Notes From Gordon: My 'Emotional Impact Statement'

The following reader mental health advisory is reprinted from The Risky Reader. Enjoy…

Emotional Impact Statement

No endangered species will be harmed by the creation of this book, but some readers might be.

Emotionally harmed, that is. So let me help you avoid having this happen to you.

While some of what I write may leave you feeling less than cheerful (only because it’s so very real), how we each respond to our exploration of reality is entirely within our control.

I will speak much in this book about the oligarchs, sociopaths and other charming individuals whom we collectively call the global elite.

Clearly these people don’t give a tinker’s damn about you or me. Truth be told, they probably consider us dispensable.

Personally, I refuse to let those who would subdue and control me get the better of me, which is why this book was written with a smile. Let me explain how I got here.

We’ve all heard of the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. 

Having your world turned upside down and learning that you have been lied to your entire life, about pretty much everything, is certainly grounds for grieving over the loss of the freedoms you thought you still had.

Upon learning the truth in my early 40s—now nearly 40 years ago—about so many things, as will be discussed in the pages to follow, I went through these same stages myself.

It wasn’t easy, but I made it. And I’m here to tell you that there is a sixth stage of grief: amusement.

Once you stand back far enough from the political and economic machinations of the modern world and see it as the grand game that it actually is—the power posturing, chest pounding, plunder and associated drama—it all becomes, if not laughable, then at least amusing.

We have white shoe bankers making magical computer money with their manicured fingernails; politicians with their pretty wives (or handsome husbands) preening, promising and prevaricating, and; generals with their giant toy ships and rockets, all aimed at each other in a global game of nuclear “chicken.”

And all of this is happening on a planet so small that the distance from the center to the surface isn’t as far as from New York to Hawaii (yes, it really is that small).

Once you arrive at the stage of amusement, you become an Observer. This doesn’t mean that you are in any way indifferent to the struggles of humanity. Quite the opposite.

Once you let go of your denial, anger and depression, you can become cheerfully and spiritually engaged in trying to help others.

Because as I will mention again, the only reason we’re all here is to help each other.

And I hope this helps you. Now, on with the show…