Bicycle Wins.

 

        Away from the hypocrisy, lies, deceit, farce, illusions and downright insanity  of the party political scene, This from Not Buying Anything, is obviously created by a man after my own heart. Like the writer, I learnt to drive before the legal age, I could drive before I left school, thanks to my ol' man.

        I read once that a bicycle is the most efficient form of transportation in the known universe. I am sure it is not far from the truth. I have always thought that bicycles were magic machines.
Riding a bicycle can be up to 5 times more efficient than walking, and can produce the equivalent of about 950 miles per gallon. Number crunchers carefully calculate such things with wonderful equations such as:

P = gmVg(K1+s) + K2VaVg
and
E = 1/2mv2 + 1/4mv2 = 3/4mv2

Oooo, it's science. Here is some more:

One hundred calories can power a cyclist for three miles,
but would only power a car 280 feet (85 meters)

         I have always been impressed with sensible cycling peoples in India, China, and many European countries. As a kid I saw photographs of large Indian and Chinese cities teeming with bicycles, while private vehicles were as rare as persistent killing smog events.
In recent years China has been making the shift from being a 'bicycle kingdom' to one dominated by cars. How sad it is to see former cycling nations make the shift from a sustainable source of transportation to one completely unsustainable.

  Member of Environment's Angels bicycle gang

        I started out on unsustainable transportation quite early. I bought my first car before I was old enough to drive it legally. The day I got my driver's licence I ceased to walk or cycle if I could drive instead.
That was a big mistake because I came to miss the freedom, enjoyment, and simplicity of walking and biking. But I was destined to return to my beloved cycling eventually.
Part of the problem has been that the auto industry has us sucked right in to the whole car mystique. We feel like we can't live without them, that we are somehow incomplete without hauling our two tons of glass, metal, and rubber around with us everywhere we go.
However, increasingly aware recent generations are not as enthusiastic about car ownership, and the sales of cars is projected to fall in some markets in the future.

        I am also increasingly unenthusiastic about driving. While we still own a vehicle, we only drive it about 3000 km a year, well below the average of 20,000 km.
I find driving less enjoyable than I used to, and instead of being a 'freedom machine' it is beginning to feel more like an anchor.

 Bicycle cargo carrier from Denmark hauls up to 100kg of freight

        For shorter trips (below about 20 kms return), I usually ride my bicycle. It keeps me fit, saves money, and is more sustainable. And it is fun.
        Based on the principles of energy efficiency and sustainability, there is no contest. No car can deliver 950 miles per gallon. Nor will you burn much fat while driving.
The bicycle wins.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Food For Thought!!

      Most rational people agree that we humans have had a tremendous impact on our home, the planet on which we live. Most would also agree, that impact has done tremendous damage, and the damage is on going. At what point is the damage non-repairable? 

From Not Buying Anything:

      What if scientists are right and the planet's systems really are under threat of collapse, or are already in a state of collapse? What if humans were the major cause of that?

      Based on an evaluation of more than 1,000 previous studies, a new meta-review by an international group of 18 scientists suggests the Earth is perilously close to a tipping point where resource consumption, ecosystem degradation, climate change, biodiversity loss and population growth will trigger massive changes in the biosphere. 

- From: Scientists Tip 2025 for Possible Planetary Collapse

How would one live if this were true?

     Would we continue with the economic system that is the root cause of all this damage, and continue to devour ourselves into extinction, or would we start to dismantle this system and structure our communities and society in a sustainable fashion, creating a system of co-operation rather than competition, seeing to our needs, and not the self-centred desires of the greedy? At what point will we make that decision? Now, or when it is already too late?

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Time For That Grand Plan.

       Today, because of the economic system that dominates our planet, we seem to stumble from one disaster to another, from one crisis to the next. Our lords and masters' only concern is maintaining their power, their corporate buddies only concern is the next end of year balance sheet, all else is pushed aside. The planet and all its life forms, including us, are sacrificed to these ends. With this sort of prevailing thought, where does that leave our kids and grand kids? Are we prepared to allow this to continue, knowing that we are on a road to total destruction, that could be avoided, how long will we sit and watch vandals destroy our home?

Our long term plan is like our short term plan, only longer.

As usual some food for thought from Not Buying Anything:

         Humanity should think about developing a plan longer than the next election cycle. We don't need 5 year plans, we need 5,000 year plans. Preferably two of them.
          A solid 10,000 year plan would go a long way toward figuring out where we want to go with this petri dish known as Earth. I love the idea of thinking ahead 7 generations, but how about extending that to 500? Supposedly we are the smartest creatures on Earth (and the known Universe according to some), so we should be able to get our big brains together and do this thing.
        In order to reduce the chance of repeating the thousands of years of blind bumbling that we have been experiencing so far, we should come up with an overall plan for humans (and everything else) on our shared petri-planet home. Surely, considering the importance of my proposal, we can get some consensus towards a set of common goals and outcomes.
       Like survival at first, looking at our increasingly grim short term prospects.
       Then we can proceed from there and start planning for things like ridding the environment of human-created radiation produced during our misguided experiment with nuclear energy. That alone is a project that will take thousands of years. We should have one of those already, shouldn't we?
       Next in The Big Plan we can look out over the next few hundred years. Where do we see ourselves as a species? What do we want to achieve in this time? I for one would like to see something more substantial than the planet's first trillionare.
       A lot can happen in one year, let alone a hundred or a thousand. We should have a plan to help direct where we are going. Many of us can imagine a better world, and if we can imagine it, we can achieve it. We can put it in the plan.
      As an ex-teacher I know the importance and the challenges of planning. It will take a different way of thinking to extend our imaginations past the next election, or our own brief existence. But we do care about our kids, don't we? And their kids? And theirs? And so on all the way up the line?
      We have already had many thousands of years to get this thing right, and it feels like we aren't quite there yet. Let's get The Big Plan started.
     How do you see humanity developing over 10,000 years? The glorious possibilities are endless.

      Of course if we are to embark on that 10,000 year plan, the first step must be to completely get rid of capitalism, in all its destructive and ugly forms.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

I Wish------?

 

       If we could change our life, what would we do, what important things have we missed, on what pointless things have we spent too much time? In the final analysis, what is really important?
     I lifted this straight from, "Nut Buying Anything", perhaps it will help you answer those questions.

       No one on their death bed wishes that they had spent more time shopping on the internet, or anywhere else (except maybe the garden center). No one wishes they spent more time at work, so they could get more money, so they could spend more time shopping. When we stop to think about our brief time above ground here on this beautiful planet, shopping for entertainment loses its appeal.

       At any stage of life there is precious little time for us to engage in the activities that truly matter to us. Such activities would be those that lead to us becoming better humans, and those pursuits which help to make the world a better place.

      I like to consider as much as I can when deciding whether I need to shop for something right now, at a later date, or at all. Will buying that thing, or doing that thing, make me a better person? Will it make the world a better place?
     If not, why bother? Why waste the time, effort and money when there are so many more important things to be done? As King Canute said to his courtiers, "Time and tide wait for no one." Today he might say, "Let all people know how empty and worthless is the power of consumerism, for there is none worthy of the name, but Nature."
     While no one about to die wishes they had bought more stuff to cram into that already stuffed garage, here are a few things that they do tend to think about as their life comes to an end.
On their deathbed people tend to:

1. Wish they spent more time with family and friends.
   
2. Wish they spent less time working.
   
3. Wish they never started a bucket list.
   
4. Wish they spoke more honestly about how they felt.
   
5. Wish they chose to be happier and laughed more.
   
6. Wish they never sold their soul, and entire lives, to the system.
   

The clock is ticking. How will we choose to spend what time remains to us?

Freedom!! What Freedom?

        The usual common sense words from Not Buying Anything:
 

        Our much touted freedom in so-called democratic countries is an illusion. It is an over hyped lie. Except for one area - we are free to do as much consuming as our bank accounts will allow.

       Where else is the freedom?
      Are we free to protest without harassment? Free to travel a world without restrictive borders? Free to live anywhere we want? Free to quit work and live off the land?
       Are we free to put into our bodies what we want, or keep out of our bodies those things we don't want? Free to marry whom we wish? Free to use the bathroom we feel most appropriate for our gender situation? Free to read about the truth in the mainstream media?
       Instead of gaining any freedoms, we are increasingly being stripped of any vestiges of liberty that we have left. In some parts of the world you are not free to harvest rain water, or grow a garden where you neighbours can see it, or without being taxed for the privilege of putting a bit of distance between you and the system.
        Our system is broke. Unless you are rich, in which case you are more free than those less monetarily blessed. In today's world money is the way to freedom, not the ballet box. And if you don't have money you don't deserve to be free because you just aren't trying hard enough.
Now whole countries are being forced to accept the freedom to be plundered, privatized and pirated. How are you enjoying all that Western capitalist consumeristic freedom Iraq? Libya? Syria? Honduras? Brazil? Argentina? Egypt? Are you feeling it yet, all that juicy freedom? When we stop the violence, you can go shopping.
        Robin Mathews, author of “The Trans Pacific Partnership: Canada and Imperial Globalization”, describes our current situation: 

"A characteristic of Imperial Globalization is criminal manipulation of people and events for the profit of a few. It includes massive ‘disinformation’ about equality, benefits, social development, law, improved standards of living, etc.

The disinformation is spread by ‘authoritative’ news sources. In the hands of gigantic, wealthy, private corporations, globalization is a process which works to erase sovereign democracies and replaces them with ‘treatied’ sub-states, economic colonies ruled by faceless, offshore, often secret, unaccountable powers."

       You see, it is all about enriching the few as a result of the consumption of the many. Have money? Want stuff? This new world was made for you. Your dollars will buy you the freedom to consume, plus a bit more, depending on how much cash you have. More cash - more freedom.
        I don't know about you, but that is not a system I am interested in joining or supporting, and I will do everything I can to ensure that I am doing nothing to contribute toward this dismal distortion of our infinitely good and abundant planet.
       Freedom can not really be bought. Or given. Or forced. It just is, and we have to actively live it for ourselves. After all, consumption is not legally mandatory. Yet. We still have a choice.
        I am free to consume, but, well, no thanks. Consuming is enslaving us all. Therefore, I see unconsuming as the answer. As always, simplicity yields true freedom, and if more of us adopted such a lifestyle, we could negate the power of the criminal manipulators, and turn this thing around.
I'm not buying anything. Not their stuff, or their bullshit, for I am free to unconsume.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

What If------!!

          Some thoughtful words from Not Buying Anything:

       What is the ethos of our time? Most people would agree that it is the American Dream, or globally speaking, the Consumer Dream.
An ethos is defined as "the characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspirations." So ours is something like - work hard and you will be able to buy everything you have ever wanted. As nice as this lie sounds, it has had some unintended consequences.
         There are currently several individuals in the world that are in the running for designation "First Trillionaire". They truly exemplify the ethos of our day, which could also be read as "The Ethos of More".
But only for me. Not for you. My gain is at your expense because there is a scarcity of everything. There is not enough so we have to compete with each other, and winner takes all. This is a distortion of the facts when we live in an infinitely abundant universe. “If you perceive the universe as being a universe of abundance, then it will be. If you think of the universe as one of scarcity, then it will be… 

         I always thought that there was enough to go around - that there are enough ideas in the universe and enough nourishment. It’s very hard to move beyond the idea that there is not enough to go around, to move beyond that sense of ‘I better get mine before anybody else takes it away from me’.” 

- Milton Glaser

       Our current ethos, The Consumer Dream, has become The Planetary Nightmare.We need a new characteristic spirit to guide us, one diametrically opposed to the one we have today.
        In an abundant world there is plenty to address everyone's need, but there will never be enough to fulfil the greed of even a few. Needs are finite, while greed is unlimited.
        What if we are not as greedy as the economists tell us we are? Maybe we don't have infinite wants, or wouldn't if it weren't for being immersed in profit propaganda and advertising our whole lives. Maybe, with a new world view, people would give simplicity a try, and discover that a simple life of limited wants is a sustainable, happy existence. It is enough.
Imagine if, in an Ethos of Abundance, we all thought that there was more than enough to satisfy the needs of every human on the planet. In such a world view we could freely share the gifts of Earth with everyone taken care of in the healthiest way possible.
        In such a world we would spend our time taking care of ourselves and those around us in a spirit of cooperation and sharing. Most people would agree that this would be preferable to competition and perpetual war.
         It is an idea whose time has come. Goodbye American Dream, hello Enough For Everyone. Gift what you can - receive what you need.

"What if...

Everyone started sharing, just a little bit
With everyone else,
something that they liked to do
and didn’t charge for it?

I like making art and growing plants.
In current society, I have to sell
“things” or my “time” to live.

But if I gave some of my art
And some of my plants away,
And other people gave away some of what they do
Before long our society
Would have a different shape.

I believe we would soon have
More time for 'giving'
than for 'selling'."

- Candace Ross

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Biggest Ponzi scheme In The World, Capitalism.

      Yes it is a con game, a ponzi scheme, a pyramid scheme, disguised as democracy, you are free to buy what you want, after you have produced it all, assuming you have the where with all. And Yes, why don't they get it?
These words from Not Buying Anything:

 

        Everything is a pyramid scheme these days. Operations that funnel all the wealth to the top, while those at the bottom that are doing all the heavy lifting watch as their quality of life goes down, down, down. I refuse to participate, and always have.
        Being this way has created a lot of stress, mostly for other people who don't understand where I am coming from. I understand that when you are soaking in it, deconstructing the intricacies can be difficult. As my good friend Doug once said, "Why can't they see it?"
        Indeed, why can't they? Viable alternatives, such as cooperatives, are well known, but largely unused. No one wants to miss out on possibly getting to the top of the scheme, any scheme. Why risk going for a more equal world when you might become one of those that is more equal than everyone else?
        But how many actually make it to the top? And once there, how do deal with the loss of your compassion? Your integrity? Your very humanity?
        As always, be careful of what you wish for. It's a pyramid scheme. It's not, you say? Then it's probably a closely related scam known as the ponzi scheme. Because that's how we roll here at the end of capitalism.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

I Am Alive.

 From Not Buying Anything:

       I am alive, and it feels great. When Linda and I chose to live simply it was so we could feel more alive more often. It has paid off. We have no regrets.

Here are a few things that make me feel alive.

• being in nature
• riding my bike
• spending time with Linda, my best friend and companion
• writing
• meditating
• reading a good book
• cooking and eating a good vegetarian meal
• exercising
• listening to birds and frogs and bees and wind and rain and thunder
• making music, singing, listening to tunes
• contemplating death
• spending time with family and friends
  

What makes you feel alive?

        I read this posting from “Not Buying Anything”, I agree with practically everything he says. It could make for a very stress free life. However, I can't turn my back on the millions of refugees across the globe, fleeing death from wars and famine, the millions of individuals being ruthlessly exploited by the greed of the capitalist system, the dire poverty and deprivation heaped on millions because of the exploitative corporate world, the millions of innocent people, young and old, maimed and killed by imperialists wars. Nor can I ignore the gross inequality that blights all the countries on the planet, the stunted lives and destroyed potential of millions, as the system drives for ever greater profit.
       Sadly, I don't really know what to do about all these brutal injustices, except to raise my voice and stand with those who also see these things, and wish to try to eliminate them by bring down the system that is at the root of all these problems, capitalism. Believing that I, in some small way am contributing to the demise of this greed driven system and helping to shape that better world where we see to the needs of all our people, 

that is what makes me feel alive.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

You Will Be Cared For.

      Imagine being born into a society where the first words you here are,”Welcome, we are here for you, you will be cared for.” As you grow, eager loving hands offer you knowledge and experience, helping you to go the road you wish to walk. The border-less world is your village, its inhabitants your family, your needs are never a point of stress, your potential is an open gate. Imagine the burst of creativity that would wash over such a world, how rich each individual's life would become.
 

 

        Such a world is possible, we have the resources in abundance, we have the desire within each of our hearts, why are we still mired in poverty, violence and unnecessary deaths? Simply, it is the way we see the world, we have been conditioned to accept the economic system under which we labour, as the only way of life. The illusion has been woven that capitalism is the natural and only way to live. Yet it is nothing more than a man made system that favours the few. It is not a system written in tablets of stone, immovable and immutable.
 

Image from Not Buying Anything.

        The alternative is there, apart from living experiences from the past and present, books in abundance paint its picture, leaflets, pamphlets, poster, shout its story, all that is required is that we are brave enough to come to the decision, that capitalism has done enough damage to the world and its inhabitants, and must be destroyed. Of course the alternative that I speak of is anarchism. The choice is ours, continue with the present reign of poverty, deprivation, endless wars and the destruction of the planet, all to feed an small army of parasites, or set free that other world that weeps, trapped in all our hearts.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

 

Shopiate Of The Masses.

       I like this slightly altered quote from Not Buying Anything site, it does ring rather true of today, or am I being too pessimistic?

Slightly altering one of Huxley's quotes about pharmaceuticals, it can be seen that consumerism is a drug. It is the ultimate shopiate of the masses.

“There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method consumer economic model of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. shopping. 

And this seems to be the final revolution.”

- Aldous Huxley

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

You Resist, Or You Are Complicit.

 

      Hi friends, comrades, acquaintances, good to be back, hope you all had as good a time as I enjoyed. Though I enjoyed the few days up in St Andrews, and had a wonderful time with the grand-kids, it did nothing to quell the anger and disgust in my belly at the the system under which we live, and under which my grand-children will have to grow up and scratch out a living. I can only see their lives having a bleaker future than I had, UNLESS!!

      We all have to realise we live in an environment of class war. 

 

Benefit sanctions = class war
Workfare = class war
Wage restraint = class war
Bedroom tax = class war
Zero-hours contracts = class war
Austerity = class war

      The system is a system based on class war, class war is necessary for the system to protect and further the wealth and power of the parasitic cabal that live off the backs of the ordinary people. It never has, never will, and is not intend to, spread the wealth created by the people among the people. If we the people wish to enjoy the wealth that we create, then the system under which we live will have to be destroyed. Capitalism is a cancer on humanity, and a death knell on the environment. The pace of the destruction of peoples and the environment by the capitalist system is ever increasing, and will continue to do so, until we stop its cancerous growth. It will not stop of its own accord, it will not stop because the parasites at the helm consider that they have enough. It will only stop when we say, we have had enough. Accept the legacy of a destroyed world and continuous exploitation for our grandchildren, or start now the fight to destroy this vicious plague of greed, this time-bomb on the planet. 

      There are many ways to fight, undermine, and short-circuit this system, we can all play our part, the system is dependent on our compliance to its needs, the myth of perpetual growth. 

This from Not Buying Anything: 

     Consumerism is a war on everything, and we are being compelled to be its soldiers.
      Citizen's money is transformed into consumer bullets, bulldozers and bombs, wreaking havoc far and wide. And we aren't even happier for all of that. Lazier, for sure, but happier? Not so much.
      Advertising is the most insidious propaganda ever produced. It has formed our world view, our purpose for living. “I shop, therefore I am. If some is good, more is better.” It is causing us to volunteer our lives to the pursuit of more everything, and damn the consequences.
       Overconsumption is an act of violence. It harms others, the planet, and the person doing the consuming. It is not a positive act for children or other living things, which is why its explosive powers must be defused and the lies and corrosive myths of consumerism laid bare.
The truth is that harbouring unlimited desires and living large is not in our genetic make up. For most of the human timeline we have lived simply in small nomadic groups. Excessive possessions for most of human history were nothing more than a hindrance, and they still are today.
      We have only recently been drafted into Operation Live To Consume. Citizens have been carefully trained to be consumers, consuming far past the point of need. Perhaps that is the good news.
We still have deep desires in our genetic make up to live that planet-friendly simple lifestyle that worked for us over tens of thousands of years, and still does among the few today that continue these ways.
The ultimate planet-supporting thing to do is to be a conscientious objector, refuse to fight on the consumer battlefield, and commit to a life of nonviolence.
       We can all rejoin the original mission - Operation Consume To Live. It is a mission of enough, of peace and contentment. Of sanity and solidarity.

Remember, we are governed by consent, we can withdraw that consent. 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Planet's Black Death.

      "Black Friday" is the continuing "Black Death" for the planet. mass frenzied consumerism, a desire for more tinsel, trinkets, candy-floss and bubble gum. A mountain of which will eventually end up in a landfill somewhere. We live in a system where the world's finite resources are wasted in over production of all manner of pointless playthings, then we use a tsunami of energy to get rid of it at a later date. Parallel to this, millions live in deprivation, sleep rough, die from hypothermia, children starve to death, and preventable diseases run rampant. The system can't survive without this gross injustice and unnecessary inequality, this disparity is what feeds the corporate world, cheap labour producing toys for the pretty pretty butterfly people. Social justice will only be born after the death of capitalism.

Image from Not Buying Anything.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Madness Of Frenzied Consumerism.

        You can already hear the rumble of the consumerism sewer pipe, as the garbage flood that is Black Friday starts to attempt to poison the minds of all living under the deluge of pointless corporate consumerism. They must raise the panic level, they must infest your mind, don't be left behind, get out there and grab your happiness from the avalanche of super bundles of trinkets. Get in there with flaying arms and blind determination, the bigger the box the greater your happiness, don't let yourself be beaten in the frenzy of insanity, walk over the elderly, crawl under your neighbour. The rush, the shove, the push, the trampling, must mean there is something of value there for ME. A day of insanity, all to help feed the already overflowing coffers of the greedy corporate world. It is the festival of candy-floss and bubble gum, the main produce of the capitalist consumer world.

       Of course this insanity should be resisted at all costs, let them fill their selves with their trinkets, candy-floss and bubble gum, and watch their panic as it continues to sit on the shelves. Who knows, if we resist their intended greed fest, we may see a few CEO jump from their penthouse balconies.

On this subject, I re-post this from Not Buying Anything:

It's coming again - Black Friday.

      Yes, yet another apocalypse of extreme shopping that transforms regular people into consumer zombies. Why bother getting trampled or having an arm taken off by a falling television when you could avoid the shops entirely and do something infinitely more constructive?
Naturally, I have a few suggestions:
         Plan a White Friday, white being the colour of peace. Reach out to someone you are experiencing conflict with and extend an olive branch. Donate money to a non-profit that promotes peace around the world. Practice forgiveness for the whole day.
         Make it a Blue Friday. Know someone that is feeling down? Do something to make them feel better. When you are done you will feel better, too.
        Have a Green Friday and do something for the environment. Ride a bike instead of driving, start a recycling program, tell someone about something green that you are doing. Go for a walk, hike or roll.
         Make it a real Black Friday and have a lie in while in a darkened room. Get up when you are rested, and not a moment before.
          After you get up, sit quietly and explore the black space between your ears for a while. Repeat throughout the day. Nothing pays off as much as discovering more about the workings of the black box of your mind. Tracing your thoughts and pin-pointing your motivations means that you can better understand and choose your behaviour. You will make yourself more impervious to advertisement and propaganda, like the kind that leads to bizarre behaviours such as the consumer madness represented by Black Friday.
       That is black as in emptiness, the void, and the dark side of destruction. Why would one consciously choose that when there are so many alternatives?

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

 

The Poor Man's University.

      When I was a boy, my father used to say that books were the poor man's university. Though much, much, much, older now, I don't read as I used to, or as I should, but I still have a love of books to this day.

      Saw this on Not Buying Anything site and thought it worth sharing:

 

“When I got my library card, that was when my life began.”

― Rita Mae Brown

"I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries."

― Carl Sagan

"Libraries really are wonderful. They're better than bookshops, even. I mean bookshops make a profit on selling you books, but libraries just sit there lending you books quietly out of the goodness of their hearts."

― Jo Walton

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

What if---!!!

 

Read this thought provoking little piece on "Not Buying Anything":

      The following quote is from someone who gets what is happening to us and our world right now. Derrick Jensen, in his book A Language Older than Words asks:

    "What if the point of life has nothing to do with the creation of an ever-expanding region of control? What if the point is not to keep at bay all those people, beings, objects, and emotions that we so needlessly fear? What if the point instead is to let go of that control?  

      What if the point of life, the primary reason for existence, is to lie naked with your lover in a shady grove of trees? What if the point is to taste each other's sweat and feel the delicate pressure of finger on chest, thigh on thigh, lip on cheek?  

      What if the point is to stop, then, in your slow movements together, and listen to birdsong, to watch dragonflies hover, to look at your lover's face, then up at the undersides of leaves moving together in the breeze? 

    What if the point is to invite these others into your movement, to bring trees, wind, grass, dragonflies into your family and in so doing abandon any attempt to control them? 

     What if the point all along has been to get along, to relate, and experience things on their own terms? What if the point is to feel joy when joyous, love when loving, anger when angry, thoughtful when full of thought?  

      What if the point from the beginning has been to simply be?"

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

We Are All Creative Beings.

        In this so called modern society, work and poverty stifle creativity. You step from school on to the conveyor belt of work, and you are carried along with sign posts along the way shouting about the importance of "getting on", "getting ahead", gaining possessions, trinkets, beads and baubles. It's all packaged for you, just work hard and pop into the shopping mall and pick up the latest, "thing". No need to think, the ads will tell what is the latest and the best. Watch grand events, spectacular shows, no need to participate, leave that to the experts.

      How much richer would your life be if you got involved, in things, learned to do, started to create and participate? Just be, instead of an applauding bystander.

This from Not Buying Anything:

Author Kurt Vonnegut said,

      "Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow."

        If you are like most people you harbour regrets about not following an artistic whim that interested you earlier in life, but was sacrificed for "more important" things. Now is the time to make it happen whether it is photography, knitting, or learning the Lindy Hop.
       When you have the time you can follow your passions. You can have fun. You can grow your soul through expressing your creativity. It will change you, and it will change the world.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk