If Bob McDonnell Gets His Way...

Will they revise this nickel to depict the oil rigs?

Human vs. System Values

If you know me, you know I am anti-capitalist. As you can imagine, most people scoff at me & ask me "why?" I always feel at a loss to clearly explain my stance. That is, until I found the following essay in my slingshot organizer. The person who wrote this is my new hero. I hope this helps clarify the issue for you as it did for me. Yes, I *know* it is a propaganda piece, but the message rings true nonetheless...

A key to figuring out how to resist capitalism, earth-destroying mega-technology, and velveeta culture is learning how to re-define our values based on what it means to be fully human, awake and free. All of us who've grown up within this system internalize its values in subtle as well as more obvious ways. In other words, perhaps without even realizing it we start to define what we like and don't like, what we are willing to strive for and what we dismiss, what we see and what fades into the background based on a value system defined by an economic, technological, and cultural environment structured by capitalism.

The capitalist economic system requires all participants to simplify their thinking and behavior to pursue narrow goals: the most efficient, quick, cheap method, technology, or form of organization. It is important to understand that although these goals are easy to understand, they don't really mean anything - they are means to an end, but the end itself (more stuff, more growth at the lowest cost) doesn't really have any ultimate meaning. Capitalism has no internal way to determine whether anything - including, in particular, constant growth and cheapness - is actually good. In fact, on an ecologically finite planet, limitless growth is not good. Capitalist growth may kill us all if we can't somehow stop it soon. Just having more stuff does not make human beings happy or make their lives meaningful.

Because capitalism is designed around constant competition, the pressure to pursue its very narrow goals is almost irresistible for companies, communities, and individual people. If any element of the system rejects the pursuit of efficiency, others who are more efficient will out-compete the resister, who will be forced out.

Human beings are not machines. We are not merely cogs in the an economic machine. It makes no sense that psychologically, culturally, and in our day-to-day decision making we should primarily pursue efficiency, the lowst costs, and other valueless means-to-an-ends forms of thinking.

The most fundamental aspect of being human is our ability to experience raw emotion, wonder, love, freedom, pleasure, and sensation. These are experiences totally outside the awareness of economics, corporations, or computers, but each of us knows they are what makes life meaningful on a deep level. When your face is stained with tears - of happiness or sadness, but in either case being-ness- those are the moments you know you're really alive.

Humans seek freedom, self-determination, adventure, and challenges, whereas corporations, hierarchal authority structures, and machines seek control, order, routine, and the easiest, quickest, and most boring solution to problems. Humans seek to express their humanity - we sing, write, draw, dance, and rebel. Only living creatures can love, which is an irrational emotion that is also essential and even magical. It is the glue that makes society possible, makes our lives worth living, and can give us the strength and courage to organize, resist the capitalist destruction of the world, and survive. Yet love is totally invisible to capitalism - computers and corporations can't love. These structures can't comprehend solidarity which is based on love and that doesn't depend on trading something for something else.

To create a new society, we have to figure out ways to resist the social structures and institutions that oppress people and are destroying the earth. We have to create alternative institutions that can meet people's needs based on cooperation, sharing, free will, beauty, pleasure, and ecological sustainability. Doing these things means we are re-organizing our priorities away from mainstream goals such as acheiving success and getting material possessions.

To the extent the process of our struggle as well as our goals are based on human vs. system values - and to the extent we're conscious of when we're being guided by system-values and when we're being guided by human values - we can decrease burnout by increasing our sense of meaningfulness. We won't be seeking one path in our politics while self-judging our lives based on internalized values from the system. The part of our mind structured by the system is filled with a lot of "shoulds" that upon closer inspection may not make a lot of sense. It can be easy for our "reasonable" system-mind to doubt our human impulses for adventure, freedom, and ill-advised love that can leave us dangling out on a limb.

Taking a different path or doing it yourself for our own reasons will be slower, more difficult and often very confusing, and messy. Resisting the global machine means that you'll miss out on the treats it has to offer, and it may role over and crush you if you don't step out of the way at the right moment. The funny thing is that a lot of times, enjoying easy treats makes you feel empty, while seeking complex, tough pleasures makes you feel alive and engaged. Taking the human and therefore sometimes irrational and inconvenient path seriously, and following it with all your heart is what the world needs most right now. We've gone as far as we can with making things fast and cheap - now it's time to build something meaningful and human.

The Word of the Day Is...

Modulate:
mod⋅u⋅late 

 /ˈmɒdʒəˌleɪt/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [moj-uh-leyt] Show IPA verb, -lat⋅ed, -lat⋅ing.

–verb (used with object)

1.	to regulate by or adjust to a certain measure or proportion; soften; tone down.

2.	to alter or adapt (the voice) according to the circumstances, one's listener, etc.

3.	Music. a. to attune to a certain pitch or key. b. to vary the volume of (tone).

4.

Telecommunications. to cause the amplitude, frequency, phase, or intensity of (a carrier wave) to vary in accordance with a sound wave or other signal, the frequency of the signal wave usually being very much lower than that of the carrier. In order to Say thank you to you I must do it intentionally But tonight with every breath I can feel my death Sure as I can feel my knees You were my modulation So that's what you will always be We took each other higher We set each other free Course, neither of us were wearing helmets And our blood was just everywhere And when the morphine kicked in later The censors threw their hands up in despair And that's when the truth came marching in And promptly pulled the plug But you were better than any drug You were better than any drug In order to Say thank you to you I must do it intentionally But tonight with every breath I can feel my death Sure as I can feel my knees You were my modulation And that's what you will always be We took each other higher Then we set each other free We set each other free -- A.D.

Methods

I just finished reading Pacifism As Pathology by Ward Churchill. It was an excellent read; however, the quote that stuck out to me most wasn't Churchill's own words. It was a quote from Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael):

If we are to consider ourselves as revolutionaries, we must acknowledge that we
have an obligation to succeed in pursuing revolution. Here, we must
acknowledge not only the power of our enemies, but our own power as well.
Realzing the nature of our power, we must not deny ourselves the exercise of the
options available to us; we must utilize surprise, cunning and flexibility; we
must use the strength of our enemy to undo him, keeping him confused and
off-balance. We must organize with perfect clarity to be utterly unpredictable.
When our enemies expect us to respond to provocation with violence, we must
react calmly and peacefully; just as they anticipate our passivity, we must
throw a grenade.

Now I realize that I am potentially igniting a firestorm by highlighting this quote but I can't emphasize enough how much this quote got me thinking. I have been wrestling for months with the following questions. Does pacifism work? Is there ever a time where more direct action is called for or justified? What keeps those of us working on a variety of social justice issues from unifying? How do we build solidarity in our community? I am going to leave you all with these questions and this quote to see what dialogue, if any, ensues.

rants

Why do people think it is okay to invite themselves to gatherings? It's okay to ask if you can come along, but don't just announce that you're going to attend when you weren't invited. That is one of those little societal nuances that I DO believe in.

Words without action are meaningless. I pay much more attention to what you do rather than what you say. If the actions don't add up to what you say, then I am going to call you on it. I expect people to do the same to me.


Why do people get so pissed off when I question our military actions & tell me I should support our troops yet turn their nose up at the homeless veteran when they ask for help??

Why do people feel like they can defensively question me about my lifestyle when I say NOTHING to them about the way they live their lives? Just because I live my life differently than yours doesn't cause me to ask you to justify your lifesyle to me, so don't ask me to justify mine.

If another person asks me if I am afraid that my kids aren't going to be properly socialized because I homeschool, I might just snap. Seriously people, who is more qualified to socialize your child - you? or 30 of their peers who are lacking the same skill set? I am confident that my kids will be socially more well rounded than any kid in the public school setting, hands down.

I could keep going, but I won't. I don't enjoy being in this negative space. I need to get the hell out of this place & recharge my psyche or else it is going to suck me into this blackhole of shittiness that is known as Norfolk, VA.

Meet Us Up The River

Now that I am not on the computer as much as I have been & the kids and I are on break from co-op, I have had some time to get caught up on some household organizing. I was getting ready to toss my flyer for the Fair Trade Festival into the recycling bin when I noticed the following essay. I had to sign on & share it with you all. 

Once upon a time there was a small village on the edge of a river. The people there were good and the life in the village was good. One day a villager noticed a baby floating down the river. The villager quickly jumped into the river and swam out to save the baby from drowning. 

The next day this same villager was walking along the river bank and notived two babies in the river. He called for help, and both babies were rescued from the swift waters. And the following day four babies were seen caught in the turbulent current. And then eight, then more, and still more. 

The villagers organized themselves quickly, setting up watch towers and training teams of swimmers who could resist the swift waters and rescue babies. Rescue squads were soon working 24 hours a day. And each day the number of babies floating down the river increased. 

The villagers organized themselves efficiently. The rescue squads were now snatching many children each day. Groups were trained to give mouth to mouth resuscitation. Others prepared formula and provided clothing for the chilled babies. Many people were involved in making clothing and knitting blankets. Still others provided foster homes and placement. 

While not all the babies...could be saved, the villagers felt they were doing well to save as many as they could each day. Indeed, their priest blessed them in their good work. And life in the village continued on that basis. 

One day, however, someone raised the question, "But where are all these babies coming from? Who is throwing them into the river? Why? Let's organize a team to go upstream and see who's doing it." 

The seeming logic of the elders countered: "And if we go upstream who will operate the rescue operations? We need every concerned person here."

"But don't you see," cried the one lone voice, "if we find out who is throwing them in, we can stop the problem and no babies will drown. By going upstream we can eliminate the cause of the problem." 

"It is too risky," [decided the elders].

And so the numbers of babies in the river increase daily. Those saved increase, but those who drown increase even more. 

MEET US UP THE RIVER!!!

Today is the Day

The Fair Trade Festival has finally arrived! Don't know much about Fair Trade or the festival? Read about it here. I am really looking forward to seeing the belly dancers & Scythian this evening, not to mention the chocolate tasting - yum! Hope to see you there =)