by Jonathan Deschamps
In 2005, then Seattle mayor Greg Nickels created a big buzz around his town when he lead 130+ other US mayors in committing their cities to the Kyoto Protocol despite the United States refusal to sign this international treaty to fight global warming and benefit all future generations across the globe. Seattle's primary efforts towards meeting the Kyoto Protocol were in promoting the creation of more efficient buildings and in refusing not to purchase power from coal or other fossil fuel sources but instead increasing their dependency on dams which have their own negative impacts. Despite these minor improvements transportation emissions are still growing.
Little effort has been made in order to decrease Seattle's dependency on individual cars. In 2006, Metro Transit announced that it would increase its fares by 75 cents over the next 10 years. Now only five years later and the bus fare has increased from $1.50 to $2.50 during peak hours, a full dollar increase. Just this month Seattle's other major transit agency, Sound Transit, launched its second major fare increase in two years. This increased frequency towards fare inflation in public transportation inevitably plays a role in reducing their ability to ween Seattle from its car culture. As fares increase the desire to ride public transit decreases for regular commuters of public transportation. New potential public transit users are also discouraged from making the switch because driving remains more economical despite the costs of emissions which all citizens will eventually pay for.
On top of increasing accessibility to public transit another major approach to reducing vehicle emissions is to redesign the city itself in order to decrease the desire to drive in the first place. So far, Seattle, like every other major US city is doing everything it can in order to maintain the flow of traffic. In its attempts to synchronize green lights and redesign viaducts the city is further encouraging individual drivers and in effect are making it increasingly difficult to solve problems since they become progressively worse faster than they become better due to the modern trend towards urbanization. As traffic increases roads also become increasingly dangerous for alternative forms of transportation such as walking and bicycling. Effectively adding injury to insult. However, many Europeans are taking an alternative approach towards solving emissions problems and are instead making city streets less appealing for car transit.
In Zurich, Switzerland closely spaced red lights have been installed on roads entering the city, intentionally causing delays and frustration among drivers. Pedestrian underpasses have been removed from once free flowing city streets allowing pedestrians to cross the street where ever they please and effectively reducing the flow of traffic. Public tram operators in the city can turn traffic lights green in their favor. On many city blocks, cars have been banned all together. At the same time Zurich has made grand efforts in increasing accessibility to public transit. In the past two years many German cities have created "environmental zones" where only cars which meet strict emissions standards may enter. In Paris and Barcelona, car lanes have been removed in order to favor public bike sharing programs. High prices on oil and stricter standards on fuel efficiency have also helped European cities lower transit emissions. If US cities are truly committed to the Kyoto Protocol as they claim, then all they need to do is look around the world in order to see what actually reduces emissions.
All signs seem to point towards a fundamental change to the American lifestyle itself, something elected officials and consumer habits have long protected. Emissions can't be reduced to optimal levels without decreasing dependency upon driving and long distance commerce. If American cities use Europe as a model for change then we need to improve accessibility to alternative forms of transportation while succinctly decreasing our desire to drive in the first place. In effect lifestyles and local infrastructures would be forced to respond accordingly. However, digging a little deeper and taking a more holistic perspective on global warming would suggest more than just a top-down approach to problem solving.
Imagine reducing the need for transportation all together and thus preventing emissions before they occur. Reducing the desire for driving and increasing the appeal of public transit is really just a top-down approach towards the inevitable creation of localized economies. Right now people need to get from one point to another because their locality does not provide all their needs and individuals just don't think or live in terms of walking space but instead in terms of driving or flying space. What if neighborhoods were redesigned in order to provide for its local inhabitants. No longer would so many people need to drive across town to go to the market, to receive health care, or to go to work. This is a more realistic view towards a sustainable city than that of Seattle's former mayor Greg Nickels. If American cities and suburbs became more localized, inhabitants would likely interact more with one another, drive less, and ultimately form a greater sense of community and trust. A flourishing local economy equals a flourishing local culture. Less driving means more exercise and a decreased dependency on foreign oil. The ultimate lesson in this holistic thought experiment is that solutions actually do exist despite the complications which are created by dividing ideologies and an overall lack of focus and understanding.
These are not original thoughts but instead are based on a wide and rich knowledge base known as ecology which looks at the interactions between various complex systems which have historically been treated as separate entities by government, business, and individual citizens. The greatest impedance on Seattle's or anyone's path towards meeting the Kyoto Protocol or a higher quality of life in the future is in a stubbornness to adapt and change the way we think and live. We haven't always been a car culture and there's no reason to think that we always will be. After all, oil is our primary source of energy and according to experts, alternative energy will only be able to replace a small fraction of our increasing dependency. Therefore, we will inevitably be forced into localized economies as the price of oil increases and we soon realize just how vulnerable and unsustainable our modern lifestyle is. In the meantime, community involvement, educational outreach, and citizen demand can help us meet these ends in a more gradual and peaceful way than a sudden jolt to the American psyche caused by peak oil, global warming, or social unrest which we are already seeing the effects of in our daily lives and through out the world.
28 June 2011
26 June 2011
A New Season to Explore...
After a long winter of survival and a spring of progress we are finally ready to stretch out our wings and fly (where exactly we shall see). Summer is the season for bearing fruit, for alpine wild flowers, and for making memories. Tomatoes will soon be so heavy and ripe that they will be falling right off the vines. Pataphysical Vibrations will be bringing you new gifts this season and we aim to launch a third issue of our zine in the coming months. So check back often and get your creative juices flowing. In the meantime, please take a short moment to remember the joys of this season, to recognize it's impermanence, and to make it a point to make the most of it while you can. The sun is shining brightly upon our hemisphere now! Our advice, be inspired and don't waste your energy repressing your urges to express it or just simply lay about without guilt. Allow nature to do the hard work for you instead of against you. Love Peace & Hope.
p.s. - We also added a new functionality to this website, now known as the VISUAL ARCHIVE. Check it out and watch it grow.
Photos courtesy of The Backyard.
23 June 2011
21 June 2011
Curious and Curiouser
PERSONS AND EXPERIENCE
"As adults, we have forgotten most of our childhood, not only its contents but its flavor; as men of the world, we hardly know of the existence of the inner world: we barely remember our dreams, and make little sense of them when we do; as for our bodies, we retain just sufficient proprioceptive sensations to coordinate our movements and to ensure the minimal requirements for biosocial survival - to register fatigue, signals for food, sex, defecation, sleep; beyond that, little or nothing. Our capacity to think, except in the service of what we are dangerously deluded in supposing is our self-interest, and in conformity with common sense, is pitifully limited: our capacity even to see, hear, touch, taste and smell is so shrouded in veils of mystification that an intensive discipline of un-learning is necessary for ANYONE before one can begin to experience the world afresh, with innocence, truth and love...As domains of experience become even more alien to us, we need greater and greater open-mindedness even to conceive of their existence" (22-3)
R.D. Laing - The Politics of Experience
Laing was a Scottish experimental psychologist interested in the experiences of the mentally ill, specifically schizophrenics. He was one of the first to compassionately and convincingly argue that the mentally ill could be undergoing an internal process of conflict-resolution in the face of a fundamentally dysfunctional society. The schizophrenic's fragmented mental state is consistent with the way a sensitive individual reacts to the pathological nature of so much of our culture. He proposed that not only could the mentally ill be properly administered to and offered counseling, but that the broader human community has much to learn from this radical experience of the world. A student of zen, Laing also believed that modern industrialized people are largely devoid of the constructive mythology of spirituality, and therefore unable to imagine the slighter and more profound aspects of daily existence.
How much do we miss on our way from here to there? Small wonders? Worlds within worlds? Can we recognize truth when we encounter it, or is it buried amongst so many different versions and facsimiles that we confuse the truth with the word (or its various synonyms?) In our hyper-relativistic world is there any objective thing called 'the authentic', or, like faith, instinct, and intuition, does it only exist in its own experience and nowhere else? How does a culture of avatars and proxies find truth through an experience if, increasingly, the arena of life is actually a hall of mirrors? The harder you look at the image in the mirror, the clearer you see what's not really there. In order to experience the presence of the image, you need the faith to forego its immediacy. Only then does the image lose the redundancy of the word to become nothing more than it ever was: its Self.
Sometimes though, as in the case of photographs, it's necessary to duplicate the original for the purpose of showing. And sometimes, with an eye for the extra within the ordinary, we stumble upon a world within a world.
Cheers for now. Good luck, good riddance, good lord!
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| Bionic Salmon Escape Hatch, Toaster Harbour, WA |
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| Rock Climber, Snohomish County, WA |
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| Beach Umbrella, Bellingham, WA |
15 June 2011
The Individual and the Collective
What a spectacular weekend extravaganza. Saturday's record release show went off without a hitch (unless you consider someone's hand getting filleted by a broken 40 oz. a hitch); the performances were spirited, skilled, and smacked of a Seattle underground richly dappled with talent while being partially obscured behind the mounds of other scenes. Thank you to all of the musicians kind enough to dress up, dress down, show up, mess around, and produce observable tapestries of audible light. And thank you Josephine for providing a space for these happenings to happen!
The show--from the micro of personalities up the scale through performers, attendees, and eventually the more macro of a venue like The Josephine and the larger scene of the NW--got me thinking about the pursuit of identity, and the individual's identity in relation to the composition of a community. This topic was covered extensively by the very influential and sometimes misunderstood Swiss psychiatrist C.G. Jung, who had this, among many other things, to say:
"...Self-realization seems to stand in opposition to self-alienation. This misunderstanding is quite general, because we do not sufficiently distinguish between individualism and individuation. Individualism means deliberately stressing and giving prominence to some supposed peculiarity rather than to collective considerations and obligations. But individuation means precisely the better and more complete fulfillment of the collective qualities of the human being, since adequate consideration of the peculiarity of the individual is more conducive to a better social performance than when the peculiarity is neglected or suppressed. The idiosyncrasy of an individual is not to be understood as any strangeness in his substance or in his components, but rather as a unique combination, or gradual differentiation, of functions and faculties which in themselves are universal" (122)
The Portable Jung - Relations Between the Ego and the Unconscious
I take this to mean that the freedom of the individual is instrumental in the cohesiveness of the group. If the individual is encouraged or allowed to develop according to his/her natural tendencies, a niche will develop that fulfills a particular function within the larger community. The leveling and standardization of personalities is often tyranny disguised as equality. No individual forced into an unnatural or stock position can meet their potential; if an individual can't meet their potential, there's very little hope of contributing to society in an effective or satisfying way. Therefore, self-knowledge, and what Jung calls individuation is necessary not only to stabilize the personality but to create a stable community where all feel useful, appreciated, and fulfilled. This is by no means a simple or easy process! Rather, it's a dynamic and challenging journey from primordial unconsciousness to enlightened self-awareness and balance, a journey we've been enacting since our slimiest origins, and one that civilization has too often confounded rather than encouraged.
This is where critical self-expression comes in. Every act is a partly-blind but determined thrust forward. Our creations are attempts to expose and understand. The things we make--be they music, scenes and situations, food, friendship, propositions, hypotheses, etc.--are part of an ongoing experiment in isolating that which makes us unique. These unique aspects of ourselves are in turn the foundations with which we build our communities. When we're in tact, aligned or at least attempting to align with our natures, the structures we build are lasting ones. Here's to lasting structures!
The show--from the micro of personalities up the scale through performers, attendees, and eventually the more macro of a venue like The Josephine and the larger scene of the NW--got me thinking about the pursuit of identity, and the individual's identity in relation to the composition of a community. This topic was covered extensively by the very influential and sometimes misunderstood Swiss psychiatrist C.G. Jung, who had this, among many other things, to say:
"...Self-realization seems to stand in opposition to self-alienation. This misunderstanding is quite general, because we do not sufficiently distinguish between individualism and individuation. Individualism means deliberately stressing and giving prominence to some supposed peculiarity rather than to collective considerations and obligations. But individuation means precisely the better and more complete fulfillment of the collective qualities of the human being, since adequate consideration of the peculiarity of the individual is more conducive to a better social performance than when the peculiarity is neglected or suppressed. The idiosyncrasy of an individual is not to be understood as any strangeness in his substance or in his components, but rather as a unique combination, or gradual differentiation, of functions and faculties which in themselves are universal" (122)
The Portable Jung - Relations Between the Ego and the Unconscious
I take this to mean that the freedom of the individual is instrumental in the cohesiveness of the group. If the individual is encouraged or allowed to develop according to his/her natural tendencies, a niche will develop that fulfills a particular function within the larger community. The leveling and standardization of personalities is often tyranny disguised as equality. No individual forced into an unnatural or stock position can meet their potential; if an individual can't meet their potential, there's very little hope of contributing to society in an effective or satisfying way. Therefore, self-knowledge, and what Jung calls individuation is necessary not only to stabilize the personality but to create a stable community where all feel useful, appreciated, and fulfilled. This is by no means a simple or easy process! Rather, it's a dynamic and challenging journey from primordial unconsciousness to enlightened self-awareness and balance, a journey we've been enacting since our slimiest origins, and one that civilization has too often confounded rather than encouraged.
This is where critical self-expression comes in. Every act is a partly-blind but determined thrust forward. Our creations are attempts to expose and understand. The things we make--be they music, scenes and situations, food, friendship, propositions, hypotheses, etc.--are part of an ongoing experiment in isolating that which makes us unique. These unique aspects of ourselves are in turn the foundations with which we build our communities. When we're in tact, aligned or at least attempting to align with our natures, the structures we build are lasting ones. Here's to lasting structures!
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| To the embryonic potential of all matter |
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| And to the outlines of our future selves materializing through the mists of doubt! |
13 June 2011
A Spring Seasonal Backyard Recipe and Your Introduction to Corn Salad
This simple spring salad of magical seasonal greens and root vegetables came directly from The Backyard, it is rich in complex flavors, and is sure to cure whatever ails you. What makes this salad so interesting is the interplay between spicy arugula greens and the more mellow & buttery spinach and corn salad. We originally made this salad from overwintered greens including arugula so spicy we just couldn't eat them on their own. Sure enough this salad was the perfect solution.
Directions - Toss all ingredients with a little of your favorite dressing and enjoy. We recommend a simple vinaigrette. Let the flavor of the greens shine above the flavor of your dressing. You won't be disappointed.
Corn Salad aka Mâche is perhaps the easiest thing one could possibly grow. You simply toss some seeds on the ground and without anything else(except perhaps some thinning/eating) you'll likely have a patch for your own to harvest in a couple months time. That's what we did. If you choose to bury your seeds then go for it. We were experimenting with some techniques in natural farming as described by Masanobu Fukuoka himself in his book The One Straw Revolution. Corn Salad is also a nice edible cover crop and it easily survives winter weather. It tastes both buttery and nutty. Nutritionally, it contains 3 times as much vitamin C as lettuce! Also, since it's actually just a wild European weed it'll quickly naturalize in your yard if you allow a few plants to go to seed. Then after that you'll never have to plant it again!! If you aren't able to grow your own food you'll probably have a difficult time finding this formerly foraged green in a US supermarket although I did see it for sale at the Whole Foods in Seattle. You might also be able to find it at your local farmers market although we've never seen it there ourselves. Seeds, however, are readily available and corn salad is an ideal candidate for guerrilla gardening since it requires no maintenance and attracts no special attention. So go out there and bomb the city and the suburbs with it. Future generations will thank you!
- 1 part - Arugula
- 1 part - Spinach
- 1 part - Corn Salad (aka mâche)
- Chopped Carrots
- Chopped Radish
Directions - Toss all ingredients with a little of your favorite dressing and enjoy. We recommend a simple vinaigrette. Let the flavor of the greens shine above the flavor of your dressing. You won't be disappointed.
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| Our extra rugged overwintered Backyard root vegetables. Yum Yum!! |
Corn Salad aka Mâche is perhaps the easiest thing one could possibly grow. You simply toss some seeds on the ground and without anything else(except perhaps some thinning/eating) you'll likely have a patch for your own to harvest in a couple months time. That's what we did. If you choose to bury your seeds then go for it. We were experimenting with some techniques in natural farming as described by Masanobu Fukuoka himself in his book The One Straw Revolution. Corn Salad is also a nice edible cover crop and it easily survives winter weather. It tastes both buttery and nutty. Nutritionally, it contains 3 times as much vitamin C as lettuce! Also, since it's actually just a wild European weed it'll quickly naturalize in your yard if you allow a few plants to go to seed. Then after that you'll never have to plant it again!! If you aren't able to grow your own food you'll probably have a difficult time finding this formerly foraged green in a US supermarket although I did see it for sale at the Whole Foods in Seattle. You might also be able to find it at your local farmers market although we've never seen it there ourselves. Seeds, however, are readily available and corn salad is an ideal candidate for guerrilla gardening since it requires no maintenance and attracts no special attention. So go out there and bomb the city and the suburbs with it. Future generations will thank you!
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| Corn Salad growing in the Backyard. |
09 June 2011
Big Show of Debuts this Weekend at the Josephine!
In Seattle, at the Josephine this Saturday evening June 11th, we have two debuts and an album release to celebrate!!!
Tocama band, HUNTER will be performing their first show in Seattle
Kelli's Starlight Wishes will be debuting a new violinist, the lovely Miss Jessica Gring (Pataphysical Vibrations Issue 1 & 2 writer and member of I believe in Sunshine). They will also be giving away a free download card for their first song release "To Be A Rip Van Winkle" from their yet to be released debut album
Geist & the Sacred Ensemble will be celebrating the digital/CD release of their first album In Search of Fabled Lands.
and finally,
Tied to The Branches will be touring from San Francisco.
THIS is going to be a really AMAZING SHOW we hope to see you there!!
Tocama band, HUNTER will be performing their first show in Seattle
Kelli's Starlight Wishes will be debuting a new violinist, the lovely Miss Jessica Gring (Pataphysical Vibrations Issue 1 & 2 writer and member of I believe in Sunshine). They will also be giving away a free download card for their first song release "To Be A Rip Van Winkle" from their yet to be released debut album
Geist & the Sacred Ensemble will be celebrating the digital/CD release of their first album In Search of Fabled Lands.
and finally,
Tied to The Branches will be touring from San Francisco.
THIS is going to be a really AMAZING SHOW we hope to see you there!!
07 June 2011
Eat Your Way to a Better World...
Food is a sacred item of magic equivalent to medicine. In fact good food is medicine. With it we can prevent disease, reduce the effects of aging, improve our quality of life, restructure unjust economies, help solve our long term health care problems, fight global warming, promote cultural and biological diversity, and so much more.
It's perhaps the easiest and most accessible form of activism anyone could possible perform and unlike political change, changing our diets is relatively simple. (We get just about three votes each day.) By being more mindful of what we eat anyone can help make the world a little better. Sounds empowering doesn't it?
Well here's how...
1. Choose whole foods over processed foods whenever possible. The rule is that the less your food is processed the less energy is wasted in the form of shipping, marketing, and restructuring the original molecules of your food. When your food is processed its nutritional value is being substituted for portability, shelf life, and all the traits which are valuable to the marketing industry. Plus by buying whole foods you're more likely to master your culinary skills which in turn brings you entertainment, a chance to be creative, and is guaranteed to help you win both friends and lovers.
2. Choose foods locally grown and in season when possible. This may be a little trickier and might require some research but the benefits are HUGE. Local/seasonal foods are more likely to be fresher and picked at the peak of ripeness. In other words, they contain more nutrients and flavor than produce grown 2,000 miles away and 2 weeks before you found it at your local market. This also means that when you go to your local farmers market you'll find a much greater selection of produce simply because local farmers aren't limited by the number of crops which are capable of surviving such a long journey through time and space. Which brings me to the next great benefit, they require less fossil fuels for shipment and energy for refrigeration. Finally, by purchasing local foods you are also contributing to the health and maintenance of your local economy and therefore your community. (The same is true with local art.)
Here is a nice seasonal food guide to help you on this quest!
Bonus points - If you want the absolute best foods in the world, grow it in your own backyard. Nothing is more local and less wasteful than homegrown food. You just can't compare the taste of a salad made with lettuce and tomatoes you picked 5 minutes earlier with anything else. Plus it saves you money and has a whole universe of intrinsic benefits of its own.
3. Choose organic over "conventional" foods. I have to admit that the use of language here is a little absurd. There just isn't anything conventional about "conventional" foods. Up until the 1940s, the whole history of human food was grown organically. It wasn't until then that we started turning fossil fuels into pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers for the purpose of converting our farms into industrial food factories. Which brings me to our first benefit, organic foods don't require fossil fuels and toxic chemicals created from them. This benefits the natural balance of the surrounding ecosystem and improves the working conditions of farmers. Organic farming also conserves water and preserves the soil health and nutrients instead of wasting them. By amending the soil with organic matter farmers in turn feed microorganisms, your food (in turn us), and in doing so prevent plant disease and the need for pesticides. Finally, more nutrients in the soil means that there are more nutrients in your food. Organic foods are known to contain 50% more nutrients, vitamins, and minerals than "conventional" foods. Which in the long term saves you money and stress by preventing the need for massive doctor bills in the future.
Next time you're feeling hungry try not to let the price tag or the lure of "convenience" be your only guide in deciding which foods to eat. The super market price does not often reflect the true cost of irresponsibly produced foods which are ultimately paid by taxpayers, including billions of dollars in government subsides, water contamination, loss of bees, soil erosion, and other hidden costs. These 3 basic tips will help you avoid the pitfalls and will help encourage the growth and accessibility of responsibly grown foods.
It's perhaps the easiest and most accessible form of activism anyone could possible perform and unlike political change, changing our diets is relatively simple. (We get just about three votes each day.) By being more mindful of what we eat anyone can help make the world a little better. Sounds empowering doesn't it?
Well here's how...
1. Choose whole foods over processed foods whenever possible. The rule is that the less your food is processed the less energy is wasted in the form of shipping, marketing, and restructuring the original molecules of your food. When your food is processed its nutritional value is being substituted for portability, shelf life, and all the traits which are valuable to the marketing industry. Plus by buying whole foods you're more likely to master your culinary skills which in turn brings you entertainment, a chance to be creative, and is guaranteed to help you win both friends and lovers.
2. Choose foods locally grown and in season when possible. This may be a little trickier and might require some research but the benefits are HUGE. Local/seasonal foods are more likely to be fresher and picked at the peak of ripeness. In other words, they contain more nutrients and flavor than produce grown 2,000 miles away and 2 weeks before you found it at your local market. This also means that when you go to your local farmers market you'll find a much greater selection of produce simply because local farmers aren't limited by the number of crops which are capable of surviving such a long journey through time and space. Which brings me to the next great benefit, they require less fossil fuels for shipment and energy for refrigeration. Finally, by purchasing local foods you are also contributing to the health and maintenance of your local economy and therefore your community. (The same is true with local art.)
Here is a nice seasonal food guide to help you on this quest!
Bonus points - If you want the absolute best foods in the world, grow it in your own backyard. Nothing is more local and less wasteful than homegrown food. You just can't compare the taste of a salad made with lettuce and tomatoes you picked 5 minutes earlier with anything else. Plus it saves you money and has a whole universe of intrinsic benefits of its own.
3. Choose organic over "conventional" foods. I have to admit that the use of language here is a little absurd. There just isn't anything conventional about "conventional" foods. Up until the 1940s, the whole history of human food was grown organically. It wasn't until then that we started turning fossil fuels into pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers for the purpose of converting our farms into industrial food factories. Which brings me to our first benefit, organic foods don't require fossil fuels and toxic chemicals created from them. This benefits the natural balance of the surrounding ecosystem and improves the working conditions of farmers. Organic farming also conserves water and preserves the soil health and nutrients instead of wasting them. By amending the soil with organic matter farmers in turn feed microorganisms, your food (in turn us), and in doing so prevent plant disease and the need for pesticides. Finally, more nutrients in the soil means that there are more nutrients in your food. Organic foods are known to contain 50% more nutrients, vitamins, and minerals than "conventional" foods. Which in the long term saves you money and stress by preventing the need for massive doctor bills in the future.
Next time you're feeling hungry try not to let the price tag or the lure of "convenience" be your only guide in deciding which foods to eat. The super market price does not often reflect the true cost of irresponsibly produced foods which are ultimately paid by taxpayers, including billions of dollars in government subsides, water contamination, loss of bees, soil erosion, and other hidden costs. These 3 basic tips will help you avoid the pitfalls and will help encourage the growth and accessibility of responsibly grown foods.
02 June 2011
Lichen for All Shades
Lichen may seem rather dull to the untrained mind. "What is that mold?" one might ask. Well sort of but not actually. Lichen are more complicated than most things in the living world. They are neither plant, nor animal, nor fungus exactly. Lichen exist within a grey spectrum of existence much like us. They are a composite life-form (a bit like us) which has evolved out of a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and a photosynthetic microorganism--an algae or a bacteria. The fungus providing raw nutrients and the microorganism providing sugars. Lichen exist in some of the most extreme environments in the world from tundra to desert to toxic slag heaps and they come in some of the most fantastic colors one could hope to see. Lichens have been utilized by humans for making dyes, perfumes, and traditional medicines long before we started manufacturing our own (and without all that toxic pollution!). What one might think of as dull is a whole universe of exciting conception to another.
These photos by our friend Gordon J. McNaughton were taken in Eastern Washington on a recent excursion into the depths of outer existence. Much was discovered along with these photographs.
01 June 2011
The Tenfold Path to Guts, Solidarity and the Defeat of the Corporate Elite
We normally produce our own content but we thought we'd make an exception and help support another publisher of the creative commons, truth-out.org.
In this essay, clinical psychologist and author of "Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite" Bruce E. Levine presents a 10 fold path to creating a personal psychology which can enable anyone to overcome immense opposition. In this case, Levine writes to the American populist about the infiltration of corporate idealism in our personal psychologies and daily lives.
Perhaps this essay may be of some use for anyone struggling with the "how?", "why?", and "what to do about" the modern world before it crashes down on us or turns us into techno zombies lacking human free-will problem. Just the sort media content and thinking we wish were represented in "mainstream" culture but that corporate sponsorship would never allow to infiltrate. Well, for the time being, we're still free to read and write whatever we wish. Even if most don't.
The Tenfold Path to Guts, Solidarity and the Defeat of the Corporate Elite
by: Bruce E. Levine, via Truthout
Many Americans know that the United States is not a democracy but a "corporatocracy," in which we are ruled by a partnership of giant corporations, the extremely wealthy elite and corporate-collaborator government officials. However, the truth of such tyranny is not enough to set most of us free to take action. Too many of us have become pacified by corporatocracy-created institutions and culture.
Some activists insist that this political passivity problem is caused by Americans' ignorance due to corporate media propaganda, and others claim that political passivity is caused by the inability to organize due to a lack of money. However, polls show that on the important issues of our day - from senseless wars, to Wall Street bailouts, to corporate tax-dodging, to health insurance rip-offs - the majority of Americans are not ignorant to the reality that they are being screwed. And American history is replete with organizational examples - from the Underground Railroad, to the Great Populist Revolt, to the Flint sit-down strike, to large wildcat strikes a generation ago - of successful rebels who had little money but lots of guts and solidarity.
The elite spend their lives stockpiling money and have the financial clout to bribe, divide and conquer the rest of us. The only way to overcome the power of money is with the power of courage and solidarity. When we regain our guts and solidarity, we can then more wisely select from - and implement - time-honored strategies and tactics that oppressed peoples have long used to defeat the elite. So, how do we regain our guts and solidarity?
In this essay, clinical psychologist and author of "Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite" Bruce E. Levine presents a 10 fold path to creating a personal psychology which can enable anyone to overcome immense opposition. In this case, Levine writes to the American populist about the infiltration of corporate idealism in our personal psychologies and daily lives.
Perhaps this essay may be of some use for anyone struggling with the "how?", "why?", and "what to do about" the modern world before it crashes down on us or turns us into techno zombies lacking human free-will problem. Just the sort media content and thinking we wish were represented in "mainstream" culture but that corporate sponsorship would never allow to infiltrate. Well, for the time being, we're still free to read and write whatever we wish. Even if most don't.
The Tenfold Path to Guts, Solidarity and the Defeat of the Corporate Elite
by: Bruce E. Levine, via Truthout
Many Americans know that the United States is not a democracy but a "corporatocracy," in which we are ruled by a partnership of giant corporations, the extremely wealthy elite and corporate-collaborator government officials. However, the truth of such tyranny is not enough to set most of us free to take action. Too many of us have become pacified by corporatocracy-created institutions and culture.
Some activists insist that this political passivity problem is caused by Americans' ignorance due to corporate media propaganda, and others claim that political passivity is caused by the inability to organize due to a lack of money. However, polls show that on the important issues of our day - from senseless wars, to Wall Street bailouts, to corporate tax-dodging, to health insurance rip-offs - the majority of Americans are not ignorant to the reality that they are being screwed. And American history is replete with organizational examples - from the Underground Railroad, to the Great Populist Revolt, to the Flint sit-down strike, to large wildcat strikes a generation ago - of successful rebels who had little money but lots of guts and solidarity.
The elite spend their lives stockpiling money and have the financial clout to bribe, divide and conquer the rest of us. The only way to overcome the power of money is with the power of courage and solidarity. When we regain our guts and solidarity, we can then more wisely select from - and implement - time-honored strategies and tactics that oppressed peoples have long used to defeat the elite. So, how do we regain our guts and solidarity?
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