Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Text of Wendell Berry's Speech at the 2013 Unitarian Universalist General Assembly
This was the reading for worship at First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh on June 30, 2013.
Wendell Berry's Speech at GA 2013 Plenary Session 3
Wendell Berry's Speech at GA 2013 Plenary Session 3
(http://www.uua.org/ga/2013/business/286869.shtml
Berry begins @ 39:20)
Like probably everybody here, I'm concerned about mountaintop removal and climate change. But when we delay our concern until dangers have become sensational, we're late! Whether or not we're too late is a question which should not interest us. Even if we are too late, we still must accept responsibility, and try to make things better.
Berry begins @ 39:20)
Like probably everybody here, I'm concerned about mountaintop removal and climate change. But when we delay our concern until dangers have become sensational, we're late! Whether or not we're too late is a question which should not interest us. Even if we are too late, we still must accept responsibility, and try to make things better.
In fact, mountaintop removal and climate
change are not the sort of simple problems that can be solved by
what we call “problem-solving.” They're summary evils –
gathered up from innumerable causes in the bad economy that we all
depend upon and serve. It is not as though we have not been warned.
The advice against waste, extravagance, selfishness, hubris,
falsehood, and willful ignorance is old.
But people of religion have generally entrusted questions about
economy – about how we live
– to economists, and industrialists. Environmentalists seem to
think that problems caused by technology can be solved – or
controlled – by more technology or alternative technology. People
of both kinds seem to think that big problems have big solutions.
Both are mistaken.
Fifty years ago, Harry Caudill published
“Night Comes to the Cumberlands,” causing a flurry of public
attention and a spate of federal interest in solving the problem of
poverty in the Appalachian coal fields. But that book described the
fundamental problem, which was – and is
– the industrial plunder
of the land and the people. And that problem -- already long-ignored
by 1963 -- has continued to be ignored officially and conventionally
for 50 more years. As Harry knew, and the politicians have not
known, improving the health and economy of a region is not a
one-issue project. It is not a one-solution problem. The long-term
or permanent damage inflicted upon all life by the extraction,
transportation, and use of fossil fuels is the most urgent public
issue of our time, and of course it must be addressed politically.
But
responsibility for the better economy – the better life –
belongs to us individually and to our communities. The necessary
changes cannot be made on the terms prescribed to us by the
industrial economy and its so-called “free market.” They can be
made only on the terms imposed upon us by the nature and the limits
of local ecosystems. If we're serious about these big
problems, we've got to see that the solutions begin and end with
ourselves. Thus, we put an end to our habit of oversimplification.
If we want to stop the impoverishment of land and people, we
ourselves must be prepared to become poorer. If we're to continue to
respect ourselves as human beings, we've got to do all we can to slow
– and then stop – the fossil fuel economy. But we must do this
fully realizing that our success – if it happens – will change
our world and our lives more radically than we can now imagine.
Without that realization, we cannot hope to succeed. To succeed, we
will have to give up the mechanical ways of thought that have
dominated the world increasingly for the last two hundred years. And
we must begin now to make that change in ourselves. For the
necessary political changes will be made only in response to changed
people. We must understand that fossil fuel energy must be replaced
not just by clean energy, but also by less energy.
The
unlimited use of any energy would be as destructive as unlimited
economic growth, or any other unlimited force. If we had a limitless
supply of free non-polluting energy, we would use the world up even
faster than we're using it up now. If we're not in favor of limiting
the use of energy – starting with our own use of it – we're not
serious. If we're not in favor of rationing energy – starting with
the fossil fuels – we're not serious. If we have the money, and
we're not willing to pay $2 to keep the polluting industries from
getting $1, we're not serious. If, on the contrary, we become
determined to keep the industries of poison, explosion, and fire from
determining our lives and the world's fate, then we will steadfastly
reduce our dependence on them, and our payments of money to them. We
will cease to invest our health, our lives, and our money, in them.
Then, finally, we will be serious enough – our effort complex and
practical enough – by so improving our lives, we will improve the
possibility of life.
Labels: 7th UU principle, Capitalism, ecology, environment, readings, renewable energy, sacred texts
Friday, June 15, 2012
Quick note on HFT
1. That the people who have the power to put this kind of money toward whatever they want would put it toward something so morally vacuous and selfish when there are humans with real needs. The blind eye turned away from this opportunity cost is like a brickbat to my moral head. 2. That people who have the mathematical ability to do Fast Fourier Transforms and other mathematical formulae to model and interpret the patterns of economic growth down to the millisecond minutia, and develop ever-faster computer systems for processing and networks for conveying this data for the purposes of greed. Our smartest people should be doing something else, like modeling a secure centrally-planned economy that models our current economy, and takes into account the production and distribution of every necessary widget and piece of food needed to sustain us. And can work to eliminate all of the unnecessary waste while still providing the same things to everybody. And perhaps when everybody feels secure we'll be able to stop overproducing and overbuying. 3. That our governments would allow automated trading like this which siphons out the incremental gains from real traders who can't afford to do something like this. Instead they should devise a system of laws that works justly, but they've been bought. 4. That the resources for this cabling and computers, and for its installation have been taken from the Earth.
Labels: Capitalism, classism, economics, interconnected web, Math, restorative justice, slashdot
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
#OccupyWallStreet first statement
This was unanimously voted on by all members of Occupy Wall Street last night, around 8pm, Sept 29. It is our first official document for release. We have three more underway, that will likely be released in the upcoming days: 1) A declaration of demands. 2) Principles of Solidarity 3) Documentation on how to form your own Direct Democracy Occupation Group. This is a living document. you can receive an official press copy of the latest version by emailing c2anycga@gmail.com.
Declaration of the Occupation of New York CityAs we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*
To the people of the world,
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!
*These grievances are not all-inclusive.
Labels: 5th UU principle, anti-oppression, Capitalism, Humanism, personal bookmarks, restorative justice, salvation
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Two things to read
America is a second world nation. We have no universal free health care (don't kid yourself about the plan underway), no guarantee of anything really, except competitive struggle with one another for work and money and career status, if you are one of those conditioned to think of your job and feudal debt enslavement as a "career." High infant mortality rates, abysmal educational scores, poor diet, no national public transportation system, crumbling infrastructure, a collapsed economy, even by our own definition we are a second world nation.
In serious, intelligent people, experiencing non-manufactured reality usually gives lifelong meaning and insight to the work.
Labels: anti-oppression, Capitalism, indifferent corporations, media, oppression, personal bookmarks, personal growth, politics, salvation, theological sources, USA
Thursday, November 19, 2009
My question on Digg to FCC Chairman
.
Dear FCC Chairman Genachowski,
With the advent of digital broadcast television, and its capacity to greatly increase the number of channels, why are the airwaves still being leased to so few entities, mostly with commercial interests in mind? It seems that the FCC has been allowing for greater corporate media consolidation and the switch to DTV would be an opportunity to change course. Why has this not been done?
We could use those extra channels to allow for a much more diversity in terms of who gets to voice their opinions publicly via mass media, which would allow for greater democracy. The cynic in me wonders if that last statement doesn't actually answer my questions. Please tell me that is not the case, and how you intend to open the airwaves to the public.
Thank you,
.......
[edit] well, i got 6 diggs only. either others aren't interested in it, or it was a case of bad timing. the results of their Q and A session will be posted on Digg on Dec 2.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Dear FCC Chairman Genachowski,
With the advent of digital broadcast television, and its capacity to greatly increase the number of channels, why are the airwaves still being leased to so few entities, mostly with commercial interests in mind? It seems that the FCC has been allowing for greater corporate media consolidation and the switch to DTV would be an opportunity to change course. Why has this not been done?
We could use those extra channels to allow for a much more diversity in terms of who gets to voice their opinions publicly via mass media, which would allow for greater democracy. The cynic in me wonders if that last statement doesn't actually answer my questions. Please tell me that is not the case, and how you intend to open the airwaves to the public.
Thank you,
.......
[edit] well, i got 6 diggs only. either others aren't interested in it, or it was a case of bad timing. the results of their Q and A session will be posted on Digg on Dec 2.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: Capitalism, indifferent corporations, media, USA
Thursday, October 22, 2009
US Debt Clock
.
Check out this link, and you can see how much the US owes and has in assets, both in the government and held privately. There's a lot more I'd like to see this page become, as it doesn't tell the whole story yet. I'm going to also put a link to this on the column at the left.
There's a lot of interpretation that can be done just from this data, but I'm not going to do that right now. There are a few important numbers to look at however.
1. Note the Gross Domestic Product (upper right), and compare to the US Budget Deficit (YTD, upper-left) and the interest on Debt (upper left, a little lower). When the interest on debt grows too large, it is a drain on the economy, in that it cuts into the government's ability to pay for other programs. Who do we owe all that principal and interest to?
2. The largest (by a factor of 30!) number on the page is Currency and Credit Derivates ($589.232284 trillion at 1:30 on Oct 22). This is the fabricated money partially responsible for the big trouble we are in. I am surprised to see that it is going down, and wonder what that actually means. Is somebody actually trying to regulate this, or is this currency being pulled off the market.
3. In many of these numbers, it's not simply the numbers that are important to watch, but the rate of change of the numbers, and the rate of change of that change (the acceleration).
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Check out this link, and you can see how much the US owes and has in assets, both in the government and held privately. There's a lot more I'd like to see this page become, as it doesn't tell the whole story yet. I'm going to also put a link to this on the column at the left.
There's a lot of interpretation that can be done just from this data, but I'm not going to do that right now. There are a few important numbers to look at however.
1. Note the Gross Domestic Product (upper right), and compare to the US Budget Deficit (YTD, upper-left) and the interest on Debt (upper left, a little lower). When the interest on debt grows too large, it is a drain on the economy, in that it cuts into the government's ability to pay for other programs. Who do we owe all that principal and interest to?
2. The largest (by a factor of 30!) number on the page is Currency and Credit Derivates ($589.232284 trillion at 1:30 on Oct 22). This is the fabricated money partially responsible for the big trouble we are in. I am surprised to see that it is going down, and wonder what that actually means. Is somebody actually trying to regulate this, or is this currency being pulled off the market.
3. In many of these numbers, it's not simply the numbers that are important to watch, but the rate of change of the numbers, and the rate of change of that change (the acceleration).
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: Capitalism, classism, economics, globalism, indifferent corporations, oppression, personal bookmarks, politics, theological sources, USA
Monday, October 12, 2009
25 Principles for Just Immigration Reform
.
I know I haven't said all that much on immigration reform, but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking on it, and I just came across an article with a long list of principles that should be satisfied by meaningful immigration reform. I agree with these.
Three key points:
1. The US has created a system where undocumented immigrants have no legal recourse, and businesses that hire them can treat them very unfairly without fear of recrimination.
2. US policies of interference in other countries (Including the drug war in Mexico and Columbia, School of the Americas harming the countries of Central America, and a variety of unfair lending practices that leave developing nations in the lurch) leave those countries economically destitute, forcing their workforce to other countries (including the US) to find work. Those practices need to end, so that our country is not exploiting the labor of other countries. We need to explore ways of real cooperation.
3. Incarcerating undocumented immigrants and putting them to work in prison at sub-minimum wage? Highly unethical, yet this treatment seems par for the course for those incarcerated in US prisons.
chant/prayer/mantra: May we all recognize our common humanity, beyond any thoughts to human-created national boundaries.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
I know I haven't said all that much on immigration reform, but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking on it, and I just came across an article with a long list of principles that should be satisfied by meaningful immigration reform. I agree with these.
Three key points:
1. The US has created a system where undocumented immigrants have no legal recourse, and businesses that hire them can treat them very unfairly without fear of recrimination.
2. US policies of interference in other countries (Including the drug war in Mexico and Columbia, School of the Americas harming the countries of Central America, and a variety of unfair lending practices that leave developing nations in the lurch) leave those countries economically destitute, forcing their workforce to other countries (including the US) to find work. Those practices need to end, so that our country is not exploiting the labor of other countries. We need to explore ways of real cooperation.
3. Incarcerating undocumented immigrants and putting them to work in prison at sub-minimum wage? Highly unethical, yet this treatment seems par for the course for those incarcerated in US prisons.
chant/prayer/mantra: May we all recognize our common humanity, beyond any thoughts to human-created national boundaries.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: anti-oppression, Capitalism, changing the prison paradigm, classism, equal rights, globalism, immigration reform, racism, USA
Sunday, September 27, 2009
G-20, and Carl Sagan Video
.
First, I've been a little heads-down getting my sermon ready for today. And now I'm seeing the news that a "non-lethal sonic cannon" was used against protesters/rioters in Pittsburgh at the G-20 meeting. This is the first time such a device was used by government forces against people within our own boundaries. It was used not against peaceful protesters, but against rioters. As a device used within these parameters, its non-lethality may have saved lives, but a device like this SHOULD NOT BE NECESSARY.
The problem, as noted in the commentary on this article, is that the attendees at the G20 are not representative of the people. This is most definitely NOT common ground. It is the upper-most echelon of wealth determining where and how to deploy resources, with little attention to local movements, or to the states of poverty in the world. The problem is that there are people who WANT to riot. To suppress the riots is only a solution if you already have your main goal mapped out, and that goal does not include the will of the people. In the end, the effective solution will be to make sure that everyone (regardless of race, class, or nationality) has real voice/representation and truly get an adequate piece of the economic pie.
As the world population continues to grow, while our resources (especially the ability to feed ourselves and provide clean water) diminish, the riots will continue and escalate, unless the leaders exhibit real leadership embodying the will of the people and serving their needs, not the needs of those who seek to amass wealth.
There is no shortage of money. There are still enough resources to go around, and certainly MORE THAN ENOUGH LABOR to go around. The important thing is that those who make decisions that affect massive numbers of people (CEO's, business leaders, G20 participants) use the resources justly and effectively. None of my senses tell me that is happening on their part. Until the leaders do that, or the unwilling followers can successfully break from them, the world will be frustrated, and we'll have no glory, no justice, no liberation, and no peace.
Here's the awesome Carl Sagan video, and this great quote:
"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."
lyrics: "The simplest thought, like the concept of the number 1, has an elaborate logical underpinning. The brain has its own language for testing the structure and consistency of the world." - Carl Sagan
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
First, I've been a little heads-down getting my sermon ready for today. And now I'm seeing the news that a "non-lethal sonic cannon" was used against protesters/rioters in Pittsburgh at the G-20 meeting. This is the first time such a device was used by government forces against people within our own boundaries. It was used not against peaceful protesters, but against rioters. As a device used within these parameters, its non-lethality may have saved lives, but a device like this SHOULD NOT BE NECESSARY.
The problem, as noted in the commentary on this article, is that the attendees at the G20 are not representative of the people. This is most definitely NOT common ground. It is the upper-most echelon of wealth determining where and how to deploy resources, with little attention to local movements, or to the states of poverty in the world. The problem is that there are people who WANT to riot. To suppress the riots is only a solution if you already have your main goal mapped out, and that goal does not include the will of the people. In the end, the effective solution will be to make sure that everyone (regardless of race, class, or nationality) has real voice/representation and truly get an adequate piece of the economic pie.
As the world population continues to grow, while our resources (especially the ability to feed ourselves and provide clean water) diminish, the riots will continue and escalate, unless the leaders exhibit real leadership embodying the will of the people and serving their needs, not the needs of those who seek to amass wealth.
There is no shortage of money. There are still enough resources to go around, and certainly MORE THAN ENOUGH LABOR to go around. The important thing is that those who make decisions that affect massive numbers of people (CEO's, business leaders, G20 participants) use the resources justly and effectively. None of my senses tell me that is happening on their part. Until the leaders do that, or the unwilling followers can successfully break from them, the world will be frustrated, and we'll have no glory, no justice, no liberation, and no peace.
Here's the awesome Carl Sagan video, and this great quote:
"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."
lyrics: "The simplest thought, like the concept of the number 1, has an elaborate logical underpinning. The brain has its own language for testing the structure and consistency of the world." - Carl Sagan
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: astrophysics, Book of Romans, Capitalism, economics, globalism, oppression
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Socializing the Good Samaritan
.
Today, I rode my bike to church to get there early, and my sweetie came later in the car, just in time for the 11:30 service, then we drove out to eat for brunch and went home, leaving my bike locked up at the church. This afternoon, I installed the old Yakima bike rack on top of our new car finally, so I could go retrieve the bike. It probably would've been easier to just walk down there and ride back, but we needed to get the bike rack onto the car eventually. All the previous information is prologue to my main point.
When I got to the church, I saw a man across the street, looking rough, and after two hours wrestling with my bike rack when I should've been working on homework, I didn't feel in the mood to talk to him. But then as I was taking the front tire off my bike and getting my bike on top of the car, he approached me, speaking weakly, with a towel in one hand and a spray bottle and squeegie in the other, asking if he could wash my windshield for some money. I had actually gunked up part of the roof while installing the rack, so I gave him $2 and asked him for the towel and sprayer so I could do it. I don't need the "satisfaction" of watching somebody else clean it for me. Anyway, I asked him his name and what was going on. He said his name was Lester Ray, and that he was going around trying to do people's windshields to get $14, because he was in the hospital yesterday (he still had the plasticy bracelet) and was diagnosed with pneumonia. In order to get the meds, he had to put together a $14 copay, so today he was out walking around (with unmedicated pneumonia) trying to scare up that small sum of money. The two bucks I had given him was all the cash I had in my pocket and I gave him the 50 cents in change I had as well.
After I got into the car, I thought about the fact that I could've taken him to a cash machine and drawn out $20. But we're not exactly rich. Then again, if I had invited him into the car to ride down to the cash machine, he would've seen: a new car, a bike on top, an ipod shuffle attached to the radio, a new baby car seat, and several other things that indicate that we were an order or two of magnitude more well-to-do than him. In the short term, I would've felt better getting him that money anyway, but I didn't. In the long term, there is something more that needs to be done.
You judge a nation by how it treats its poor.
If somebody in need calls to neighbors for help and most of them pass him/her by, then the one who actually is charitable is the one that pays (financially and economically, though they may gain in other ways), and they bear that burden alone. I will call these charitable people the suckers, because they're bearing the burden of . All of the other people who turn the other way, or make sure to stay entirely outside of the neighborhood of those who call for help are trying not to pay and try avoid bearing as much as possible of the burden of helping their neighbor. I will call these Ayn Rand-devoted people shruggers, because they are indeed shrugging off the burden that the suckers consider as needing to be picked up, and would shrug at the cost of allowing any stranger with pneumonia die, because it's "not their problem."
When that burden is spread out across the economy -- when governments levy taxes and put it into programs that create a safety net for all -- it is because the suckers are finally being listened to, and are able to make the shruggers stop shrugging (or shirking). Then, instead of the 5% most charitable people needing to privately pay for 100% of the needs of the needy, we have 100% of the people each paying for 5% of the needs of the needy, whether they believe there is a need or not.
When there is a Katrina survivor in front of you with one missing eye and a mottled leg just let free from the hospital to "go home" to the streets, you better believe there is a need! When there's a man with a decimated personal infrastructure (homeless and/or jobless) needing to acquire a squeegie and a rag to scare up $14 to pay for pneumonia medicine, you better believe there is a need!
To those who argue that providing health care and an economic safety net is just offering hand-outs to lazy people, I have to ask -- HAVE YOU LOOKED AT THE STATE OF THE ECONOMY? There are lots of hard-working and honest people who could use this help. They lost their jobs because of decisions made by bankers and by business owners (mistakes on the part of those who control the means of production), and most of them desperately want to work, if not only for a sense of self-worth, also to put food on the table.
But there are a ton of volunteer jobs out there that need to be done, ranging from picking up litter to planting trees, to tutoring youth to use software, to working for social justice. If those people who were out of work right now could have: 1) Health care, and 2) Enough assistance to cover basic housing and food, they would be able to devote much of their time toward necessary unmonetized volunteer work, and some of their time toward finding a job that pays.
In the meantime, there are many in our communities who are financially devastated. That is not a position in which you can expect somebody to pull themselves up. It's like expecting somebody with a totalled car to get driving. But those of us with cars that do run, I say it's our moral obligation to give them a lift to town and at least get them a bike of their own.
And as a nation, it's our moral obligation to be economically strong and efficient, so that its easier for us to take better care of the poor, and in fact, to provide a better commonwealth of services for everyone. Part of that means having everybody employed. People running around working hard to find jobs (that's exhausting work!) are not doing much for the economy. But if they're actively working (even at volunteer work), they're helping us in real ways that might not be reflected in the GDP or other standard economical measures. But if we're all scrounging around for privatized jobs in a shrinking market, that's a death spiral. Our moral obligation is to NOT go there. Are the local, state, and federal governments up for that? Or is there a way that our churches can start to step in and provide welfare?
I'm hesitant to go there though, because then the churches that are the best at providing welfare end up being conglomerate suckers, and those churches that focus on serving their own interests and shrug will be conglomerate shruggers (and they may weather the financial storm better, but maybe not the spiritual storm). Then again, maybe the truth will out itself, and people will start leaving the prosperity gospel churches in droves as the masks come off. Then again, I'm only 40 years old, and still trying to figure out human nature in this kind of context. But I think we can dodge the question, just by applying brute force toward green jobs, public works, and other economy-spurring employment for people that will make sure that the physical, material labor that needs to happen actually does take place.
lyrics:
chant/prayer/mantra: health to us all, especially lester ray.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Today, I rode my bike to church to get there early, and my sweetie came later in the car, just in time for the 11:30 service, then we drove out to eat for brunch and went home, leaving my bike locked up at the church. This afternoon, I installed the old Yakima bike rack on top of our new car finally, so I could go retrieve the bike. It probably would've been easier to just walk down there and ride back, but we needed to get the bike rack onto the car eventually. All the previous information is prologue to my main point.
When I got to the church, I saw a man across the street, looking rough, and after two hours wrestling with my bike rack when I should've been working on homework, I didn't feel in the mood to talk to him. But then as I was taking the front tire off my bike and getting my bike on top of the car, he approached me, speaking weakly, with a towel in one hand and a spray bottle and squeegie in the other, asking if he could wash my windshield for some money. I had actually gunked up part of the roof while installing the rack, so I gave him $2 and asked him for the towel and sprayer so I could do it. I don't need the "satisfaction" of watching somebody else clean it for me. Anyway, I asked him his name and what was going on. He said his name was Lester Ray, and that he was going around trying to do people's windshields to get $14, because he was in the hospital yesterday (he still had the plasticy bracelet) and was diagnosed with pneumonia. In order to get the meds, he had to put together a $14 copay, so today he was out walking around (with unmedicated pneumonia) trying to scare up that small sum of money. The two bucks I had given him was all the cash I had in my pocket and I gave him the 50 cents in change I had as well.
After I got into the car, I thought about the fact that I could've taken him to a cash machine and drawn out $20. But we're not exactly rich. Then again, if I had invited him into the car to ride down to the cash machine, he would've seen: a new car, a bike on top, an ipod shuffle attached to the radio, a new baby car seat, and several other things that indicate that we were an order or two of magnitude more well-to-do than him. In the short term, I would've felt better getting him that money anyway, but I didn't. In the long term, there is something more that needs to be done.
You judge a nation by how it treats its poor.
If somebody in need calls to neighbors for help and most of them pass him/her by, then the one who actually is charitable is the one that pays (financially and economically, though they may gain in other ways), and they bear that burden alone. I will call these charitable people the suckers, because they're bearing the burden of . All of the other people who turn the other way, or make sure to stay entirely outside of the neighborhood of those who call for help are trying not to pay and try avoid bearing as much as possible of the burden of helping their neighbor. I will call these Ayn Rand-devoted people shruggers, because they are indeed shrugging off the burden that the suckers consider as needing to be picked up, and would shrug at the cost of allowing any stranger with pneumonia die, because it's "not their problem."
When that burden is spread out across the economy -- when governments levy taxes and put it into programs that create a safety net for all -- it is because the suckers are finally being listened to, and are able to make the shruggers stop shrugging (or shirking). Then, instead of the 5% most charitable people needing to privately pay for 100% of the needs of the needy, we have 100% of the people each paying for 5% of the needs of the needy, whether they believe there is a need or not.
When there is a Katrina survivor in front of you with one missing eye and a mottled leg just let free from the hospital to "go home" to the streets, you better believe there is a need! When there's a man with a decimated personal infrastructure (homeless and/or jobless) needing to acquire a squeegie and a rag to scare up $14 to pay for pneumonia medicine, you better believe there is a need!
To those who argue that providing health care and an economic safety net is just offering hand-outs to lazy people, I have to ask -- HAVE YOU LOOKED AT THE STATE OF THE ECONOMY? There are lots of hard-working and honest people who could use this help. They lost their jobs because of decisions made by bankers and by business owners (mistakes on the part of those who control the means of production), and most of them desperately want to work, if not only for a sense of self-worth, also to put food on the table.
But there are a ton of volunteer jobs out there that need to be done, ranging from picking up litter to planting trees, to tutoring youth to use software, to working for social justice. If those people who were out of work right now could have: 1) Health care, and 2) Enough assistance to cover basic housing and food, they would be able to devote much of their time toward necessary unmonetized volunteer work, and some of their time toward finding a job that pays.
In the meantime, there are many in our communities who are financially devastated. That is not a position in which you can expect somebody to pull themselves up. It's like expecting somebody with a totalled car to get driving. But those of us with cars that do run, I say it's our moral obligation to give them a lift to town and at least get them a bike of their own.
And as a nation, it's our moral obligation to be economically strong and efficient, so that its easier for us to take better care of the poor, and in fact, to provide a better commonwealth of services for everyone. Part of that means having everybody employed. People running around working hard to find jobs (that's exhausting work!) are not doing much for the economy. But if they're actively working (even at volunteer work), they're helping us in real ways that might not be reflected in the GDP or other standard economical measures. But if we're all scrounging around for privatized jobs in a shrinking market, that's a death spiral. Our moral obligation is to NOT go there. Are the local, state, and federal governments up for that? Or is there a way that our churches can start to step in and provide welfare?
I'm hesitant to go there though, because then the churches that are the best at providing welfare end up being conglomerate suckers, and those churches that focus on serving their own interests and shrug will be conglomerate shruggers (and they may weather the financial storm better, but maybe not the spiritual storm). Then again, maybe the truth will out itself, and people will start leaving the prosperity gospel churches in droves as the masks come off. Then again, I'm only 40 years old, and still trying to figure out human nature in this kind of context. But I think we can dodge the question, just by applying brute force toward green jobs, public works, and other economy-spurring employment for people that will make sure that the physical, material labor that needs to happen actually does take place.
lyrics:
"So when you see your neighbor carryin' somethin',
Help him with his load,
And don't go mistaking Paradise
For that home across the road."
From The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest, by Bob Dylan
chant/prayer/mantra: health to us all, especially lester ray.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: anti-oppression, Capitalism, classism, economics, our mission, politics, universal health care, USA
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Breakfast Cereal from UAE
.
About a month ago, I went shopping at the local Grocery Outlet, and saw some sugar frosted flakes in a box on one of the aisles. It caught my attention because it had an interesting looking guy (a la Buzz Lightyear) on the front of the box. I turned the box around, and on the other side, it had the same picture, but with all Arabic writing on it, probably saying something like "Sugar Frosted Flakes."
So I bought it, and I just finished eating it (Yes, I still sometimes indulge in sugar cereal), and I took pictures of it, and then I went to visit their website, nmc.ae (beware the loud cheesy music that accompanies the intro video).
About a month ago, I went shopping at the local Grocery Outlet, and saw some sugar frosted flakes in a box on one of the aisles. It caught my attention because it had an interesting looking guy (a la Buzz Lightyear) on the front of the box. I turned the box around, and on the other side, it had the same picture, but with all Arabic writing on it, probably saying something like "Sugar Frosted Flakes."
So I bought it, and I just finished eating it (Yes, I still sometimes indulge in sugar cereal), and I took pictures of it, and then I went to visit their website, nmc.ae (beware the loud cheesy music that accompanies the intro video).
Upon bopping around the site, it seems like NMC is a major UAE conglomerate, and an economic empire. Just the thought of a major corporate giant in the Muslim world gives me a lot to ponder upon. I don't get much warm fuzzies from Western corporate giants, and neither do I get the warm fuzzies from NMC, even though they have the slogan, "Together we smile."
The Muslim world has resisted the secularizing forces of capitalism, and perhaps for good reason. Yet does the existence of a corporate conglomerate like this in the Muslim world bring our cultures closer together? Or is this an example of them becoming compromised, or infected with capitalism? Or perhaps the Muslims will know how to do capitalism compassionately, basing their decisions off of Muslim principles, most notably Zakat. It makes me wonder if there are different human natures -- human natures based off of different worldviews and religious practices. Could capitalism work with a different worldview and different religion?
I also wonder what does the average person in a Muslim nation think of a large company such as NMC? Are they also subject to public relations efforts, to bias their views, as are people in the United States?
chant/prayer/mantra: La ila ha illal-Lah.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Anyway, reading about their chairman on the Corporate Governance page, I am surprised to see words written in English pushing the limits of my vocabulary, used in hyperbole, even.
"His variegated experiences in conceiving and fostering entrepreneurial initiatives found matching synergy of enthalpy in the business acumen and rectitude of Dr. B. R. Shetty, to signal the beginning of a relationship as a business mentor, trusted partner and close friend, as Chairman of NMC. Thereafter, the power of exponentials has marked the growth graph to speak the language of business, as new stars were born, littering the business firmament of NMC."
Yikes! The Muslims have learned marketing-speak! That leans toward answering the question of what kind of company NMC might be. I just had a scary thought. Perhaps this is just a front for American investments, trying to push into new markets. I'm not going to believe that thought I had (sometimes it's possible to have a thought and dispel it), preferring to believe that the people who the site says are in charge actually are in charge.
Well, they made some tasty cereal that made its way to Oakland. So they must be doing something right. Then again, I just checked out their "Hotline" page, and it seems to have gone cold to the tune of 4 years without an update. Hmmmm....
Well, as long as all the people are fed and have clothes and homes, then they're all right by my book. And I would love to hear the thoughts of my Muslim friends or from people in the general NMC marketing area, concerning their thoughts on this cereal.
chant/prayer/mantra: La ila ha illal-Lah.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: art, Capitalism, indifferent corporations, inter-faith, Islam, paradigm shift, theological sources, UAE
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
On Wealth vs. Poverty
.
.
.
..
The last year has shown us more about the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor than I can remember.
Here are a few things people have to say:
In this interview, Jared Diamond explains how the societies that do best are those where the well-being of the common people and the well-being of the rulers are tied together. In simplified terms, in the Netherlands, where everybody -- both rich and poor -- live below sea level, the rich ruling class made sure to have really good dikes. In New Orleans, where the ruling rich people live up on the hill, and the poor neighborhoods are flood risks, they sat around for 10 years without really upgrading the dikes.
From the comments, awesome quote #1: "Retention of power is the primary motivation of power." [Joel adds: it may be the case that it is, but is very much not the case that it should be.]
Awesome quote #2: "As far as the uber rich goes, until someone gives me a reason why I should care about people who don’t give a damn if people have food on their table, I’ll always be on the side that says ‘Fuck them’." [I would use non-expletives here, and would say that the reason to care about them is that they're humans. Horribly misguided and masked from the horrors, but human nonetheless. How far should we go in caring? That is another question entirely, partially answered by the quote below.]
Super-amazing quote #3:
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
.
.
..
The last year has shown us more about the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor than I can remember.
Here are a few things people have to say:
In this interview, Jared Diamond explains how the societies that do best are those where the well-being of the common people and the well-being of the rulers are tied together. In simplified terms, in the Netherlands, where everybody -- both rich and poor -- live below sea level, the rich ruling class made sure to have really good dikes. In New Orleans, where the ruling rich people live up on the hill, and the poor neighborhoods are flood risks, they sat around for 10 years without really upgrading the dikes.
From the comments, awesome quote #1: "Retention of power is the primary motivation of power." [Joel adds: it may be the case that it is, but is very much not the case that it should be.]
Awesome quote #2: "As far as the uber rich goes, until someone gives me a reason why I should care about people who don’t give a damn if people have food on their table, I’ll always be on the side that says ‘Fuck them’." [I would use non-expletives here, and would say that the reason to care about them is that they're humans. Horribly misguided and masked from the horrors, but human nonetheless. How far should we go in caring? That is another question entirely, partially answered by the quote below.]
Super-amazing quote #3:
"Somehow it’s always reasonable to hurt the poor as a way to make them shape up. Tougher bankruptcy laws, welfare reform, it’s all good social engineering.I'm with the equality now camp. I have a feeling that unfettered free-market capitalism will not give us that. Unfettered free-market capitalism gets us rich inheritees with diamond-encrusted dashboards, while other people are waking up on Christmas morning next to their shopping carts.But if you talk about hurting the rich to make them reform, it’s terrible. Taking money away from a guy with plenty more to spare is worse then taking money away from a person with none left.
You know, in the Aztec Empire, if you were a peasant convicted of public drunkenness, they’d shave your head to show people you’re an ass. If you were a noble convicted of public drunkenness, they’d just kill you, because they thought that people who were accorded great power and respect should behave themselves in a way befitting their station.
Here in America we’ve hit the point where the rich deserve to be rich because they are rich. They don’t have to be useful or polite or interesting or classy."
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: anti-oppression, art, Capitalism, classism
Monday, March 23, 2009
John Mellencamp on the State of the Music Industry
.
While this piece does provide some great insight about what has happened to the music industry, it doesn't seem to have answers. I wonder if there even are any, other than to just make music and do your best to get it out there?
Nora Guthrie, Woody's daughter, once told me a story about a reception she was at where Bob Dylan was in attendance. The business people there were quietly commenting on how unsociable Dylan seemed to them, not what they imagined an encounter with Dylan would be like. When that observation about Dylan's behavior and disposition were mentioned to Nora, the response was very profound. She said that Bob Dylan was not put on this earth to participate in cocktail chatter with strangers. Bob Dylan's purpose in life is to write great songs like "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are A' Changin'."
And another quote:
"There is no street for the music to rise up from. There is no time for the music to develop in a natural way that we can all embrace when it ripens and matures. That's why the general public doesn't really care. It's not that the people don't still love music; of course they do. It's just the way it is presented to them that ignores their humanity."
lyrics: "I see your face and you tempt my dreams."
lyrics: "I see your face and you tempt my dreams."
From Photograph by Def Leppard
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: Capitalism, economics, indifferent corporations, music, USA
Monday, February 2, 2009
Bagholders Unite!!
OK, I'm really not much of an organizer, but I just had an idea, and I hope an organizer picks up on this one. I have been reflecting on the nature of labor, investment, and reward in the U.S. culture, and have come up with this. The people who do the work get the least reward. The people who own the resources upon/with which the workers work get first dibs on the reward.
That is nothing new, and it takes a fool not to notice that. That is not the idea I am speaking of.
The idea I am speaking of is the direct application of the above when it comes to today's situation. It comes from seeing what happened with Enron, and seeing what happened with that Madoff guy recently and his execution of the latest Ponzi/pyramid scheme. With the U.S. government pouring tons of borrowed/taxed dollars into banks and such, where it is not fully accountable and being siphoned off, the government is looking to be the greater fool.
And ultimately, that leaves the people holding the bag. The taxes we paid, and the money borrowed that we will have to pay to God knows who, are being invested in the pockets of pillagers. These pillagers include those at the top/inside/beginning of the stock market game, and the CEO's still receiving exorbitant sums, after their companies received a part of the $700 billion bank bailout.
In short, any government money that is being borrowed from the future, and not being invested in our future -- in the infrastructures of:
We the people had our money invested over the last eight years (and many prior) by "mutual fund managers" who did not have our interests in mind, or had the singular interest of maximizing money, not in responsible investment. When their investments failed because of unsane monetary policies such as the outrageous overextended ratio allowed (or unregulated) for fractional-reserve banking newly-constructed credit default swap market, the investment (put into things that had low value anyway) has gone sour.
One REAL rule for investors: Put your money in things that you want to see saved/thrive. It's not difficult. It's only difficult if you treat investments as if it's gambling. Put your money in what needs to thrive, and you will see it pay you back in ways well beyond those seen in dividends, stock options and monetary ROI's.
lyrics: No his mind is not for rent to any god or government.
-Tom Sawyer, by Rush
colors: green, as in money. and green, as in environment.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
That is nothing new, and it takes a fool not to notice that. That is not the idea I am speaking of.
The idea I am speaking of is the direct application of the above when it comes to today's situation. It comes from seeing what happened with Enron, and seeing what happened with that Madoff guy recently and his execution of the latest Ponzi/pyramid scheme. With the U.S. government pouring tons of borrowed/taxed dollars into banks and such, where it is not fully accountable and being siphoned off, the government is looking to be the greater fool.
And ultimately, that leaves the people holding the bag. The taxes we paid, and the money borrowed that we will have to pay to God knows who, are being invested in the pockets of pillagers. These pillagers include those at the top/inside/beginning of the stock market game, and the CEO's still receiving exorbitant sums, after their companies received a part of the $700 billion bank bailout.
In short, any government money that is being borrowed from the future, and not being invested in our future -- in the infrastructures of:
- good mass transit (trains, ferries, and electric busses)
- clean and renewable electricity (solar (both centralized and decentralized), wind, tidal, etc)
- a system of refueling stations for electric cars
- r & d for clean battery technologies
- an intelligent and extensible educational system, using both democratically-influenced mass media and community involvement in local schools and recreation centers
- desalinization and fresh water control systems
- sustainable agricultural systems and a return to healthy environmental practices and a re-empowered EPA system of oversight
- overhauling failed systems such as the abhorrently wastrel military budget and the prison complex
- healthy families, living at or above poverty
- i'm sure i missed a few, but the above are all very important and should be near the top of the list...
We the people had our money invested over the last eight years (and many prior) by "mutual fund managers" who did not have our interests in mind, or had the singular interest of maximizing money, not in responsible investment. When their investments failed because of unsane monetary policies such as the outrageous overextended ratio allowed (or unregulated) for fractional-reserve banking newly-constructed credit default swap market, the investment (put into things that had low value anyway) has gone sour.
One REAL rule for investors: Put your money in things that you want to see saved/thrive. It's not difficult. It's only difficult if you treat investments as if it's gambling. Put your money in what needs to thrive, and you will see it pay you back in ways well beyond those seen in dividends, stock options and monetary ROI's.
lyrics: No his mind is not for rent to any god or government.
-Tom Sawyer, by Rush
colors: green, as in money. and green, as in environment.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: Capitalism, changing the prison paradigm, desalinization, economics, environment, paradigm shift, politics, USA
Thursday, October 23, 2008
the current economic crisis laid out in clear terms
Oh my. This article on the demise of our monetary system by visionary writer Charles Eisenstein is a goldmine of cogent sanity. It tells the story so clearly, it is almost unethical to provide a link to it. But according to whose ethic?
I hope all my friends get a chance to read it. I'll comment more on this article later.
"In the face of the impending crisis, people often ask what they can do to protect themselves. "Buy gold? Stockpile canned goods? Build a fortified compound in a remote area? What should I do?" I would like to suggest a different kind of question: "What is the most beautiful thing I can do?" You see, the gathering crisis presents a tremendous opportunity. Deflation, the destruction of money, is only a categorical evil if the creation of money is a categorical good."
"In the meantime, anything we do to protect some natural or social resource from conversion into money will both hasten the collapse and mitigate its severity. Any forest you save from development, any road you stop, any cooperative playgroup you establish; anyone you teach to heal themselves, or to build their own house, cook their own food, make their own clothes; any wealth you create or add to the public domain; anything you render off-limits to the world-devouring machine, will help shorten the Machine's lifespan. Think of it this way: if you already do not depend on money for some portion of life's necessities and pleasures, then the collapse of money will pose much less of a harsh transition for you. The same applies to the social level. Any network or community or social institution that is not a vehicle for the conversion of life into money will sustain and enrich life after money."
Here's another good article from realitysandwich.com, talking about the end of our current global economic system. This is some serious stuff.
lyrics: My dog is running in her dreams. I know, 'cause she's kicking her feet. I've been having dreams about earthquakes, and doves, and things.
colors: the color of war is the color of blood is the color of money. money, money, money, money. oink, oink, oink, oink. -god bullies, off of some song from the album war on everybody.
mood: stressed out and procrastinating
chant/prayer/mantra: a deep prayer for a transition through the coming crisis.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
I hope all my friends get a chance to read it. I'll comment more on this article later.
"In the face of the impending crisis, people often ask what they can do to protect themselves. "Buy gold? Stockpile canned goods? Build a fortified compound in a remote area? What should I do?" I would like to suggest a different kind of question: "What is the most beautiful thing I can do?" You see, the gathering crisis presents a tremendous opportunity. Deflation, the destruction of money, is only a categorical evil if the creation of money is a categorical good."
"In the meantime, anything we do to protect some natural or social resource from conversion into money will both hasten the collapse and mitigate its severity. Any forest you save from development, any road you stop, any cooperative playgroup you establish; anyone you teach to heal themselves, or to build their own house, cook their own food, make their own clothes; any wealth you create or add to the public domain; anything you render off-limits to the world-devouring machine, will help shorten the Machine's lifespan. Think of it this way: if you already do not depend on money for some portion of life's necessities and pleasures, then the collapse of money will pose much less of a harsh transition for you. The same applies to the social level. Any network or community or social institution that is not a vehicle for the conversion of life into money will sustain and enrich life after money."
Here's another good article from realitysandwich.com, talking about the end of our current global economic system. This is some serious stuff.
lyrics: My dog is running in her dreams. I know, 'cause she's kicking her feet. I've been having dreams about earthquakes, and doves, and things.
colors: the color of war is the color of blood is the color of money. money, money, money, money. oink, oink, oink, oink. -god bullies, off of some song from the album war on everybody.
mood: stressed out and procrastinating
chant/prayer/mantra: a deep prayer for a transition through the coming crisis.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: Capitalism, environment, paradigm shift, pax hominibus/bright shiny future
Sunday, October 19, 2008
the problem is leaving: a tarot reading today
.
hi everybody,
i just did a tarot reading to suss out the haps for a new online church i am considering initiating.
the site will be called xcollective.org (unfortunately, at present there's somebody already squatting on (or planning for) it a little. perhaps we have common cause. they have a nice logo.)
the tagline on the top of the front page will read:
"say hello to your new online church community.
check in weekly for new songs, new services, new missions, new fun."
it will begin with services composed of readings, songs and dog-walk sermons by me, and in time will include works from my friends, and eventually any members of the site with an egalitarian high-renown.
$10/month, applications for waivers accepted
the site will also have a forum available for peer-mentoring. this will be a new venture of peer ministry. i am hoping to have it user-moderated in some way akin to slashdot. somebody writes in and says "hey, i have a problem," or "hey, i need a clarification," or "hey, i want to start up a project." then others reply to them either with offers of advice, or of assistance. based on the questions and answers, certain readers (selected at random, upon login) will be able to vote responses up or down. then those whose responses are voted up (based on the awesomeness of their questions, answers, or projects) will earn a certain amount of renown (a measure of moral virtue and brilliance).
and the there will be a portion of the site that will help us to have enough economic fuel to energize the effort. it will read:
say hello to t-shirts, to soup kitchens, sweatshirts, knitted blue mittens, shorts, hats, jackets, solar power, carbon offsets, and more. paper clip triangles!! (that last one i will expand upon in another post/sermon.)
okay so at the top of this post is the tarot reading i did this evening, using the Tarot of Dreams deck and the Orphalese Tarot program, and a custom reading I designed myself. It has a lot of cards, but the reading's story-form fits together nicely (as does the story of this specific reading). I'll let the cards and the explanations in the boxes tell the story. the subject of the reading is the effort surrounding xcollective.org.
and then i had a little revelation, and a cause for hope and joy.
there is a problem that has been plaguing the world. we are beginning to identify it
and soon, by the grace of the one who set fire to the sun, we will vanquish it. the problem will either leave or die or be reformed into the solution.
this problem is the fallen state of humanity. how did we fall? we fell when we invented the possessive pronoun -- "mine," "yours," his," "hers," "ghers*, "its," even "ours." We fell when we applied it to stuff that we had no right to claim (resources outside our body, or our immediate needs, when we began to acquire and collect and accrue money and possessions, rather than them being owned collectively by the community or the earth). and we fell when we chose to value the first person pronoun more than the first-person plural pronoun ("I" is more important than "we").
this fallen state (the same such as st. paul mentions in romans 8) is our frustration, experienced by us as living within a futile system, rife with external impositions and exploitation dividing humans against humans, using tools such as malleable currency and usury/interest in an untethered growth market economy, corporations, media, adversarial individualism, adversarial nationalism, adversarial corporatism, manifest destiny, go-forth-and-conquer attitudes, slavery, sexism, racism, classism, prisons, and a system of law designed according to the values of the dominant groups within humanity. it hurts because we know the glory is coming and seek a way to co-create it, and yet the sentience on this planet is divided into more than one will. yet multiple adversarial will ought not be the case, as it's a waste of resources.
one day soon on this planet, we will have a growing and infectious community of universalist utilitarian egalitarians, with a strong distributive justice ethic. (comprised from among a group of xcollectivists, including: all sorts of christians, all sorts of muslims and sufis, jews, buddhists, hindus, jains, sikhs, humanists, daoists, confucianists, pagans, neopagans, zoroastrians, rastafarians, pastafarians, olympians, angels, children of god, children of the earth, and existentialists -- plus many more yet to be named. even dadaists and people dressed as unicorns. this community will have the will to create, sponsor, and steward a set of values that are in league with the needs of the previously-mentioned glory.
apocatastasis is soon to be upon us.
*gher is a gender-neutral possessive pronoun, pronounced with a soft g, like the j in "frere jacques, frere jacques, dor mez-vous."
Lyrics: "Sent by the one who set fire to the Sun!" from Parable of the Light
Colors: Rainbow above the magician's head on the 1 card.
Prayer: No bosses, only peer-mentors and students. Everyone owns their own energy.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
http://revjd.blogspot.com/
"Everybody believes in something and everybody, by virtue of the fact that they believe in something, use that something to support their own existence."
- Frank Zappa
"The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which have been hidden by the answers."
-James Baldwin
i just did a tarot reading to suss out the haps for a new online church i am considering initiating.
the site will be called xcollective.org (unfortunately, at present there's somebody already squatting on (or planning for) it a little. perhaps we have common cause. they have a nice logo.)
the tagline on the top of the front page will read:
"say hello to your new online church community.
check in weekly for new songs, new services, new missions, new fun."
it will begin with services composed of readings, songs and dog-walk sermons by me, and in time will include works from my friends, and eventually any members of the site with an egalitarian high-renown.
$10/month, applications for waivers accepted
the site will also have a forum available for peer-mentoring. this will be a new venture of peer ministry. i am hoping to have it user-moderated in some way akin to slashdot. somebody writes in and says "hey, i have a problem," or "hey, i need a clarification," or "hey, i want to start up a project." then others reply to them either with offers of advice, or of assistance. based on the questions and answers, certain readers (selected at random, upon login) will be able to vote responses up or down. then those whose responses are voted up (based on the awesomeness of their questions, answers, or projects) will earn a certain amount of renown (a measure of moral virtue and brilliance).
and the there will be a portion of the site that will help us to have enough economic fuel to energize the effort. it will read:
say hello to t-shirts, to soup kitchens, sweatshirts, knitted blue mittens, shorts, hats, jackets, solar power, carbon offsets, and more. paper clip triangles!! (that last one i will expand upon in another post/sermon.)
okay so at the top of this post is the tarot reading i did this evening, using the Tarot of Dreams deck and the Orphalese Tarot program, and a custom reading I designed myself. It has a lot of cards, but the reading's story-form fits together nicely (as does the story of this specific reading). I'll let the cards and the explanations in the boxes tell the story. the subject of the reading is the effort surrounding xcollective.org.
and then i had a little revelation, and a cause for hope and joy.
there is a problem that has been plaguing the world. we are beginning to identify it
and soon, by the grace of the one who set fire to the sun, we will vanquish it. the problem will either leave or die or be reformed into the solution.
this problem is the fallen state of humanity. how did we fall? we fell when we invented the possessive pronoun -- "mine," "yours," his," "hers," "ghers*, "its," even "ours." We fell when we applied it to stuff that we had no right to claim (resources outside our body, or our immediate needs, when we began to acquire and collect and accrue money and possessions, rather than them being owned collectively by the community or the earth). and we fell when we chose to value the first person pronoun more than the first-person plural pronoun ("I" is more important than "we").
this fallen state (the same such as st. paul mentions in romans 8) is our frustration, experienced by us as living within a futile system, rife with external impositions and exploitation dividing humans against humans, using tools such as malleable currency and usury/interest in an untethered growth market economy, corporations, media, adversarial individualism, adversarial nationalism, adversarial corporatism, manifest destiny, go-forth-and-conquer attitudes, slavery, sexism, racism, classism, prisons, and a system of law designed according to the values of the dominant groups within humanity. it hurts because we know the glory is coming and seek a way to co-create it, and yet the sentience on this planet is divided into more than one will. yet multiple adversarial will ought not be the case, as it's a waste of resources.
one day soon on this planet, we will have a growing and infectious community of universalist utilitarian egalitarians, with a strong distributive justice ethic. (comprised from among a group of xcollectivists, including: all sorts of christians, all sorts of muslims and sufis, jews, buddhists, hindus, jains, sikhs, humanists, daoists, confucianists, pagans, neopagans, zoroastrians, rastafarians, pastafarians, olympians, angels, children of god, children of the earth, and existentialists -- plus many more yet to be named. even dadaists and people dressed as unicorns. this community will have the will to create, sponsor, and steward a set of values that are in league with the needs of the previously-mentioned glory.
apocatastasis is soon to be upon us.
*gher is a gender-neutral possessive pronoun, pronounced with a soft g, like the j in "frere jacques, frere jacques, dor mez-vous."
Lyrics: "Sent by the one who set fire to the Sun!" from Parable of the Light
Colors: Rainbow above the magician's head on the 1 card.
Prayer: No bosses, only peer-mentors and students. Everyone owns their own energy.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
http://revjd.blogspot.com/
"Everybody believes in something and everybody, by virtue of the fact that they believe in something, use that something to support their own existence."
- Frank Zappa
"The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which have been hidden by the answers."
-James Baldwin
Labels: art, Book of Romans, Capitalism, Christianity, equal rights, heaven on earth, oppression, paradigm shift, parousia, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, tarot
Friday, July 18, 2008
Energy, Security, Economy = The Big Issues of the Upcoming Election
Al Gore just delivered a landmark speech this week.
In this speech, he challenges the U.S. to use 100% renewable energy by 2018.
A classic quote from his speech:
Energy Policy is going to be key for the upcoming election, because it affects the economy, the environment, and our nation's/planet's security. Mobilizing our unemployed workforce toward creating and implementing systems of renewable energy would be a stunningly effective boost to our sagging economy.
Mr. Gore, thank you for your intitiative.
chant/prayer/mantra: One planet of people, whole.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
In this speech, he challenges the U.S. to use 100% renewable energy by 2018.
A classic quote from his speech:
"We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change..."
Energy Policy is going to be key for the upcoming election, because it affects the economy, the environment, and our nation's/planet's security. Mobilizing our unemployed workforce toward creating and implementing systems of renewable energy would be a stunningly effective boost to our sagging economy.
Mr. Gore, thank you for your intitiative.
chant/prayer/mantra: One planet of people, whole.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: Capitalism, economics, environment, globalism, paradigm shift, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, politics, renewable energy, USA
Monday, June 2, 2008
U.S. Drug War and Incarceration System are Themselves Criminal
Look at these charts and graphs.
In the United States in 1900, less than 0.1% of the population was in prison. Now, its close to a full 1%, nearing 3 million people in prison or jail. An astonishing number of them are for non-violent drug-related offenses. Note the percentages in this graph -- more than five times as many people are incarcerated for non-violent drug-related offenses than for violence.
Read some of these heart-wrenching stories of normal women who've had their lives taken away by a system created by and for people who value mandatory minimum incarcerative sentencing and punitive justice more than they value recovery, rehabilitation and the power of restorative justice. The context in which these women are guilty of crimes worthy of incarceration still fails to convince me of its correctness in any way. It is a context of oppression, against the lower class, against African Americans and Latinos, and against those who choose personal freedom, plain and simple. Our system of legislation, law enforcement, and incarceration, is one of the key elements that is making the United States LESS FREE for common people, only retaining freedom for those who have certain privileges among the upper class. Note that certain celebrities and politicians get away with these same crimes, but the women above do not.
I see just and reasonable alternatives to this system, which require a change of assumptions. Making a change of assumptions is something that conservative folks do not easily do, but I guess that's what I'm asking. When somebody gets caught in a non-violent drug offense, they should go through rehabilitation and counseling, not just get thrown into the cogs of an inhuman penal system. We could and should have significantly less resources in the U.S. going toward prisons and law enforcement, if we focus on true crimes where people are killed, robbed, or raped. This has been said thousands of times before, and the people who make the laws don't listen and don't make changes. God damn it! God damn you people! What does it take???
We live in a society that glamorizes violence in the movies, and makes the violence of war look like video games. We live in a society where there is constant violence against every individual because social structures and networking are discouraged, or difficult to build when living hand to mouth. Every individual must run on their treadmill to be exploited for investor's gains, or get caught in the cogs, or tossed out of their homes onto the street.
And people who want to escape from all that violence get mandatory minimum sentencing laws. And people who could be productive members of society, caring for their parents and children, having children while still in their reproductive years, are instead wasting away in prison cells for 10-20 years.
Its about making angels illegal, damning them in a way. In the U.S. you have freedom. But you're not free to do the things that are declared illegal. You're free to question why things are illegal, but not free to avoid examination for asking questions, and not free to get a reasonable answer. A long time ago when I was in college, I saw Lou Reed on an interview saying (I paraphrase) "You're free to smoke cigarettes and alcohol, but not marijuana or cocaine." "Why?" "Because we say so." Oh." To me, it really seems like that. Here's another statement that's been said thousands of times. Alcohol and cigarettes cause more deaths than all other drugs combined, by far. Why are they somehow legal, and marijuana is not? Its just another form of prohibition, and many people are wondering, "Who benefits?" Certainly not the peaceable non-drug-using people of America, because there's still plenty of violence and other crimes going on, not to mention the general rat-race. In fact, its easy to argue that the drug laws themselves CAUSE violence.
The U.S. war on drugs, and the incarceration system, and those who continue to advocate for them are standing against love and justice, and are themselves criminal.
lyrics:
The truth in right and wrong
The boundaries of the law
I think you missed the point
Arresting for a joint?
From Fucking Hostile, by Pantera
colors: sigh.
mood: so tired of this. soul tired.
chant/prayer/mantra: going to go out and breathe some fresh air.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
In the United States in 1900, less than 0.1% of the population was in prison. Now, its close to a full 1%, nearing 3 million people in prison or jail. An astonishing number of them are for non-violent drug-related offenses. Note the percentages in this graph -- more than five times as many people are incarcerated for non-violent drug-related offenses than for violence.
Read some of these heart-wrenching stories of normal women who've had their lives taken away by a system created by and for people who value mandatory minimum incarcerative sentencing and punitive justice more than they value recovery, rehabilitation and the power of restorative justice. The context in which these women are guilty of crimes worthy of incarceration still fails to convince me of its correctness in any way. It is a context of oppression, against the lower class, against African Americans and Latinos, and against those who choose personal freedom, plain and simple. Our system of legislation, law enforcement, and incarceration, is one of the key elements that is making the United States LESS FREE for common people, only retaining freedom for those who have certain privileges among the upper class. Note that certain celebrities and politicians get away with these same crimes, but the women above do not.
I see just and reasonable alternatives to this system, which require a change of assumptions. Making a change of assumptions is something that conservative folks do not easily do, but I guess that's what I'm asking. When somebody gets caught in a non-violent drug offense, they should go through rehabilitation and counseling, not just get thrown into the cogs of an inhuman penal system. We could and should have significantly less resources in the U.S. going toward prisons and law enforcement, if we focus on true crimes where people are killed, robbed, or raped. This has been said thousands of times before, and the people who make the laws don't listen and don't make changes. God damn it! God damn you people! What does it take???
We live in a society that glamorizes violence in the movies, and makes the violence of war look like video games. We live in a society where there is constant violence against every individual because social structures and networking are discouraged, or difficult to build when living hand to mouth. Every individual must run on their treadmill to be exploited for investor's gains, or get caught in the cogs, or tossed out of their homes onto the street.
And people who want to escape from all that violence get mandatory minimum sentencing laws. And people who could be productive members of society, caring for their parents and children, having children while still in their reproductive years, are instead wasting away in prison cells for 10-20 years.
Its about making angels illegal, damning them in a way. In the U.S. you have freedom. But you're not free to do the things that are declared illegal. You're free to question why things are illegal, but not free to avoid examination for asking questions, and not free to get a reasonable answer. A long time ago when I was in college, I saw Lou Reed on an interview saying (I paraphrase) "You're free to smoke cigarettes and alcohol, but not marijuana or cocaine." "Why?" "Because we say so." Oh." To me, it really seems like that. Here's another statement that's been said thousands of times. Alcohol and cigarettes cause more deaths than all other drugs combined, by far. Why are they somehow legal, and marijuana is not? Its just another form of prohibition, and many people are wondering, "Who benefits?" Certainly not the peaceable non-drug-using people of America, because there's still plenty of violence and other crimes going on, not to mention the general rat-race. In fact, its easy to argue that the drug laws themselves CAUSE violence.
The U.S. war on drugs, and the incarceration system, and those who continue to advocate for them are standing against love and justice, and are themselves criminal.
lyrics:
The truth in right and wrong
The boundaries of the law
I think you missed the point
Arresting for a joint?
From Fucking Hostile, by Pantera
colors: sigh.
mood: so tired of this. soul tired.
chant/prayer/mantra: going to go out and breathe some fresh air.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: anti-oppression, Capitalism, drug war, freedom versus freedom, oppression, personal religion, politics, Women's Rights
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Migrant Labor Benefits residents of China, UAE, and the United States
Here's a story about China investing in surveillance technology, and prototyping it into a network in one city, for further eventual roll-out to the rest of the country. They are spending loads of money to keep track of people who are dissatisfied with the opportunities available, instead of spending those loads of money to create more opportunities. In the process of embracing some type of totalitarian communist capitalism, they've been creating migrant workers by razing villages, and then taking advantage of their migrant status.
From the article:
But its not just limited to China. Waste of resources that could be used toward equalizing economic injustice, and the creation/exploitation of migrant labor seems to be a trend.
I think I previously blogged on the world's tallest building in Dubai, the Burj Dubai, and commented on how amazing it was that they were able to build it for only $2 billion dollars (U.S.). Since then, I've learned that they have a very divided class system there in Dubai, UAE, with about 60% of the population in the city as non-citizens and migrant labors. These migrant labors can be paid and exploited so that the investors can end up with awesome buildings, purchased at a cut-rate. The fact that hundreds of poorly documented day-laborers die constructing these buildings doesn't matter much in this context, since they're expendable and disconnected from their home communities.
In the United States, the whole ambivalence about undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America is similar to this. Having an exploitable unempowered labor force allows for less production costs (and potentially cheaper goods) in any industry able to employ undocumented workers without having to pay the going rate, or give them benefits.
In short, we are culpable, even if we don't want to be.
The solution? Change public policy regarding immigration, commerce, and re-create the social welfare network that has been undermined during the last 25 years.
When we see people wandering around, looking for work, begging for work, it becomes an employer's market, encouraging the system to keep people hungry and homeless, and denying them citizenship and its benefits if possible.
To sum up: In a society built on a social contract, whenever an individual is left to fend for him/herself, it shows a breach of the contract, and a failure of the communities that the individual is within. If a subgroup of people are left to fend to themselves, it shows a breach of contract and a failure of the greater community groups the subgroup is a part of. In this case, displaced migrant labors (in addition to being real suffering people) stand as representatives to a system that pits people against each other, and encourages abandonment.
The numbers of those abandoned by our societies is growing! From the article: "Every rural village that is successfully razed to make way for a new project creates more displaced people who join the ranks of the roughly 130 million migrants roaming the country looking for work. By 2025, it is projected that this "floating" population will swell to more than 350 million.' That's greater than the entire population of the United States. The idea that there could be a billion homeless people on this planet by 2025 mortifies me so deeply.
How deep must we dig to find the love to bind our communities together, to pool our resources, and take care of EVERYONE in a cooperative fashion? Surveillance cameras are not an answer to that question. They are an answer to the question: "How can the people who are benefiting from inequity and injustice and oppression continue to do so?" That's the kind of us vs. them thinking that exists in the kindergarten sandbox when the child won't share his toys. We need to move beyond that. Its much more complex than that, but at each level of complexity is a simplicity based on sharing and cooperation. That unravels the complexity, and we still see those who benefit from creating and sustaining competition. Many of us are unwilling/unknowing/cooperating participants. But there are many who are not participants who are only shut outside of the system, to be used, exploited, and used up. That's not the love I'm talking about. But I'm afraid if I keep rambling on, you will stop reading, so I'll stop here. Find the love and embrace it. Okay.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
From the article:
While migrants can live for decades in big cities like Shenzhen and Guangzhou, their residency remains fixed to the rural community where they were born, a fact encoded on their national ID cards. As one young migrant in Guangzhou put it to me, "The local people want to make money from migrant workers, but they don't want to give them rights. But why are the local people so rich? Because of the migrant workers!"
But its not just limited to China. Waste of resources that could be used toward equalizing economic injustice, and the creation/exploitation of migrant labor seems to be a trend.
I think I previously blogged on the world's tallest building in Dubai, the Burj Dubai, and commented on how amazing it was that they were able to build it for only $2 billion dollars (U.S.). Since then, I've learned that they have a very divided class system there in Dubai, UAE, with about 60% of the population in the city as non-citizens and migrant labors. These migrant labors can be paid and exploited so that the investors can end up with awesome buildings, purchased at a cut-rate. The fact that hundreds of poorly documented day-laborers die constructing these buildings doesn't matter much in this context, since they're expendable and disconnected from their home communities.
In the United States, the whole ambivalence about undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America is similar to this. Having an exploitable unempowered labor force allows for less production costs (and potentially cheaper goods) in any industry able to employ undocumented workers without having to pay the going rate, or give them benefits.
In short, we are culpable, even if we don't want to be.
The solution? Change public policy regarding immigration, commerce, and re-create the social welfare network that has been undermined during the last 25 years.
When we see people wandering around, looking for work, begging for work, it becomes an employer's market, encouraging the system to keep people hungry and homeless, and denying them citizenship and its benefits if possible.
To sum up: In a society built on a social contract, whenever an individual is left to fend for him/herself, it shows a breach of the contract, and a failure of the communities that the individual is within. If a subgroup of people are left to fend to themselves, it shows a breach of contract and a failure of the greater community groups the subgroup is a part of. In this case, displaced migrant labors (in addition to being real suffering people) stand as representatives to a system that pits people against each other, and encourages abandonment.
The numbers of those abandoned by our societies is growing! From the article: "Every rural village that is successfully razed to make way for a new project creates more displaced people who join the ranks of the roughly 130 million migrants roaming the country looking for work. By 2025, it is projected that this "floating" population will swell to more than 350 million.' That's greater than the entire population of the United States. The idea that there could be a billion homeless people on this planet by 2025 mortifies me so deeply.
How deep must we dig to find the love to bind our communities together, to pool our resources, and take care of EVERYONE in a cooperative fashion? Surveillance cameras are not an answer to that question. They are an answer to the question: "How can the people who are benefiting from inequity and injustice and oppression continue to do so?" That's the kind of us vs. them thinking that exists in the kindergarten sandbox when the child won't share his toys. We need to move beyond that. Its much more complex than that, but at each level of complexity is a simplicity based on sharing and cooperation. That unravels the complexity, and we still see those who benefit from creating and sustaining competition. Many of us are unwilling/unknowing/cooperating participants. But there are many who are not participants who are only shut outside of the system, to be used, exploited, and used up. That's not the love I'm talking about. But I'm afraid if I keep rambling on, you will stop reading, so I'll stop here. Find the love and embrace it. Okay.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: anti-oppression, Capitalism, economics, freedom versus freedom, globalism, homelessness, indifferent corporations, oppression, politics, religious community
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Hyperbolic Butterfly
Last week in our New Theological Work class, we were deep in conversation about consumer culture, and the new book Hooked, regarding Buddhist thoughts on consumer culture. During our conversation, somehow the topic of this piece of art I drew around 1995 came up. I thought I'd share it and briefly describe my thoughts.
First, when I drew it, I wasn't looking at a butterfly or anything like it. So its not trying to be a butterfly, just trying to be what it is. The basic underlying theme I was going for was one of scarcity. In modern homes with plumbing, if you turn on the faucet water streams out because its under pressure. Now imagine if you had to suck the water out as when using a straw or a pump because the pressure within is less than the pressure on the outside.
That is our economy, one of scarcity. I assert that it doesn't have to be this way. We can have an economy where we have abundance, if only: 1) We prioritize our production efforts toward things that truly matter, and away from wasteful, inefficient, or destructive products and technologies; 2) We practice distributive justice, so that there are not a small group of people at the spigot collecting and hoarding all the products and services they desire, and leaving scraps for the masses via what was euphemistically referred to by Ronald Reagan as "trickle-down theory" (I'm still waiting for "bubble-up theory" to get a turn); and 3) We practice mindful stewardship and conservation of our resources.
In the state of affairs in the United States, and in other countries who practice free market capitalism, the spirituality of generosity is looked on as the quality of a fool. "Oh, you're giving that away for free? What's in it for you? Why would you do that?" If one gives away their goods and services for free, it requires also that others give that person the things *they* need for free as well. Otherwise, that generosity is pretty darn hard to sustain without things returning full circle.
lyrics: "I coulda sworn I said I was a rooster in love." -Lullaby Baxter Trio
colors: red, hyperbolic, butterfly
mood: sleepy, and need to read
chant/prayer/mantra: spread it* around.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
*the love, the life, the money, the goodwill. now is the time to spread it generously.
First, when I drew it, I wasn't looking at a butterfly or anything like it. So its not trying to be a butterfly, just trying to be what it is. The basic underlying theme I was going for was one of scarcity. In modern homes with plumbing, if you turn on the faucet water streams out because its under pressure. Now imagine if you had to suck the water out as when using a straw or a pump because the pressure within is less than the pressure on the outside.
That is our economy, one of scarcity. I assert that it doesn't have to be this way. We can have an economy where we have abundance, if only: 1) We prioritize our production efforts toward things that truly matter, and away from wasteful, inefficient, or destructive products and technologies; 2) We practice distributive justice, so that there are not a small group of people at the spigot collecting and hoarding all the products and services they desire, and leaving scraps for the masses via what was euphemistically referred to by Ronald Reagan as "trickle-down theory" (I'm still waiting for "bubble-up theory" to get a turn); and 3) We practice mindful stewardship and conservation of our resources.
In the state of affairs in the United States, and in other countries who practice free market capitalism, the spirituality of generosity is looked on as the quality of a fool. "Oh, you're giving that away for free? What's in it for you? Why would you do that?" If one gives away their goods and services for free, it requires also that others give that person the things *they* need for free as well. Otherwise, that generosity is pretty darn hard to sustain without things returning full circle.
lyrics: "I coulda sworn I said I was a rooster in love." -Lullaby Baxter Trio
colors: red, hyperbolic, butterfly
mood: sleepy, and need to read
chant/prayer/mantra: spread it* around.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
*the love, the life, the money, the goodwill. now is the time to spread it generously.
Labels: art, Capitalism, theology
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Does the part about Scrappy Doo resonate?
It may be safe to say that the United States -- along the raw capitalism that has driven it -- has pretty much jumped the shark. I wonder what else is left that can be written in? In a way, the thought that more fantastical things could be written into the screenplay is supremely frightening. Why can't it just be like Milo and Otis?
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: Capitalism, USA
