Low Tech.

 

             We seemed to be completely hypnotised by modern technology it has swamped our lives, we have become dependent on it throughout our daily life. Each new piece of technology we are lead to believe it will improve our life, make life easier, but does it and at what cost? Modern technology has enmeshed us in one massive surveillance machine, the powers that be and some commercial concerns gather facts about your daily life and can use it to their advantage without your knowledge. Cameras monitor your very movement, your phone is a tracking machine and can pin point where you were at any given moment. Modern technology takes away many of your skills that helped you to be independent. It can isolate you but give you the impression that your are part of a community, social media, where some people have a thousand "friends" but have met very few. A strange world of community in isolation. 

These words from Not Buying Anything must surely provoke some thoughts        

 

Wendel Berry at work... without a computer.

       In 1987 Wendel Berry explained that he did not wish to buy a computer with which to do his writing. He never did relent, preferring the low tech and less flashy pencil and paper combo.
       His goal was always, "to make myself as plain as I can". Towards this goal he shared his standards for technological adoption.

They are as follows:
1. The new item should be cheaper than what it replaces.
2. It should be at least as small in scale.
3. It should do work that is clearly and demonstrably better than what it replaces.
4. It should use less energy than what it replaces.
5. If possible, it should use some form of renewable energy, such as solar or that produced by the body.
6. It should be repairable by a person of ordinary intelligence, provided that he or she has the necessary tools.
7. It should be purchasable and repairable as near to home as possible.
8. It should come from a small, privately owned shop or store that would take it back for maintenance and repair.
9. It should not replace or disrupt anything good that already exists, and this includes family and community relationships.
       Using such standards would mean that much of the technology we use now would no longer be produced or consumed. How much of modern technology advances the human condition, rather than advancing surveillance, control, and profit-making? Maybe we need less technology, not more, or perhaps the answers we need can only be addressed by low tech rather than high. But talk that way and most people will think you are insane. We have accepted high tech unconditionally as a good that always makes life better.
        Berry says, "The Luddites asserted the precedence of community needs over technological innovation and monetary profit. The victory of industrialism over Luddism was overwhelming and unconditional. It was undoubtedly the most complete, significant, and lasting victory of modern times.
        To this day, if you say you would be willing to forbid, restrict, or reduce the use of technological devices in order to protect the community, or to protect the good health of nature on which the community depends, you will be called a Luddite, and it will not be a compliment.

Technological determinism has triumphed."

         In an insane world, the sane will be seen as the ones who have lost their minds. Some would say that Wendel Berry was not thinking straight to consider that using a pencil for writing, and editing on paper with his wife, could not be improved upon by the purchase and use of a computer. And yet, he still resisted.
        "The individual", Friederich Nietzsche said, "has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe." He thought that if you tried it, you would often be lonely, and sometimes frightened. But, he thought, "no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself".
         You could say that Berry was off his rocker for not being an enthusiastic cheerleader for high tech. But you couldn't say that he didn't own himself. We would do well to consider his standards for technological adoption, and seriously question all new innovations before we choose to adopt them in our own lives. Contrary to what the tribe believes, new technologies are not always improvements that benefit humanity.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Why I'm An Anarchist.

       I lifted this straight from Dog Section Press, away back in June 2019, but considering the way things are going right now, I thought it worth repeating.
       There is nothing I could say about the article, except just read it, and start to think for yourself.

     Why I'm An Anarchist by Benjamin Zephaniah

         I got political after I suffered my first racist attack at the age of seven. I didn’t understand any political theory, I just knew that I had been wronged, and I knew there was another way. A few years later, when I was fifteen a marked police car pulled up to me as I walked in Birmingham in the early hours of the morning, three cops got out of the car, they pushed me into a shop doorway, then they beat me up. They got back into their car, and drove off as if nothing had happened. I had read nothing about policing policy, or anything on so-called law and order, I just knew I had been wronged. When I got my first job as a painter, I had read nothing on the theory of working class struggles or how the rich exploited the poor, but when my boss turned up every other day in a different supercar, and we were risking our lives up ladders and breathing in toxic fumes, I just knew I had been wronged.
        I grew up (like most people around me) believing Anarchism meant everyone just going crazy, and the end of everything. I am very dyslexic so I often have to use a spellchecker or a dictionary to make sure I’ve written words correctly. I was hearing words like Socialism and Communism all the time, but even the Socialists and Communists that I came across tended to dismiss Anarchists as either a fringe group, who they always blamed if there was trouble on demonstrations, or dreamers. Even now, I just checked a spellchecker and it describes Anarchism as chaos, lawlessness, mayhem, and disorder. I like the disorder thing, but for the ‘average’ person, disorder does mean chaos, lawlessness, and mayhem. The very things they’re told to fear the most.
        The greatest thing I’ve ever done for myself is to learn how to think for myself. I began to do that at an early age, but it’s really difficult to do that when there are things around you all the time telling you how to think. Capitalism is seductive. It limits your imagination, and then tells you that you should feel free because you have choices, but your choices are limited to the products they put before you, or the limits of your now limited imagination. I remember visiting São Paulo many years ago when it introduced its Clean City Law. The mayor didn’t suddenly become an Anarchist, but he did realise that the continuous and ubiquitous marketing people were subjected to was not just ugly, but distracting people from themselves. So more than 15,000 marketing billboards were taken down. Buses, taxis, neon and paper poster advertisements were all banned. At first it looked a little odd, but instead of either looking at, or trying not to look at advertising broads, I walked, and as I walked I looked around me. I found that I only purchased what I really needed, not what I was told I needed, and what was most noticeable was that I met and talked to new people every day. These conversations tended to be relevant, political, and meaningful. Capitalism keeps us in competition with each other, and the people who run Capitalism don’t really want us to talk to each other, not in a meaningful way.
       I’m not going to go on about Capitalism, Socialism, or Communism, but it is clear that one thing they all have in common is their need for power. Then to back up their drive for power they all have theories, theories about taking power and what they want to do with power, but therein lies the problem. Theories and power. I became an Anarchist when I decided to drop the theories and stop seeking power. When I stopped concerning myself with those things I realised that true Anarchy is my nature. It is our nature. It is what we were doing before the theories arrived, it is what we were doing before we were encouraged to be in competition with each other. There have been some great things written about Anarchism, and I guess that’s Anarchist theory, but when I try to get my friends to read these things (I’m talking about big books with big words), they get headaches and turn away. So, then I turn off the advertising (the TV etc.) and sit with them, and remind them of what they can do for themselves. I give them examples of people who live without governments, people who organise themselves, people who have taken back their own spiritual identity – and then it all makes sense.
            If we keep talking about theories then we can only talk to people who are aware of those theories, or have theories of their own, and if we keep talking in the round about theories we exclude a lot of people. The very people we need to reach, the very people who need to rid themselves of the shackles of modern, Capitalistic slavery. The story of Carne Ross is inspiring, not because he wrote something, but because he lived it. I love the work of Noam Chomsky and I love the way that Stuart Christie’s granny made him an Anarchist, but I’m here because I understand that the racist police who beat me have the state behind them, and the state itself is racist. I’m here because I now understand that the boss-man who exploited me to make himself rich didn’t care about me. I’m here because I know how the Marrons in Jamaica freed themselves and took to the hills and proved to all enslaved people that they (the Marrons), could manage themselves. Don’t get me wrong, I love books (I’m a writer, by the way), and I know we need people who think deeply – we should all think deeply. But my biggest inspirations come from everyday people who stop seeking power for themselves, or seeking the powerful to rescue them, and they do life for themselves. I have met people who live Anarchism in India, Kenya, Jamaica, Ethiopia, and in Papua New Guinea, but when I tell them they are Anarchists most will tell me they have not heard of such a word, and what they are doing is natural and uncomplicated. I’m an Anarchist because I’ve been wronged, and I’ve seen everything else fail.
           I spent the late seventies and the eighties living in London with many exiled ANC activists – after a long struggle Nelson Mandela was freed and the exiles returned home. I remember looking at a photo of the first democratically elected government in South Africa and realising that I knew two thirds of them. I also remember seeing a photo of the newly elected Blair (New Labour) government and realising that I knew a quarter of them, and on both occasions I remember how I was filled with hope. But in both cases it didn’t take long to see how power corrupted so many members of those governments. These were people I would call and say, “Hey, what are you doing?”, and the reply was always something along the lines of, “Benjamin, you don’t understand how having power works”. Well I do. Fuck power, and lets just take care of each other.
           Most people know that politics is failing. That’s not a theory or my point of view. They can see it, they can feel it. The problem is they just can’t imagine an alternative. They lack confidence. I simply blanked out all the advertising, I turned off the ‘tell-lie-vision’, and I started to think for myself. Then I really started to meet people – and, trust me, there is nothing as great as meeting people who are getting on with their lives, running farms, schools, shops, and even economies, in communities where no one has power.

That’s why I’m an Anarchist.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Far From The Madding Crowd.

 

A view of Ayr.

       My little rant will fall silent for a few days as Stasia and I for a wee break, head to Ayr, a wee town on the Ayrshire cost, Rabbie Burns territory. At this time of year I feel it is always good to get "Far from the madding crowd". See you soon.

Robert Burns Cottage Alloway.

       The surrounding area has changed somewhat since the 1700's, he didn't have a road like that passing his windows.

One of the many and varied portraits of how Burns looked.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Glasgow May Day Rally, 2019.

      May Day across the world saw marches, rallies and protests, their is no doubt that a vast amount of people across the globe are angry enough to take to the streets on May Day to show that solidarity and vent dissatisfaction which bubbles inside them for most of the year. 

      In Europe cites across the continent from Moscow to Turin, from Gothenburg, to Instanbul from St Petersburg to Paris, and many more cities saw massive rallies and protests, and on occasions the police came down hard and there were many arrests.

This from The Independent, Athens:

      In the Greek capital of Athens, three separate May Day rallies took place, organised by rival groups. A series of strikes by trade unions across the country to mark international workers’ day has left the capital without bus and metro services, and the whole country without national rail and island ferry services – leaving some municipalities isolated from the rest of the country. 

  St Petersburg May Day Rally (photo Independent)

       Here in Glasgow it was a much more family, fun celebration and what it lacked in numbers it made up for in enthusiasm and passion. Despite the usual Glasgow lousy weather there were stalls, musicians, singers, poets and speakers, and a receptive and pleasantly surprised passing public. All thanks to that small and  dedicated bunch of Glaswegians, The May Day Organising Group, well done. Rather ironic, our feisty little celebration took place just next to an army recruiting stall!! Its white van and blue tent can be seen in the last photo.

Some Glasgow May 1st. 2019 photos and videos:

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Poet, Benjamin Zephaniah, Anarchist.

       Slowly, slowly, one by one, they turn to anarchism, hopefully, soon, the trickle will become a flood. Then the people will crawl out of the dark decaying husk of capitalism, and bathe in the warmth and light of justice and freedom.

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

"The Anarchists", An Anniversary.

          I may be a day behind with this one, but I still think it is an anniversary worth remembering. I believe it was May 10, 1968, during the May 1968, uprising in France that Leo Ferre, an anarchist, and one of France's finest songwriters, and poets wrote the song, "The Anarchists". A man of passion, imagination and, a wonderful performer. Enjoy his passion.

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

ONE DIMENSIONAL ELITIST RESPONSE.

      

      As the political class make their usual one dimensional responses to the events in England of the last fews days, it is good to be able to read something with a little more depth. I always maintain that our over lords and masters, the political and corporate class, know nothing of the society that you and I  inhabit. Our millionaire elitists that sit and pontificate in marble halls, somehow believe that they know the answers to our problems when in fact they don't even know the problems. They are in fact the biggest part of our problems. They enforce a system that creates inequality, and continually widens that gap. They legislate to protect their wealth and privileges and when people object to this unjust, immoral situation, they jump up and shout "crimminality" "thug" "full force of the law" and other meaningless crap.  Those who are shouting loudest are part of a band that fiddled their expenses, get into bed with bankers that laughingly take tax payers money and then pay themselves bonuses that to the ordinary guy, are monopoly money figures. What is more they don't understand why when they talk of respect, most people just get angry.

      The following is a short extract from an article on Libcom and is well worth a read. 

Writer and poet William Wall explores the link between neoliberalism and the UK riots.

            One of the many things that we hear repeated ad nauseam in the context of the present rioting in London is that the rioters are ‘feral’, ‘yobs’, ‘thugs’ or more generously ‘disaffected youth’. All the talk from Cameron and his cohorts is of crime and punishment and ‘the full force of the law’ - as if these young people did not encounter the full force of the law on a daily basis. We are told variously that there is no political context, no political motive, no political enemy – it is ‘criminality pure and simple’. This is because violence against the police (and therefore the state) is not considered in itself to be political. It is because the envy of, the desire for and the acquisition of luxury goods such as plasma TVs and jewellery is not considered political. The political class and the commentariat cannot conceive of themselves as enemies of the people who live in areas like Tottenham where Tory cuts are closing youth centres, which suffer massive unemployment even while the City is booming, and which are the objects of legislation designed to disadvantage them even further.

ann arky's home.