It's a slow month for blogging!
These happen sometimes. Sorry!
I'll be back soon, I promise. In the meantime, please enjoy the following public service announcement:
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Earth First! Road Show
Hey Everyone,
This is what I'm up to!
(From the announcement posted at Anarchist News)
This is what I'm up to!
(From the announcement posted at Anarchist News)
| The first annual Earth First California Roadshow will be traveling through the state this month to build connections between bioregions and different ecological resistance groups. Also we'll be promoting the upcoming Organizers' Conference (OC) and Winter Rendezvous in Santa Barbara. We will be holding skillshares/workshops, presenting radical history and critical analysis of our movement, and delivering great music and/or food. Calling all forest friends and other feral folks! Here's a tentative schedule: Jan 12: Santa Barbara, De La Guerra Plaza Jan 13: Santa Cruz, 6pm at Sub Rosa Infoshop |  |
Jan 14: Berkeley, Long Haul/People’s Park
Jan 15: Santa Rosa, 6pm at Free Mind Media
Jan 17: Arcata, location not yet confirmed
Jan 18: Mendocino, not yet confirmed
Jan 19: unconfirmed Central Valley stop
Jan 20: Fresno, 6pm CAFE Infoshop
Jan 21: Santa Ana, not yet confirmed
Jan 24: Los Angeles, Anarchist Book Fair
See you there!
NO COMPROMISE IN DEFENSE OF MOTHER EARTH!!!!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Back In Town
...And we're back!
The trip was okay. I'll tell you about it some other time.
Now, things are rebecoming interesting. We've got this big damn tour to do, and you can go to caliroadshow.wordpress.com and read about it. And all that is leading up to this thing. Maybe you should come to it, too!
Either way, I'll be back to regular posting soon. Probably a year in review, to start. Actually, since I'm supposed to be working right now, I bet I'll write a year in review pretty soon -- what better way to procrastinate!
The trip was okay. I'll tell you about it some other time.
Now, things are rebecoming interesting. We've got this big damn tour to do, and you can go to caliroadshow.wordpress.com and read about it. And all that is leading up to this thing. Maybe you should come to it, too!
Either way, I'll be back to regular posting soon. Probably a year in review, to start. Actually, since I'm supposed to be working right now, I bet I'll write a year in review pretty soon -- what better way to procrastinate!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Let Earth Receive Her King!
Here's something that's always seemed weird to me.
Today in America, designations like "king" and "lord" are semi-mythical. We've never really had any lords, and we don't know what it's like-- so we hear a word like "lord" or "king" and have all these feelings of magic and legend and faraway places.
But "lord" and "king" were originally real-life political designations. To the people who coined those words they had no more mythic significance than the words "president" or "mayor" do to us.
So why do Christians use words like this to describe God? Why worship a God who describes himself using a political designation that's not just commonplace and banal, but rooted in coercive violence and serfdom? ("Lord" comes from a word meaning "one who guards the loaves (of bread)"-- i.e., one who controls the food supply and can therefore compel the servitude of others). Wouldn't it be just weird and confusing if someone said "You should worship my God because he is the President of the Galaxy!"
Worshipping the Sun, the Earth-- creative and destructive forces-- even your own ancestors makes a lot more sense to me than some intergalactic political figure. But here the Christians go, singing about Glory to the Newborn King! and all that nonsense.
...So I was going to end this post with some kind of take on traditional Christmas carols with the political terms modernized, something like this:
Joy to the World! The President has been Inaugurated!
Let the United Nations receive its chief executive!
But I've decided that would only be funny for about twelve seconds. Oh well. I'm going to Virginia for Christmas, did I tell you? See you when I get back!
Today in America, designations like "king" and "lord" are semi-mythical. We've never really had any lords, and we don't know what it's like-- so we hear a word like "lord" or "king" and have all these feelings of magic and legend and faraway places.
But "lord" and "king" were originally real-life political designations. To the people who coined those words they had no more mythic significance than the words "president" or "mayor" do to us.
So why do Christians use words like this to describe God? Why worship a God who describes himself using a political designation that's not just commonplace and banal, but rooted in coercive violence and serfdom? ("Lord" comes from a word meaning "one who guards the loaves (of bread)"-- i.e., one who controls the food supply and can therefore compel the servitude of others). Wouldn't it be just weird and confusing if someone said "You should worship my God because he is the President of the Galaxy!"
Worshipping the Sun, the Earth-- creative and destructive forces-- even your own ancestors makes a lot more sense to me than some intergalactic political figure. But here the Christians go, singing about Glory to the Newborn King! and all that nonsense.
...So I was going to end this post with some kind of take on traditional Christmas carols with the political terms modernized, something like this:
Joy to the World! The President has been Inaugurated!
Let the United Nations receive its chief executive!
But I've decided that would only be funny for about twelve seconds. Oh well. I'm going to Virginia for Christmas, did I tell you? See you when I get back!
The End of the Year
Happy Solstice!
(a few days late)
Thoughts:
The January 1st New Year is meaningless; a product of a calendar given us by conquerers, used to facilitate capital.
The Solstice, the Rebirth of the Sun-- This is a proper day for celebration of a Year come-and-gone, and reflection on what has been, what is to come!
Soon, I will blog a Year End Retrospective, for self-indulgence (myself being my favorite person do indulge, you know!) (I may do this today).
And maybe (after the usual fashion) I'll do some Predicting. Predicting is fun! Just about everybody does it and mostly they are wrong. But we'll see.
(a few days late)
Thoughts:
The January 1st New Year is meaningless; a product of a calendar given us by conquerers, used to facilitate capital.
The Solstice, the Rebirth of the Sun-- This is a proper day for celebration of a Year come-and-gone, and reflection on what has been, what is to come!
Soon, I will blog a Year End Retrospective, for self-indulgence (myself being my favorite person do indulge, you know!) (I may do this today).
And maybe (after the usual fashion) I'll do some Predicting. Predicting is fun! Just about everybody does it and mostly they are wrong. But we'll see.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Across The Internet
Hi Everybody!
Instead of doing the stuff I should do right now--you know, organizing this-and-that; touching up essays for publication; even writing a coherent new piece for this blog would count--instead of doing any of this I'm reading the Internet!
So why don't you come read along with me.
*
There is a neat article at The Archdruid Report. I think you should read it. It talks about many awesome things, including the fall of the Illuminati, the neoconservatives, and the systems theorists (like Donella Meadows, who I always link to on this Blog) as reflective of the same principle. And that principle is--
Okay, I'm not exactly sure what Mr. Archdruid is getting at, but maybe if you read it, you'll be able to tell me.
*
And Jeff Vail is writing more fun stuff in his Diagonal Economy series.
Good call, Jeff! That's so the point.
*
Lierre Keith, who I otherwise admire the hell out of, once said "We're never going to have a serious resistance movement without authority and hierarchy." And that is an understandable reaction if you're coming from an authority-less movement like American Anarchism, which is mostly a bunch of mean-spirited retard-children with rich parents eating out of dumpsters to feel cool.
But there are other ways to organize a non-hierarchicial -- anti-hierarchical -- anarchic movement that can outcompete, and thus defeat, the hieararchic monster destroying the planet. I'm going to write a lot about this soon. In the meantime let's all keep an eye on Jeff Vail's diagonal economy series, because in some ways* he's right on.
*
Along similar lines, Ol' Ran Prieur's also got a good new post up. He writes:
Yeah, exactly!
*
If you're interested in the US economy, you should also go read this by former Senator Fritz Hollings of South Carolina:
*
Well, this has been a fun tour of the Internet, but I think I'm going to go do something else.
Bye everybody!
Instead of doing the stuff I should do right now--you know, organizing this-and-that; touching up essays for publication; even writing a coherent new piece for this blog would count--instead of doing any of this I'm reading the Internet!
So why don't you come read along with me.
*
There is a neat article at The Archdruid Report. I think you should read it. It talks about many awesome things, including the fall of the Illuminati, the neoconservatives, and the systems theorists (like Donella Meadows, who I always link to on this Blog) as reflective of the same principle. And that principle is--
Okay, I'm not exactly sure what Mr. Archdruid is getting at, but maybe if you read it, you'll be able to tell me.
*
And Jeff Vail is writing more fun stuff in his Diagonal Economy series.
From food production to manufacturing and knowledge industries, even oppressive and poorly-functioning hierarchies will out-perform isolated self-sufficiency.If these isolated nodes of self-sufficiency connect, communicate, and interact, then they will enjoy an improve position relative to hierarchal structures.
Good call, Jeff! That's so the point.
*
Lierre Keith, who I otherwise admire the hell out of, once said "We're never going to have a serious resistance movement without authority and hierarchy." And that is an understandable reaction if you're coming from an authority-less movement like American Anarchism, which is mostly a bunch of mean-spirited retard-children with rich parents eating out of dumpsters to feel cool.
But there are other ways to organize a non-hierarchicial -- anti-hierarchical -- anarchic movement that can outcompete, and thus defeat, the hieararchic monster destroying the planet. I'm going to write a lot about this soon. In the meantime let's all keep an eye on Jeff Vail's diagonal economy series, because in some ways* he's right on.
*
Along similar lines, Ol' Ran Prieur's also got a good new post up. He writes:
This is something that right wingers intuitively understand and left wingers don't: central control is fundamentally evil, and an evil system wants to do evil things: bomb foreign cities, build torture prisons, spy on citizens, and generally channel money/power from those who don't have it to those who do. Nature abhors a benevolent dictator. This is why Bush got everything he wanted and Obama is getting nothing (although he has to pretend to want what he gets to maintain the illusion that he is powerful). This is why everyone hates liberals, even other liberals.
Yeah, exactly!
*
If you're interested in the US economy, you should also go read this by former Senator Fritz Hollings of South Carolina:
The Council on Foreign Relations ought to be renamed the Council on Making Money. A recent PEW poll reported fully 85% of Americans said that protecting United States jobs should be a top foreign policy priority. But only 21% of the Council on Foreign Relations agrees. Financial interests organized the Business Roundtable to continue off-shore investment and profit. The local Chamber is for Main Street America, but Tom Donahue and the United States Chamber have sold out to the financial interests and oppose jobs and producing in the United States. Thirty years ago, hundreds of thousands of Arrow shirts produced in China were a best seller in the United States. But at Christmastime, the Chinese supply ran short and the retail stores had to order the same shirt from New Jersey. They made 20% less profit on the New Jersey shirt. Retailers are all for profit from imports and against domestic production and jobs in America.The thing that gets me, that I can't stop harping on, is how false the average American's understanding of reality is. What's America? What's the economy? What are jobs? Why do you need them? Why aren't there any? Who the fuck knows! And who the fuck has time to worry about questions like that, when there's an (adjustible-rate) mortgage to pay and children (transformed by government schools and commercial television into money-sucking parasites) to feed?
Corporate America would fight any initiative by the President, the Congress, or the government to create jobs in the United States. That is, production that faces competition offshore. In globalization, U. S. production can't make a profit, can't survive. Its competition will off-shore the same article for a lesser price, putting you out of business. Moreover, Corporate America doesn't have to bother with labor in China. The China government controls labor and you don't have to worry about a work stoppage or minimum wage. All they have is a maximum wage.
*
Well, this has been a fun tour of the Internet, but I think I'm going to go do something else.
Bye everybody!
A Thing That Drives Me Fucking Crazy
From the website of Yosemite National Park:
"Although bears generally are not aggressive toward people, four bears, including two cubs, had to be destroyed last year because they were getting increasingly aggressive."
No, motherfucker, the bears did not "have to be destroyed," in passive tense. Employees (wage-slaves, and probably ideological slaves) of the park system killed the bears. Machines can be destroyed. Bears are not machines. They are sentient beings. You can't "destroy" them. You can--and do--kill them. It's bad enough you've turned a huge piece of wild land ("Yosemite National Park") into a playground for the wealthy, where no tourist must ever, ever, ever be hurt. It's even worse that this arrangement is the only way you will "preserve" (temporarily keep from murdering) wild land.
At least fucking own up to it.
(And remember everybody: Don't feed the birds! I mean the bears. Oh, fuck it, what I'm trying to say is, Don't let any wild animals think for a second that there is any way other than abject terror with which to react to humans. Cause if you do, we'll just fucking kill them and say we had no other choice.)
"Although bears generally are not aggressive toward people, four bears, including two cubs, had to be destroyed last year because they were getting increasingly aggressive."
No, motherfucker, the bears did not "have to be destroyed," in passive tense. Employees (wage-slaves, and probably ideological slaves) of the park system killed the bears. Machines can be destroyed. Bears are not machines. They are sentient beings. You can't "destroy" them. You can--and do--kill them. It's bad enough you've turned a huge piece of wild land ("Yosemite National Park") into a playground for the wealthy, where no tourist must ever, ever, ever be hurt. It's even worse that this arrangement is the only way you will "preserve" (temporarily keep from murdering) wild land.
At least fucking own up to it.
(And remember everybody: Don't feed the birds! I mean the bears. Oh, fuck it, what I'm trying to say is, Don't let any wild animals think for a second that there is any way other than abject terror with which to react to humans. Cause if you do, we'll just fucking kill them and say we had no other choice.)
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