a significant aspect of the peasant mentality, what you call ‘perfectionism’ – it’s not only that you have to perform perfectly but that your perceived status depends on it. Now what would happen if you recognized that this perceived status is in itself a lie, a phantom? What would happen to pride, and with it to humility and to ‘who’ you feel yourself to be?

PELAGASH: Yes, contemplating this has been quite revealing. This ‘precious’ status I so desperately want to keep is really unsubstantial. It’s crazy cause of course I never saw myself as someone who cared about status, and yet I can see it so obviously now. It’s so important to me to feel like I have some kind of control over how people perceive me, that I feel like I’m going to die whenever I think someone is going to have a negative image of me. It’s like, if they do not see me as I secretly see myself, they are not giving me the validation I need to exist. Yes, I am a contingent being to the core.

VINEETO: Having one kind of status or another is part and parcel of one’s social identity – for everyone – even being a loser or having a victim mentality can be such a chosen status. It’s beneficial to acknowledge and recognize it so you can make a sensible choice as to maintain it or not. It’s inherent to the ubiquitous peasant mentality. (Sundry, Facts and Groupthink, Peasant Mentality)

PELAGASH: Another thing I’ve been contemplating every time I start to get nervous about my job is that when it comes to ‘responsibilities’, I’ve always relied on this very stern inner authority to get things done. It’s a feeling of inner pressure that is there until I do what I’m supposed to do. A way to force myself to so something. Of course, it’s not helpful at all, as I am actually more productive when I enjoy what I’m doing, but I am so afraid of letting this side of myself go. There’s this fear that I will not get anything done and ruin my life. And it’s so silly really, cause I see that I actually make silly choices when being run by this ‘inner authority’.

VINEETO: Sometimes it’s not enough to recognize that being afraid is silly. So when you get back to feeling good, I suggest to have a more comprehensive look at this “‘inner authority’”. Who or what is the origin/ originator of this authority, behind the parents who inculcated it into you? Who or what sets the rules, who or what is ultimately ‘in charge’ to define your principles, ideals, moral and ethical structure. And what do you gain by obeying it (such as status, recognition, praise, acceptance)?

The answers can be quite revealing and potentially liberating. (see also Richard, Selected Correspondence, Authority).

PELAGASH: What I am doing right now is seeing how harmful I am to myself. There’s this constant self-punishing that really brings poor results, like procrastination, wanting to hide, and essentially, wasting the opportunity to enjoy this moment. And it’s truly not needed. With the intelligence of this body, and the intention to be happy and harmless, I can simply do what’s sensible in a given situation. I do not need to torture myself to operate in the world safely. It is sensible to start being more friendly to myself.

VINEETO: As I said above, a cognitive, rational decision to “simply do what’s sensible in a given situation” is not enough as your intelligence is manipulated and stifled by your affective faculty. Unless you acknowledge and recognize which feeling and what belief/ principle / moral code is causing you to be “self-punishing”, this harmful attitude towards yourself will assert its dominance again and again.

So, who or what authority (which has become internalized into the ‘inner authority’) is presently in charge of your life, and why?

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Pelagash, 7 July 2025).

November 17 2025

ANDREW: Thanks Vineeto,

Firstly, I am starting to look at the “why” would be so invested in rejecting effort over time when mastering anything? Is it simply a two year old tantrum? Without actually being originally a tantrum? I think it’s in the class of all those primordial type feelings and morals which form into religion, as you were writing about. This is such a powerful paradigm to see all of the elaborate stories I tell myself about who I am!

VINEETO: Hi Andrew,

Ok, you found “all those primordial type feelings and morals which form into religion” – firm beliefs that look like the unviable truth. Yet when you say “I think”, which is not the same as saying ‘I know’, you show that your contemplative exploration can go further until you reach the point when you can say “it clicked” – possibly even when such a “clicked” realisation can lead to the disappearance of the hold that these firm beliefs have on your life.

ANDREW: It seems to me that it’s in the class of feelings which are very egalitarian, giving rise to the injunctions of humility etc.

It sounds ridiculous, because it is ridiculous!

VINEETO: Perhaps you are not sure (“it seems”). Keep exploring until you get to the bottom of it.

Regarding those so-called “egalitarian” feelings such as “humility” – these words describe virtuous feelings, part of the ‘good’ desirable feelings, those that are loving and trusting and virtue-signalling. As you have probably been finding out during your life so far, those are just as detrimental to your (and others’) wellbeing as those more easily detectable hostile and fearful feelings.

Here is Richard’s comment on humility, which is merely pride standing on its head –

RESPONDENT: ‘I’ took all my glasses off years ago. Concern and hope may push or pull ‘me’ towards an AF ‘belief system’ and it binds while ‘I’, (and others), persist in being superior, inferior, unequal instinct-ridden or problem-ridden.

RICHARD: What ‘glasses’ did you ‘take off years ago’? I only ask because what part does ‘hope’ have to play in one who has no glasses? Also, what is an ‘AF ‘belief system’’ when it is at home? Is it that bogus ‘belief system’ which ‘binds’ or is it the ‘hope’ that ties? Lastly, as an actual freedom from the human condition is so superior to anything any other human being has ever lived, it leaves any ‘being superior, inferior, unequal’ posturing in the litigious ‘Land Of Lament’ for dead. It has always amused me, whenever some spiritual aspirant takes me to task for being superior, that they praise the humility of their current hero ... all the whilst apparently not noticing that their ‘humble saviour’ is swanning about busily being ‘God On Earth’ or a ‘Supreme Being’ by any other name! (Richard, Aactual Freedom List, No. 2, #superior).

ANDREW: However, there is the aspect that excellence of skill for the purpose of feeling better than others, or seeking love, fame, recognition, also goes against some primordial “levelling” morality. An ancient “tall poppy syndrome”. Perhaps it’s just the modern version. I am Australian after all.

VINEETO: Ah, I understand now the uncommon directive that “putting in effort seems to be cheating” and that only natural excellence is permitted. It is there to prevent pride – of course, if you never achieve anything by not putting in effect, you have never anything to be proud of!

What you can do instead of repressing your pride by being ineffective in your actions is to gain some dignity and autonomy by choosing a different path to the Tried and Failed altogether with the intention to become happy and harmless. Then remember to pat yourself on the back whenever you succeed in finding and dismantling an obstacle to feeling good and discovering how you tick –

JONATHAN: ... but it his [Richard’s] point about patting yourself on the back which is most pertinent here.

RICHARD: The following is a quote which will serve to illustrate just what it is you are referring to.

Viz.:

• [Co-Respondent]: I can’t thank you enough for reiterating how to use HAIETMOBA?. I have read it fifty times, but this time it clicked. There is something to watch out for, which is the feeling of upset. I am just used to living with my upsetting feelings by ignoring them or repressing them, because I shouldn’t get upset ... you know? ... it’s not right to be upset, etc. So to go looking for the incident like you suggest wasn’t working because ... I’m always upset! due to repressing or analysing why I shouldn’t have the bad feeling. I mean, where would I start? When I saw this about myself I was happy and from there I was able to locate an upsetting incident that day.

• [Richard]: Good ... and once one gets the knack of it (it does take diligence and application and patience and perseverance in the beginning) it all becomes such fun to find out, each moment again, how one ticks.

One thing I did, way back when I started doing that method, was to make sure I would never, ever, tell myself off for slipping back into the old ways – after all ‘I am only human’ and it is bound to happen from time-to-time – and instead I would pat myself on the back for being astute enough to notice that I had slipped back and thus get on with the business of being happy and harmless again ... and feeling good about myself for being able to do so.

It is important to be friends with oneself – only I get to live with myself twenty four hours of the day (other people can and do move away) – and if I am at war with myself, disciplining myself, telling myself off, I am alienating the only person who can truly help me in all this.

In short: be nice to yourself, not nasty ... there are already enough people doing that anyway. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 50, 11 October 2003).

(…)

JONATHAN: So it is a very good idea to pat yourself on the back whenever it will promote felicity or get you feeling excellent so you can move on to wide eyed wonder.

RICHARD: No, what is a very good idea (to use your phrasing) is to pat yourself on the back whenever you succeed in finding out just what it is which is preventing this moment of being alive – the only moment you are ever actually alive – from being lived at its optimum.

In doing so you get to find out how you operate and function (just what it is that makes you ‘tick’ as it were) each moment again.

JONATHAN: So if you are a salesman and just made a big sale, pat yourself on the back with the aim of increasing your current happiness so you can on move to feeling excellent and then to wide eyed wonder.

RICHARD: No, I neither said that nor anything of that nature (I am clearly talking of success, no matter how slight it may be, regarding consciousness and not in regards to materialistic success). [Emphases added]. (Richard, List D, Jonathan, 4 August 2013).

The beginning of this correspondence also clarifies the issue of pride and humility.

By the way, there is no such thing as a “primordial “levelling” morality” – the “primordial morality” is the law of the jungle. Morals and ethics were put in place to curb the worst excesses of the instinctual passions.

I highly recommend reading both “the Formation and Persistence of the Social Identity” and Richard’s selected correspondence on “Peasant Mentality” and follow-up, because this might help you understand how this peasant mentality operates in feeling beings, what you erroneously label the “primordial “levelling” morality”. It might be a similar eye-opening understanding as the previous one regarding guilt

It can help you to take another look at your “class of feelings which are very egalitarian” including their impractical “injunctions” and possibly replace them with more sensible options. While equity and parity prevail in Terra Actualis, these clearly don’t happen via repressing pride or stifling sensible action, but by enjoying and appreciating being alive and being naiveté (liking yourself and liking one’s fellow human beings).

Please remember, only when pure intent is dedicatorily in place – as an overriding/ overarching life-devotional goal which takes absolute precedence over all else – can you begin whittling away of the otherwise essential general societal/ cultural conditioning. Else it would be both harmful to you and others to haphazardly switch around your morals/ethics from one “ridiculous” lot, as you called them, to another.

Richard: It is an utterly fundamental proviso that pure intent be dedicatorily in place – as an overriding/ overarching life-devotional goal which takes absolute precedence over all else – before any such whittling away of the otherwise essential societal/ cultural conditioning be undertaken. (Richard in Library, Social Identity, #warning).

ANDREW: Thanks for the encouragement. It is really giving me the space to look at this from a new perspective.

VINEETO: You are welcome, Andrew. There is so much more to discover about the wide and wondrous path, and you seem now to be ready to clear the workbench and start afresh … and already have some success.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Andrew 2, 17 November 2025).

February 20 2026

VINEETO: Ha, Kuba arrived at a similar indignation, describing it in his last post. I understand it well from ‘Vineeto’s experience about the injustice and unfairness happening in the world. However, ‘she’ never found it unjust that ‘she’ had unilaterally decided to rectify this in ‘herself’, after all ‘she’ was one of the fortunate few who knew about the solution which demonstrably worked.

This attitude is indeed born of ‘self’-centredness and ‘me’ defending ‘my’ very existence, as you might feel yourself to be the only one doing something about the mess ‘you’ are and yet know yourself to operate outside the norm of the human condition in many areas. That’s the pioneer’s role and you can rather be appreciative to have the opportunity and the courage to do so.

I also recommend reading Richard’s Selected Correspondence on Peasant Mentality (2) as you might find a few clues about how you feel and why. And when you think you are “more crazy than the norm” remember that the human condition itself is weird, and getting out of it does at times feel weird and crazy. 

CHRONO: That feeling features a lot more nowadays. I can relate to the post and to the feeling of:

Kuba: “meh, everything is stupid”

I’ve mentioned before how at times I imagine some scenario where those who are in power get punished severely due to the “rigged system” that they create and perpetuate. I gave the Peasant Mentality (2) correspondence another read (and even read ‘Barbara Villiers or A History of Monetary Crimes’“, and I am able to get a little closer to the heart of the matter:

Richard: Unless this rudimentary feeling of disfranchisement – of feeling somehow deprived of a fundamental franchise (franchise = the territory or limits within which immunity, privileges, rights, powers, etcetera may be exercised) – is primarily understood (to the point of being viscerally felt, even) any explanation of ‘peasant-mentality’ will be of superficial use only. (Richard, Selected Correspondence, Social Identity 3)

VINEETO: You are aware that there are two sides to a power structure – those who take power and those who give it willingly in order to benefit from their obedience and loyalty. While I understand your imagination of punishing those in power, it is important to acknowledge that you are as much part creating and perpetuating “the rigged system”, as long as the peasant mentality operates in you. Not that the ‘system’ will disappear when you step out of it but you will no longer be plagued by the lack of justice and fairness.

Especially loyalty, the hallmark of ‘peasant mentality’, is worth looking at (See Basic to Full Freedom 2)

CHRONO: But I have been becoming more aware of where I feel a resentment of having to work at all. Then as I am reflecting on it now, I feel that the resentment is due to the feeling of “being prisoned”. Maybe this impression of a place where I do not feel prisoned (and thus free from the horrors of what I feel the world as) is the fundamental franchise. But I’m not entirely sure. The furthest back this feeling goes is from living with my family as a child. At that time I felt the feeling of being prisoned most acutely as physical and emotional abuse featured a lot both from parental figures, teachers, and other children. It was then that I started imagining that maybe I could be somewhere else. It was the whole reason for my incursion into spirituality. The idea that I could actually be somewhere else appealed to me a lot because that meant the end of those horrors. It was by serendipity that I encountered actualism. I am giving more thought to what it means to enable the ‘already always existing peace on earth’. Anyways as I read further on that correspondence:

Richard: ‘Tis truly a rigged system … rigged to ever-enrich an already obscenely rich elite. (Richard, List D, Claudiu3, 28 May 2015)

As this is something that many have seen and noted already, there must be something further. I feel an anger towards those people and almost feel that they are the ones perpetuating the wars, murders, etc. It is at this point where I feel that indignation more deeply. I feel myself to be not in support of the system due to this and can see my indignant reaction is a form of rebelling (a case of reaching for the opposite). What I’m coming closer towards though is perhaps seeing that there is no solution (as in even rebelling is pointless in regards to solving the system ultimately).

VINEETO: For a start, to expect to be fed and housed without working is setting yourself up for certain disappointment. It would mean someone else would have to provide for you. So, the “resentment of having to work at all” is possibly a leftover from when you were a child, as well as “the feeling of being prisoned”. I am reminded of this snippet from Richard’s personal web-page regarding childhood hurts, which you might find informative –

Richard: Speaking personally, the feeling-being inhabiting this flesh-and-blood body all those years ago instantaneously rid ‘himself’ of the bulk of those school-age hurts and slights – whilst sitting out in the sunshine one fine morning, putting pencil to paper in order to finally record those dastardly events for posterity, as per a long-held and cherished ambition to do so at length – via seeing-in-a-flash that, as it was simply not possible to ever physically be a child again (and thus juvenilely susceptible to not only those bully-boys and feisty-femmes but any enabling teachers and principals as well), there was absolutely no need whatsoever to continue nursing them as a carryover grudge. It soon became increasingly apparent, thereafter, how those childhood hurts had been vital to the maintenance of the righteous indignation which fuelled ‘his’ plaints of injustice (a.k.a. ‘unfairness’) and, thus, ‘his’ mission to bring justice (a.k.a. ‘fairness’) to the world. (Richard’s Personal Web-page, Tit-for-Tat Tool-tip).

You see, all the childhood hurts can disappear within the blink of an eye, allowing the penetrating insight that you can never ever be a child again to let all the resent go at once. Then adult sensibility can work out the best solution.

Regarding the “rigged system”, when you comprehensively understand how the peasant mentality is operating in you, then you’ll find it impossible to apportion blame because you can see that everybody is trapped by either loyalty and obedience, fuelled by their wanting to get ahead, or by excessive avarice, driven to accumulate regardless of the consequences. Yes, the system is rigged, but within the human condition every system would be equally rigged by whoever gets to the top because everyone is endowed with the same instinctual passions. There is truly no solution within the human condition.

The key is to unilaterally become happy and harmless, enjoying and appreciating, and as Richard says –

Richard: Astonishingly, I find that *social change is unnecessary*; I can live freely in the community as-it-is. (Richard’s Journal, Article 20).

CHRONO: Still reading this and will have to reflect on it:

Vineeto: The other correspondence I can recommend is one about not taking offence, explained in detail (Richard, List D, Rick, 21 January 2016). Mastering this technique will hold you in good stead in any situation in life you described above.

VINEETO: Let me know if/when it works for you.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Chrono 3, 20 February 2026).

February 26 2026

CHRONO: I can also see how there seems to be the feeling that one would “escape” that rigged system by trying to become one of the ‘few’. So the belief operating is that only the ‘few’ have what the many are disfranchised from. And even further to that, the feeling is that by being at the top, I would be able to somehow evince an equitable society (which quest for equity in regards everyone and myself has become more clear for me as one of the main driving factors for an actual freedom). But this comes to mind: