Chances are you have already heard something
about who anarchists are and what we are supposed
to believe. Chances are almost everything
you have heard is nonsense. Many people seem to
think that we anarchists believe in violence, chaos,
and destruction, that we are against all forms of
order and organisation, that we are crazed nihilists
who just want to blow everything up. In reality, nothing
could be further from the truth. We are simply
people who believe human beings are capable of
behaving in a reasonable way without having to be
forced to. It is really a very simple idea. But it’s one
that the rich and powerful have always found
extremely dangerous.
At their very simplest, anarchist beliefs turn on
to two basic ideas. The first is that human beings
are, under ordinary circumstances, about as reasonable
and decent as they are allowed to be, and
can organise themselves and their communities
without needing to be told how. The second is that
power corrupts. Most of all, anarchism is just a matter
of having the courage to take the simple principles
of common decency that most of us live by, and
to follow them through to their logical conclusions.
Odd though this may seem, in many important
ways, you are probably already an anarchist -you
just don’t realise it. Let’s start by taking a few examples
from everyday life:
* If there’s a line to get on a crowded bus, do you
wait your turn and not elbow your way past others
even if there aren’t any police around?
If you answered “yes”, then you are used to acting
like an anarchist! The most basic anarchist
principle is self-organisation: the assumption that
human beings do not need to be threatened with
arrest in order to be able to come to reasonable
understandings with each other, or to treat each
other with dignity and respect.
Everyone believes they are capable of behaving
reasonably themselves. If they think laws and
police are necessary, it is only because they don’t
believe that other people are. But if you think about
it, don’t those people all feel exactly the same way
about you? Anarchists argue that almost all the
anti-social behavior which makes us think it’s necessary
to have armies, police, prisons, and governments
to control our lives, is actually caused by the
systematic inequalities and injustice those armies,
police, prisons and governments make possible.
It’s all a vicious circle.
If people are used to being
treated like their opinions do not matter, they are
likely to become angry and cynical, even violent -
which of course makes it easy for those in power to
say that their opinions do not matter. Once they
understand that their opinions really do matter just
as much as anyone else’s, they tend to become
remarkably understanding. To cut a long story
short: anarchists believe that for the most part it is
power itself, and the effects of power, that make
people stupid and irresponsible.
* Are you a member of a club or sports team or any
other voluntary organisation where decisions are
not imposed by one leader but made on the basis of
general consent?
If you answered “yes”, then you belong to an
organisation which works on anarchist principles!
Another basic anarchist principle is voluntary association.
This is simply a matter of applying democratic
principles to ordinary life. The only difference
is that anarchists believe it is possible to have a
society in which everything is organised along these
lines, all groups based on the free consent of their
members, and therefore, that all top-down, military
styles of organisation like armies or bureaucracies
or large corporations, based on chains of command,
would no longer be necessary. Perhaps you
don’t believe that would be possible. Perhaps you
do.
But every time you reach an agreement by consensus,
rather than threats, every time you make a
voluntary arrangement with another person, come
to an understanding, or reach a compromise by taking
due consideration of other’s particular situation
or needs, you are being an anarchist - even if you
don’t realise it.
Anarchism is just the way people act when they
are free to do as they choose, and when they deal
with others who are equally free - and, therefore
aware of the responsibility to others this entails.
This leads to another crucial point: that while people
can be reasonable and considerate when they are
dealing with equals, human nature is such that they
cannot be trusted to do so when given power over
others. Give someone such power, they will almost
always abuse it in some way or another.
* Do you believe that most politicians are selfish,
egotistical swine who don’t really care about the
public interest? Do you think we live in an economic
system that is stupid and unfair?
If you answered “yes”, then you subscribe to the
anarchist critique of today’s society - at least, in its
broadest outlines. We Anarchists believe that
power corrupts and those who spend their entire
lives seeking power are the very last people who
should have it. We believe that our present economic
system is more likely to reward people for
selfish and dishonest behavior than for being
decent, caring human beings. Most people feel that
way.
The only difference is that most people don’t
think there’s anything that can be done about it, or
at least - and this is what the faithful servants of the
powerful are always most likely to insist on - anything
that won’t end up making things even worse.
But what if that weren’t true?
Is there really any reason to believe this? When
you can actually test them, most of the usual predictions
about what would happen without states or
capitalism turn out to be entirely untrue. For thousands
of years people lived without governments.
In many parts of the world people live outside of the
control of governments today. They do not all kill
each other.
Mostly they just get on with their lives
the same as anyone else would. Of course, in a
complex, urban, technological society all this would
be more complicated: but technology can also
make all these problems a lot easier to solve. In
fact, we have not even begun to think about what
our lives could be like if technology were really used
to benefit us all. How many hours would we really
need to work in order to maintain a functional society
- that is, if we got rid of all the useless or
destructive occupations like telemarketers, lawyers,
prison guards, financial analysts, public relations
experts, bureaucrats and politicians, and turn our
best scientific minds away from working on space
weaponry or stock market systems to mechanising
away dangerous or annoying tasks like coal mining
or cleaning the bathroom, and distribute the remaining
work among everyone equally? Five hours a
day? Four? Three? Two? Nobody knows because
no one is even asking this kind of question.
Anarchists think these are the very questions we
should be asking.
* Do you really believe those things you tell your
children (or that your parents told you)?
“It doesn’t matter who started it.” “Two wrongs
don’t make a right.” “Clean up your own mess.”
“Do unto others…” “Don’t be mean to people just
because they’re different.” Perhaps we should
decide whether we’re lying to our children when we
tell them about right and wrong, or whether we’re
willing to take our own injunctions seriously,
because if you take these moral principles to their
logical conclusions, you arrive at anarchism.
Take the principle that two wrongs don’t make a
knock away almost the entire basis for war and the
criminal justice system. The same goes for sharing:
we’re always telling children that they have to learn
to share, to be considerate of each other’s needs, to
help each other; then we go off into the real world
where we assume that everyone is naturally selfish
and competitive. But an anarchist would point out:
in fact, what we say to our children is right. Pretty
much every great worthwhile achievement in
human history, every discovery or accomplishment
that’s improved our lives, has been based on cooperation
and mutual aid; even now, most of us
spend more of our money on our friends and families
than on ourselves; while likely as not there will
always be competitive people in the world, there’s
no reason why society has to be based on encouraging
such behavior, let alone making people compete
over the basic necessities of life. That only
serves the interests of people in power, who want
us to live in fear of one another. That’s why anarchists
call for a society based not only on free association
but mutual aid. The fact is that most children
grow up believing in anarchist morality, and then
gradually have to realise that the adult world doesn’t
really work that way.
That’s why so many
become rebellious, or alienated, even suicidal as
adolescents, and finally, resigned and bitter as
adults; their only solace, often, being the ability to
raise children of their own and pretend to them that
the world is fair. But what if we really could start to
build a world that was at least founded on principles
of justice? Wouldn’t that be the greatest gift to our
children we could possibly give them?
* Do you believe that human beings are fundamentally
corrupt and evil, or that certain sorts of people
(women, people with different skin colour, ordinary
people who are not rich or highly educated) are inferior
specimens, destined to be ruled by their betters?
If you answered “yes”, then, well, it looks like
you aren’t an anarchist after all. But if you
answered “no’, then chances are you already subscribe
to 90% of anarchist principles, and, likely as
not, are living your life largely in accord with them.
Every time you treat another human with consideration
and respect, you are being an anarchist.
Every time you work out your differences with others
by coming to reasonable compromise, listening
to what everyone has to say rather than letting one
person decide for everyone else, you are being an
anarchist. Every time you have the opportunity to
force someone to do something, but decide to
appeal to their sense of reason or justice instead,
you are being an anarchist. The same goes for
every time you share something with a friend, or
decide who is going to do the dishes, or do anything
at all with an eye to fairness.
Now, you might object that all this is well and
good as a way for small groups of people to get on
with each other, but managing a city, or a country, is
an entirely different matter. And of course there is
something to this. Even if you decentralise society
and put as much power as possible in the hands of
small communities, there will still be plenty of things
that need to be co-ordinated, from running railroads
to deciding on directions for medical research. But
just because something is complicated does not
mean there is no way to do it democratically.
It would just be complicated. In fact, anarchists have
all sorts of different ideas and visions about how a
complex society might manage itself. To explain
them though would go far beyond the scope of a little
introductory text like this. All we can say is that
a lot of people have spent a lot of time coming up
with models for how a really democratic, healthy
society might work; but second, and just as importantly,
no anarchist claims to have a perfect blueprint.
The last thing we want is to impose prefab
models on society anyway. The truth is we probably
can’t even imagine half the problems that will
come up when we try to create a democratic society;
still, we’re confident that, human ingenuity being
what it is, such problems can always be solved, so
long as it is in the spirit of our basic principles -
which are, in the final analysis, simply the principles
of fundamental human decency.
In the 1929 Financial Crash it was said that some Wall Street
Stockbrokers and Bankers JUMPED from their office windows and
committed suicide when confronted with the news of their firms and
clients financial ruin . . .
Many people were said to almost feel a little sorry for them . . . .
I found a book on the street the other day that has effected me deeply. It is called Healing Back Pain, by Dr. Sarno.
He says that he has spent decades healing people in pain by showing them that the pain is brought on by psychological stress.
Sholder pain, back pain, arthritis, asthma, knee pain, etc. The list of human ailments go on and on. He simply says that our mind stores our emotional trauma in our body.
Remember when your mother would stress you out, well it all went to your left shoulder. Over the years you simply got into the habit of putting your stress in your left shoulder. Blood circulation, movement, it all got constricted. Doctors diagnosed it and operated on it.
But the pain came back.
Then one day somebody points out that your emotional stress is being stored there. The next time you get emotionally stressed you keep your shoulder relaxed and stay aware of the habit you have. Your shoulder does not get tense. It does not hurt any more.
Very simple. Very powerful. I have had back pain since I was 14. I attributed it to my first job which was as a back breaking gardener. But after reading the book my back has never felt better.
And more important, I am not tormented by the pain. I am not afraid of injuring my back any more because with the perspective my back is fine, it is not injured or delicate. I’ve just stopped putting all my emotional stress there.
I can’t remember the last time young people felt inspired by the president. Maybe when Jimmy Carter was running?
Like one pundit said, though, alls Obama you had to do was show up; Bushit and Co. have fucked things up so bad pretty much any Democrat would have won.
But that aside, Obama is the right combination of style, race and timing to really bring the young people into the mix. I for one actually have hope [sic] that he is moving in the right direction.
I have no illusions. He is a janitor in a MASSIVE shit clogged toilet. Having hope is one thing but actually accomplishing something when there are so many rich, powerful and self serving people entrenched in the system is another thing.
But I have hope [sic]. It beats hating Bushit and Co. I’m sick of that.
I cook a lot, at least twice a day every day. Sometimes it is for my girlfriend and daughter, and sometimes it is just for me. The thing about food is that it is an experience, sometimes one I want to share and other times one that I want to have alone.
Well today I cooked for myself but I wish I had somebody to share it with. It was one of the most amazing meals I’ve had, let alone cooked myself.
I’m a good cook and I’ve been told I need to share my recipes. I even set up a web site for them but it got boring. The thing with my cooking is I don’t own any cook books and I’m not interested in reading other people’s recipes.
Cooking is one of the most creative things I do. For me it is about reaching inward to my own spirit instead of following somebody else’s.
I never cook the same dish twice because it is such an unfolding in the moment. In fact I forget the recipe after I cook it. And cooking the same thing twice is like wanting to paint the same canvas twice. Why?!
So today I cooked this meal that blew me away. It was so incredible that I have to share it. In the house with me was my four month old son who only eats breast milk and my five year old daughter who has progressed slightly from breast milk to only eating macaroni and cheese.
So I experienced the meal in my own world.
Here it is.
Like most meals it was based around one ingredient. The other day I saw a jar of whole roasted chestnuts by a company called Minerve and I love chestnuts. But I had never cooked with them. So I wanted a dish with the chestnuts I had bought.
Being fall I figured they would go well with either pumpkin or carrot soup. I had some cashew carrot ginger soup from Pacific Natural Foods. I could have used pumpkin, squash, or anything like they have. I would have made my own but I had half a soup left over from them in the fridge.
I had two medium leeks from the farmer’s market that needed to be eaten. I also picked some pumpkin seeds since everything so far was mushy and I wanted something crunchy too balance it.
The steps were:
- I washed the leeks extra well to get out the dirt, sliced them thinly using lots of the green stem.
- I put them in a pan with a table spoon of coconut oil and a table spoon of sesame oil. Any oil would do but I wanted an Asian feel since the soup had ginger.
- I put salt and a very healthy pinch of turmeric. I worship turmeric. It is in my opinion one of the top ten condiments of history.
- I added a healthy handful of chestnuts, about 5 ounces. I cooked it all on on medium for about ten minutes to just before getting brown but so the leeks were softish. Never did I let the oil get hot enough to smoke. Never never let oil get that hot.
- I added the half of soup, about half a quart. Covered the pan and heated the dish to just before boiling, about five minutes.
- Meanwhile in another pan I put a tablespoon of coconut oil and a fist full of raw pumpkin seeds. I cut some salt over them and let them cook on medium heat stirring often. I browned them slightly but didn’t let them pop. About five minutes.
I put the soup in a bowl and mixed the pumpkin seeds in. It makes about two or three servings but I ate it all. I was SOOOO amazing.
I finished the meal off with some Yerba Mate tea and an organic oatmeal and chocolate cookie.
Ingredients:
2 medium leeks
1/2 quart of carrot soup
handful of whole roasted chestnuts
fistful of pumpkin seeds
coconut oil
sesame oil
turmeric
So simple and quick but so amazingly good. I thought of taking a photo of it but had eaten it already
I’ve read on several sites now that a lot of Chinese products imported to the US contain a potentially fatal toxin called Melamine.
The products all contain milk powder: instant coffee, chocolates, baby formula, pastries…
Melamine is toxic and causes damage to the kidneys. Children are more susceptible.
Apparently all countries have pulled these products from the store shelves and the US is the only one who hasn’t done so yet. [INSERT YOUR OWN CONSPIRACY THEORY HERE].
Check the ingredients for any mild derivative and check to see if it was made in China. If yes then throw it away.
Below is some info on how Electro Magnetic fields from computers and cell phones effect people, especially children. A lot needs to be done in this area to put more pressure on corporations to control their use of EMF or at the very least do more studies to learn more about them.
By Paul J. Rosch, MD:
Children are more severely affected by EMF because their brains are
developing and their skulls are thinner. A two-minute call can alter
brain function in a child for an hour, which is why other countries
ban their sale or discourage their use under the age of 18.
It is not generally appreciated that there is a cumulative effect and
that talking on a cell phone for just an hour a day for ten years can
add up to 10,000 watts of radiation. That’s ten times more than from
putting your head in a microwave oven. Pregnant women may also be at
increased risk based on a study showing that children born to mothers
who used a cell phone just two or three times a day during pregnancy
showed a dramatic increase in hyperactivity and other behavioral and
emotional problems.
And for the 30% of children who had also used a
cell phone by age 7, the incidence of behavioral problems was 80%
higher! Whether ontogeny (embryonic development) recapitulates
phylogeny is debatable, but it is clear that lower forms of life are
also much more sensitive. If you put the positive electrode of a 1.5
volt battery in the Pacific Ocean at San Francisco and the negative
one off San Diego, sharks in the in between these cities can detect
the few billionths of a volt electrical field.
EMF fields have also been implicated in the recent massive but
mysterious disappearance of
honeybee colonies essential for pollinating over 90 commercial crops.
As Albert Einstein warned, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of
the globe, then man would only have four years of life left.”
Finally, all life on earth evolved under the influence of solar
radiation and geomagnetic forces that we have learned to adapt to and
in some instances even utilize. The health of all living systems
(ranging upward from a cell, tissue, organ or person, to a family,
organization or nation) depends on good communication – good
communication within, as well as with the external environment.
All communication in the body eventually takes place via very subtle
electromagnetic signaling between cells that is now being disrupted by
artificial electropollution we have not had time to adapt to. As Alvin
Toffler emphasized in Future Shock, too much change in too short a
time produces severe stress due to adaptational failure. The adverse
effects of electrosmog may take decades to be appreciated, although
some, like carcinogenicity, are already starting to surface.
This gigantic experiment on our children and grandchildren could result in
massive damage to mind and body with the potential to produce a
disaster of unprecedented proportions, unless proper precautions are
immediately implemented. At the same time, we must acknowledge that
novel electromagnetic therapies have been shown to benefit stress
related disorders ranging from anxiety, depression and insomnia, to
arthritis, migraine and tension headaches.
As demonstrated in Bioelectromagnetic Medicine, they may also be much safer and more
effective than drugs, so we need to avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”
From Paul J. Rosch, MD
Clinical Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry, New York Medical
College; Honorary Vice President International Stress Management
Association; Diplomate, National Board of Medical Examiners; Full
Member, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences; Fellow, The Royal Society
of Medicine; Emeritus Member, The Bioelectromagnetics Society
Here is a great example of creative problem solving! Play Pumps International have invented a water pump that pulls water from the ground (thus avoiding contamination) by using a pump that is powered by a children’s merry go round.
ENTRY: angh-
DEFINITION: Tight, painfully constricted, painful. Oldest form *anh-, becoming *angh- in centum languages.
Derivatives include anger, hangnail, and quinsy.
1. agnail, hangnail, from Old English ang-nægl, “painful spike (in the flesh),” corn, excrescence (nægl, spike; see nogh-), from Germanic *ang-, compressed, hard, painful. 2. Suffixed form *angh-os-. anger, from Old Norse angr, sorrow, grief, from Germanic *angaz. 3. Suffixed form *angh-os-ti-. angst1, from Old High German angust, anxiety, from Germanic *angusti-. 4. anxious, from Latin angere, to strangle, torment. 5. Suffixed form *angh-os-to-. anguish, from Latin angustus, narrow. 6. quinsy, from Greek ankhein, to squeeze, embrace. 7. angina, from Greek ankhon, a strangling. (Pokorny anh- 42.)
Why do I find this interesting?
Anger is the result of being strangled, or the other way around. It doesn’t matter. I take that very literally. Our body is lacking air.
WE MUST BREATHE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lack of breathing is the root of anger. Feeling angry? It is a sign you are not breathing.
Here is some text that is very interesting from a site about medical derivatives of words. Bottom line, not breathing and thus not providing enough air to the blood, causes heart attacks. It may take a while but sooner or later that is what happens. Along the way you spend a lot of time angry. Here is the text:
angina Latin, a choking pain + pectoris Latin, of the chest
Angina pectoris is excruciating pain starting in the left chest and shooting down the left arm and sometimes into the neck, caused by low oxygen supply to the muscles of the heart. Two small branches of the aorta called the coronary arteries supply oxygenated blood to heart muscles.
The Root *ankh
Other English words and foreign terms contain the same basic root as the word angina, namely the ancient Indo-European root *ankh ‘narrow, constricted.’
Anger was originally felt to be a narrow, tight, choking rage.
Anguish is constrictive distress of slighter force than anger.
To angle is to fish with a hook. An angler is such a fisherman. Both words have the Old English or Anglo-Saxon root angul meaning a fish hook or a thing bent and narrowed.
Anglo-Saxon recalls the Angles, Germanic invaders of Britain from a narrow angle of land between peninsular Denmark and the European mainland. Angle-land evolved into the modern English word England. And Ænglisc, originally a term for the Angles’ dialect, became the word English.
Angostura bitters is a digestive tonic made from the bark of a Venezuelan tree. Both tree and tonic are named after the Venezuelan town of Angostura, which in Spanish means ‘the narrows of a river.’
Ankle, where the leg is slender or narrow, and the joint where the foot hooks to the leg, where the foot forms an angle with the leg, comes from Old English ancleow which has the same *ankh root.
