Saturday, January 29, 2011

Utah Phillips sez:

Posted by Mickey Z on 01/29 at 09:09 AM

  2. Good evening Mickey and everyone.

    I was fortunate to see Utah Phillips years ago at a small coffee shop in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He certainly understands the victimization by man-made systems.

    Riots, revolts, violence, chaos for whatever the real reasons are, caused by a relatively small number of ‘deciders’ who by ‘their’ laws, ‘their’ lifestyles, ‘their’ complete disregard for life, ‘their’ sadistic views toward those who are not considered the ‘same’ as ‘them’, refuse to be honest with themselves and others.

    Human, social evolution could happen peacefully, however the world’s hierarchical systems exploit life and try to force life to stand still and here is the clash, the collision of particles with shorter intervals between them coming together.

    Man-made laws simply won’t work though the illusion exists with passivity and violence working together though out of balance. The collision can only happen.

    Posted by Joe of Maine from The Window  on  01/29  at  05:25 PM

  3. The collisions are happening, Joe, and it’s pretty damn ugly.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  01/29  at  09:01 PM

  4. Joe...excellent comment…

    I spent this afternoon convincing a couple of people that there is absolutely NO way to re-engineer the system from within - either you fail to get anywhere; or it corrupts you once you attempt to play within *its* rules. The ONLY option is to operate outside it.

    Along with that it seems that all “top-down” attempts are doomed to become yet another case of one “special-interest” group dictating to all others, and generally to the benefit of that interest group and the detriment of all others…

    I think we have to get LOCAL about it, build myriad small groups that operate in limited areas and allow them the choice to freely interact, but somehow inhibit the possibility of any one group dominating others too heavily...and also somehow make sure that the NATURAL ENVIRONMENT is the dominant factor, seven-generations-style…

    ...yeah, I know, it’s a long-shot. But I have to dream…

    Posted by subgenius from hell-A  on  01/29  at  11:12 PM

  5. ...oh yeah, did anybody else catch the heartwarming events from Egypt? Where the Christians had the backs of the Muslims yesterday - so the Muslims could pray in safety! I am NOT a fan of religion (in general), but that was EPIC.

    Actually it has been a bit of a strange-bedfellows couple of months - we had the far-right and the far-left (well - as far as it gets here...) in harmony over the Assange/Wikileaks shenanigans not too long ago.

    Is this the start of a global uprising, where society puts aside petty differences in order to pull down the over-powerful-radically-corrupt-dictatorships we all appear to live under the thumb of?

    I can only hope.

    Posted by subgenius from hell-A  on  01/29  at  11:18 PM

  6. ..and in a bizarre bit of synchronicity, I just got emailed this - well worth a read…

    Posted by subgenius from hell-A  on  01/29  at  11:36 PM

  7. Thanks, subgenius...for your comments and that excellent link.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  01/30  at  06:31 AM

  8. Great comments by joe and subgenius.

    Dmitri Orlov has the interesting theory that Wikileaks and the Middle East could be analogous to glasnost and Eastern Europe for the Soviets. cluborlov.blogspot.com/

    I’ve never been to the depths of cynical hopelessness that I now inhabit, but the news out of Tunisia and Egypt is enough to revive me a little. They’re on the same 30-year timeline of corruption-on-afterburners as we, but have responded accordingly. EPIC, indeed.

    When is a Community not Collective? Dept: The link in #5 tries hard and may mean well, but I have to dissent. It’s a slightly-crypto Randroid rehash, getting hot and bothered about the labeling of problems and solutions. Pursuant to this assertion, here’s Mark Ames on Ayn Rand’s Tiger Beat moment: http://tinyurl.com/yk3n6rj

    Posted by Zen Prole from Pac NW  on  01/30  at  09:39 AM

  9. Hi all…

    Sub #4… I am not surprised that Christians protected Muslims. Actually, I would be more surprised to see one of my Atheistic friends up here protect any believer in any religion.  I refer to him as my ‘Evangelical Atheistic’ friend. He has a total rage filled meltdown whenever anyone does not agree with him 100%.  I know that other atheists are more tolerant. I guess you just can’t stereotype any group.

    Is Assange going to be on 60 Minutes tonight?

    Posted by RMJ from Ward Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts  on  01/30  at  01:51 PM

  10. Remembering Howard Zinn -

    “And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.” ZINN

    Posted by RMJ from Ward Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts  on  01/30  at  02:43 PM

  11. Here’s to an infinite string of marvelous victories.

    I’m a little worried about the situation in Egypt. It’s a key country and the major powers in the world won’t lose it without a fight. If the US, UK etc can control a Mubarak replacement, then they’ll be happy...if they think Egypt might get a non-puppet or (gulp) democratic government...then they’ll be happy to smash heads to stop it.

    Posted by Rick (the Cartoonist) from   on  01/30  at  05:27 PM

  12. Keep in mind that the US is quite adept at puppet replacement therapy:

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22993

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  01/30  at  05:38 PM

  13. Never read any Ayn Rand - possibly a benefit of a European education… Should I ever make the effort? (Know thy enemy? etc)

    Yeah, ok I hear you (RMJ) on atheist vs religious types here in ConUS (Continental US / Con US - you decide). It is still (after 5 years this time) alien to me (again the benefit of a European education...in Northern Europe I get the sense that maybe 5-10% consider themselves “religious”, maybe double that pay lip-service at Christmas and Easter, and the rest of us don’t really care)

    Posted by subgenius from hell-A  on  01/31  at  04:06 AM

  14. I should add to that last comment - religion doesn’t actually feature in any way in the thinking of my cohort in Europe - it’s simply irrelevant, but your back WILL be had whatever you choose to believe in (or not)

    Posted by subgenius from hell-A  on  01/31  at  04:12 AM

  15. Thanks again, everyone. I just put up a new post.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  01/31  at  05:29 AM

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