Black Solidarity With Palestine
By Black For Palestine
August 21, 2015
On the anniversary of last summer’s Gaza massacre, in the 48th
year of Israeli occupation, the 67th year of Palestinians’ ongoing
Nakba (the Arabic word for Israel's ethnic cleansing)--and in the
fourth century of Black oppression in the present-day United States
--we, the undersigned Black activists, artists, scholars, writers,
and political prisoners offer this letter of reaffirmed solidarity
with the Palestinian struggle and commitment to the liberation of
Palestine’s land and people.
We can neither forgive nor forget last summer’s violence.
We remain outraged at the brutality Israel unleashed on Gaza
through its siege by land, sea and air, and three military offensives
in six years.
We remain sickened by Israel’s targeting of homes, schools,
UN shelters, mosques, ambulances, and hospitals.
We remain heartbroken and repulsed by the number of
children Israel killed in an operation it called, “defensive.”
We reject Israel’s framing of itself as a victim.
Anyone who takes an honest look at the destruction to life and
property in Gaza can see Israel committed a one-sided slaughter.
With 100,000 people still homeless in Gaza, the massacre's effects
continue to devastate Gaza today and will for years to come.
Israel’s injustice and cruelty toward Palestinians is not limited to
Gaza and its problem is not with any particular Palestinian party.
The oppression of Palestinians extends throughout the occupied
territories, within Israel’s 1948 borders, and into neighboring countries.
The Israeli Occupation Forces continue to kill protesters—including
children—conduct night raids on civilians, hold hundreds of people
under indefinite detention, and demolish homes while expanding
illegal Jewish-only settlements.
Israeli politicians, including Benjamin Netanyahu, incite against
Palestinian citizens within Israel’s recognized borders, where over
50 laws discriminate against non-Jewish people.
Our support extends to those living under occupation and siege,
Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the 7 million Palestinian refugees
exiled in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine.
The refugees’ right to return to their homeland in present-day
Israel is the most important aspect of justice for Palestinians.
Palestinian liberation represents an inherent threat to Israeli settler
colonialism and apartheid, an apparatus built and sustained on
ethnic cleansing, land theft, and the denial of Palestinian humanity
and sovereignty.
While we acknowledge that the apartheid configuration in
Israel/Palestine is unique from the United States (and South
Africa), we continue to see connections between the situation
of Palestinians and Black people.
Israel’s widespread use of detention and imprisonment against
Palestinians evokes the mass incarceration of Black people in the
US, including the political imprisonment of our own revolutionaries.
Soldiers, police, and courts justify lethal force against us
and our children who pose no imminent threat.
And while the US and Israel would continue to oppress us without
collaborating with each other, we have witnessed police and
soldiers from the two countries train side-by-side.
US and Israeli officials and media criminalize our existence, portray
violence against us as “isolated incidents,” and call our resistance,
“illegitimate” or “terrorism.”
These narratives ignore decades and centuries of anti-Palestinian
and anti-Black violence that have always been at the core of Israel
and the US.
We recognize the racism that characterizes Israel’s treatment of
Palestinians is also directed against others in the region, including
intolerance, police brutality, and violence against Israel’s African
population.
Israeli officials call asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea,
"infiltrators" and detain them in the desert, while the state has
sterilized Ethiopian Israelis without their knowledge or consent.
These issues call for unified action against anti-Blackness,
white supremacy, and Zionism.
We know Israel’s violence toward Palestinians would be impossible
without the US defending Israel on the world stage and funding its
violence with over $3 billion annually.
We call on the US government to end economic
and diplomatic aid to Israel.
We wholeheartedly endorse Palestinian civil society’s 2005 call for
Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and call on
Black and US institutions and organizations to do the same.
We urge people of conscience to recognize the struggle
for Palestinian liberation as a key matter of our time.
As the BDS movement grows, we offer G4S, the world’s largest
private security company, as a target for further joint struggle.
G4S harms thousands of Palestinian political prisoners illegally
held in Israel and hundreds of Black and brown youth held in its
privatized juvenile prisons in the US.
The corporation profits from incarceration and deportation
from the US and Palestine, to the UK, South Africa, and Australia.
We reject notions of, “security” that make any of our groups
unsafe and insist no one is free until all of us are.
We offer this statement first and foremost to Palestinians,
whose suffering does not go unnoticed and whose resistance
and resilience under racism and colonialism inspires us.
It is to Palestinians, as well as the Israeli and US governments,
that we declare our commitment to working through cultural,
economic, and political means to ensure Palestinian liberation
at the same time as we work towards our own.
We encourage activists to use this statement to advance solidarity
with Palestine and we also pressure our own Black political figures
to finally take action on this issue.
As we continue these transnational conversations and interactions,
we aim to sharpen our practice of joint struggle against capitalism,
colonialism, imperialism, and the various racisms embedded in and
around our societies.
Towards Liberation,
http://www.blackforpalestine.com/read-the-statement.html
Friday, August 21, 2015
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Liars
Liars
By Jeff Prager
August 20, 2015
They lied about Tonkin, the USS Liberty, the Maine, and
Pearl Harbor.
They lied about JFK, RFK, MLK, and John; all assassinated.
They lied about 911.
They lied about Vietnam.
They lied about Iraq.
They lied about Libya, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia,
and Gaza.
They lied about South Africa.
They lied about the Congo.
They lied about Rwanda.
They lied about Nicaragua, Honduras, and Panama.
They lied about Haiti, Indonesia, and Korea.
They lied about the flu vaccine, Gardasil, GMO's,
and food irradiation.
They lied about cigarettes, pharmaceuticals, and fluoride.
They lied about pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides.
They lied about cell phones, wifi, and mammograms.
They lied about amalgam fillings, lead in paint, and DDT.
They lied about Columbus, the Two-Party System,
and the Federal Reserve System.
They lied about fiat money, veterans’ benefits, and Agent Orange.
They lied about Fukushima radiation, Oklahoma City,
and the American Indian genocide.
They lied about the state of the US economy.
You know darn well that they've lied to us about
every damn thing from Kindergarten to old age.
They are uncontrolled, compulsive liars and fabricators, makers of
illusions, the creators of delusions.
You think this time they're telling the truth?
Come on!
By Jeff Prager
August 20, 2015
They lied about Tonkin, the USS Liberty, the Maine, and
Pearl Harbor.
They lied about JFK, RFK, MLK, and John; all assassinated.
They lied about 911.
They lied about Vietnam.
They lied about Iraq.
They lied about Libya, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia,
and Gaza.
They lied about South Africa.
They lied about the Congo.
They lied about Rwanda.
They lied about Nicaragua, Honduras, and Panama.
They lied about Haiti, Indonesia, and Korea.
They lied about the flu vaccine, Gardasil, GMO's,
and food irradiation.
They lied about cigarettes, pharmaceuticals, and fluoride.
They lied about pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides.
They lied about cell phones, wifi, and mammograms.
They lied about amalgam fillings, lead in paint, and DDT.
They lied about Columbus, the Two-Party System,
and the Federal Reserve System.
They lied about fiat money, veterans’ benefits, and Agent Orange.
They lied about Fukushima radiation, Oklahoma City,
and the American Indian genocide.
They lied about the state of the US economy.
You know darn well that they've lied to us about
every damn thing from Kindergarten to old age.
They are uncontrolled, compulsive liars and fabricators, makers of
illusions, the creators of delusions.
You think this time they're telling the truth?
Come on!
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Can Mass Extinction Lead To Something Better?
Can Mass Extinction Lead To Something Better?
By Thom Hartmann
OpEdNews.com
August 18, 2015
Every day we hear more and more about the disasters that we face
if we continue to rely on fossil fuels for our main energy sources.
And while we used to hear about the warnings as dangers far off
in the future -- now we know that the effects of climate change
are happening today.
And that the effects are more extreme than we originally predicted
even two or three years ago.
But what would happen in the worst case scenario -- what would
happen if -- like Elizabeth Kolbert warns in her most recent book
climate change caused mass extinctions across the planet Earth?
According to new research -- it could actually accelerate evolution
on Earth.
New research from the University of Texas at Austin used simulated
robot brains that were programmed to improve at a task from one
generation to the next.
In that way -- the robot brains were designed to evolve to be
better at a specific task.
For the robots in the study -- the task was to walk on two legs.
After several robot "generations" -- a number of different robot
behaviors had evolved to achieve the goal of walking.
But not all of those behaviors were useful to the goal of walking.
So the researchers "killed" 90% of the robot populations to simulate
a mass extinction.
And they found that the robot brain survivors began adapting
and evolving much quicker than any groups had before the event.
Which makes a lot of sense according to modern evolutionary
theory.
You see -- Charles Darwin described evolution as what happens
when creatures mutate and adapt very slowly over generations
of time to best adjust to their surroundings and their environment.
But he was looking at the Galapagos Islands -- which had
been relatively unchanged for thousands of years -- and he
most famously described evolution using the island's many
finches as his example of what we call "divergent evolution."
But Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould came up
with a slightly different theory in 1972.
They agreed that Darwin's evolution described most of what
humans have actually seen while we've been on this planet.
But they added that there are also catastrophes and sudden
changes that cause "rapid destruction" that also drive evolution
and drive it much more rapidly.
And that's what the researchers at University of Texas
at Austin confirmed with their robot brain experiment.
Here's how it works:
When a mass catastrophe occurs -- like the asteroid impact that
wiped out the dinosaurs, or the researchers' robot-brain genocide
or human-caused climate change -- it doesn't wipe out ALL LIFE.
It only kills MOST life -- but among those who are left as survivors
include the creatures that are already best suited to adapt to the
catastrophe -- and to survive in the post-catastrophe world.
In other words -- the creatures that survive are already mutants.
And what happens when most of life is wiped out and the mutants
are most of what's left?
The mutants -- the ones that used to fit neatly into an evolutionary
niche within a larger group -- they can all of a sudden start
changing to make use of the niches that the extinct creatures used
to take up.
They begin to rapidly take on "new" traits that wouldn't have been
useful to them before -- because there's no other competition in
those niches.
What the researchers found -- is that the "mutants" that were most
flexible before a mass extinction event will blossom and begin
rapidly adapting within a small population that has survived a mass
extinction event.
Eventually -- the less adaptable "non-mutants" will either die off or
be subsumed into the genetic pool of the more adaptable mutants.
So what does all of this have to do with climate change?
The fact is -- we're headed for a mass extinction event if we
continue to pump fossil fuel resources out of the ground and
burn them into the atmosphere -- and if we continue to let
our oceans acidify and life in the oceans die.
With the research from the University of Texas at Austin in mind,
and with Eldredge and Gould's theory in mind, we can wonder
about who the mutants are and how humanity and the rest of
life on Earth might suddenly rapidly evolve after a climate change
caused mass extinction event.
After all, as dark of a subject as it is, it's fascinating to consider.
But why don't we just avoid the whole debacle and cut fossil fuel
subsidies and invest in a clean and renewable future?
One could even argue that by driving climate change,
we're helping life along by speeding up evolution.
But a frankly far more prudent course is to keep the mass
extinctions to the computer made robot brains, and work
on preserving the life on Earth that already surrounds us.
Thom Hartmann is a Project Censored Award-Winning New York
Times Best-Selling Author, and Host of a nationally syndicated
daily talk program on the Air America Radio Network.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Can-Mass-Extinction-Lead-t-
by-Thom-Hartmann-Catastrophe_Climate_Mass-Extinction-150814-
313.html
By Thom Hartmann
OpEdNews.com
August 18, 2015
Every day we hear more and more about the disasters that we face
if we continue to rely on fossil fuels for our main energy sources.
And while we used to hear about the warnings as dangers far off
in the future -- now we know that the effects of climate change
are happening today.
And that the effects are more extreme than we originally predicted
even two or three years ago.
But what would happen in the worst case scenario -- what would
happen if -- like Elizabeth Kolbert warns in her most recent book
climate change caused mass extinctions across the planet Earth?
According to new research -- it could actually accelerate evolution
on Earth.
New research from the University of Texas at Austin used simulated
robot brains that were programmed to improve at a task from one
generation to the next.
In that way -- the robot brains were designed to evolve to be
better at a specific task.
For the robots in the study -- the task was to walk on two legs.
After several robot "generations" -- a number of different robot
behaviors had evolved to achieve the goal of walking.
But not all of those behaviors were useful to the goal of walking.
So the researchers "killed" 90% of the robot populations to simulate
a mass extinction.
And they found that the robot brain survivors began adapting
and evolving much quicker than any groups had before the event.
Which makes a lot of sense according to modern evolutionary
theory.
You see -- Charles Darwin described evolution as what happens
when creatures mutate and adapt very slowly over generations
of time to best adjust to their surroundings and their environment.
But he was looking at the Galapagos Islands -- which had
been relatively unchanged for thousands of years -- and he
most famously described evolution using the island's many
finches as his example of what we call "divergent evolution."
But Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould came up
with a slightly different theory in 1972.
They agreed that Darwin's evolution described most of what
humans have actually seen while we've been on this planet.
But they added that there are also catastrophes and sudden
changes that cause "rapid destruction" that also drive evolution
and drive it much more rapidly.
And that's what the researchers at University of Texas
at Austin confirmed with their robot brain experiment.
Here's how it works:
When a mass catastrophe occurs -- like the asteroid impact that
wiped out the dinosaurs, or the researchers' robot-brain genocide
or human-caused climate change -- it doesn't wipe out ALL LIFE.
It only kills MOST life -- but among those who are left as survivors
include the creatures that are already best suited to adapt to the
catastrophe -- and to survive in the post-catastrophe world.
In other words -- the creatures that survive are already mutants.
And what happens when most of life is wiped out and the mutants
are most of what's left?
The mutants -- the ones that used to fit neatly into an evolutionary
niche within a larger group -- they can all of a sudden start
changing to make use of the niches that the extinct creatures used
to take up.
They begin to rapidly take on "new" traits that wouldn't have been
useful to them before -- because there's no other competition in
those niches.
What the researchers found -- is that the "mutants" that were most
flexible before a mass extinction event will blossom and begin
rapidly adapting within a small population that has survived a mass
extinction event.
Eventually -- the less adaptable "non-mutants" will either die off or
be subsumed into the genetic pool of the more adaptable mutants.
So what does all of this have to do with climate change?
The fact is -- we're headed for a mass extinction event if we
continue to pump fossil fuel resources out of the ground and
burn them into the atmosphere -- and if we continue to let
our oceans acidify and life in the oceans die.
With the research from the University of Texas at Austin in mind,
and with Eldredge and Gould's theory in mind, we can wonder
about who the mutants are and how humanity and the rest of
life on Earth might suddenly rapidly evolve after a climate change
caused mass extinction event.
After all, as dark of a subject as it is, it's fascinating to consider.
But why don't we just avoid the whole debacle and cut fossil fuel
subsidies and invest in a clean and renewable future?
One could even argue that by driving climate change,
we're helping life along by speeding up evolution.
But a frankly far more prudent course is to keep the mass
extinctions to the computer made robot brains, and work
on preserving the life on Earth that already surrounds us.
Thom Hartmann is a Project Censored Award-Winning New York
Times Best-Selling Author, and Host of a nationally syndicated
daily talk program on the Air America Radio Network.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Can-Mass-Extinction-Lead-t-
by-Thom-Hartmann-Catastrophe_Climate_Mass-Extinction-150814-
313.html
Sunday, August 16, 2015
The Great Tribulation
The Great Tribulation
By Jamond Sunla
August 16, 2015
NOTE: NO ONE KNOWS WHEN THE GREAT TRIBULATION IS GOING
TO START. THESE ARE THE SIGNS OF IT BEING NEAR.
Type September 23rd 2015 into Google Maps... The Destination
Will Shock you.
It takes you to, "CERN" the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
If you don't know what CERN the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
this will explain it in a little more detail.
CERN the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and
most powerful particle collider, the largest, most complex
experimental facility ever built, and the largest single machine
in the world.
Now here is were we go deep.
On September 23rd, 2015 is, "GOD'S DAY OF ATONEMENT."
The Day of Atonement, Is the Holiest day of the year for
Israel and Israelites.
(12 Tribe's of Jacob) The central themes are atonement
and repentance.
A·tone·ment
noun
reparation for a wrong or injury.
rep·a·ra·tion
noun
the making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying
money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged.
According to Jewish tradition, God inscribes each person's fate
for the coming year into a book, "The Book of Life."
Daniel 12:1-3
King James Version (KJV)
12 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which
standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time
of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that
same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every
one that shall be found written in the **book**.
2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the
stars for ever and ever.
Revelation 20:15
King James Version (KJV)
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life
was cast into the lake of fire.
Revelation 21:27
King James Version (KJV)
27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth,
neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but
they which are written in the Lamb's book of life
Now let's go deeper.
The CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be used to open,
"The Abyss" (Hell), by opening a, "Portal" Which will allow,
"Demons" to come thru and cause, "Hell on Earth."
Here's a major fact and it's in Scripture.
Revelation 9:1-2
King James Version (KJV)
9 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven
unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless
pit.
2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke
out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun
and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
By Jamond Sunla
August 16, 2015
NOTE: NO ONE KNOWS WHEN THE GREAT TRIBULATION IS GOING
TO START. THESE ARE THE SIGNS OF IT BEING NEAR.
Type September 23rd 2015 into Google Maps... The Destination
Will Shock you.
It takes you to, "CERN" the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
If you don't know what CERN the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
this will explain it in a little more detail.
CERN the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and
most powerful particle collider, the largest, most complex
experimental facility ever built, and the largest single machine
in the world.
Now here is were we go deep.
On September 23rd, 2015 is, "GOD'S DAY OF ATONEMENT."
The Day of Atonement, Is the Holiest day of the year for
Israel and Israelites.
(12 Tribe's of Jacob) The central themes are atonement
and repentance.
A·tone·ment
noun
reparation for a wrong or injury.
rep·a·ra·tion
noun
the making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying
money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged.
According to Jewish tradition, God inscribes each person's fate
for the coming year into a book, "The Book of Life."
Daniel 12:1-3
King James Version (KJV)
12 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which
standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time
of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that
same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every
one that shall be found written in the **book**.
2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the
stars for ever and ever.
Revelation 20:15
King James Version (KJV)
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life
was cast into the lake of fire.
Revelation 21:27
King James Version (KJV)
27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth,
neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but
they which are written in the Lamb's book of life
Now let's go deeper.
The CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be used to open,
"The Abyss" (Hell), by opening a, "Portal" Which will allow,
"Demons" to come thru and cause, "Hell on Earth."
Here's a major fact and it's in Scripture.
Revelation 9:1-2
King James Version (KJV)
9 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven
unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless
pit.
2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke
out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun
and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Universal Life
Universal Life
By Halteres
August 15, 2015
Life Is Atomic
The Experience
Of The Universe
Vibrates Within You
You Were Born
With The Cosmos
Live As Part Of It
And You Will Never Die
Anything Is Possible
Probable Inevitable
Be fearless And Without Doubt
There Is Nothing Unknown
Feel Your Elemental Self
It Speaks The Truth
With Divine Circumstance
You Are All Powerful
By Halteres
August 15, 2015
Life Is Atomic
The Experience
Of The Universe
Vibrates Within You
You Were Born
With The Cosmos
Live As Part Of It
And You Will Never Die
Anything Is Possible
Probable Inevitable
Be fearless And Without Doubt
There Is Nothing Unknown
Feel Your Elemental Self
It Speaks The Truth
With Divine Circumstance
You Are All Powerful
Thursday, August 6, 2015
A New Quest
A New Quest
By John Michael Greer
Adbusters.org
August 6, 2015
It’s almost impossible to overstate the impact these tectonic
shifts will have on contemporary culture.
Ideas, institutions and ways of life forged in an era of prolonged
economic contraction and environmental blowback.
As they collapse, other ideas, institutions and ways of life will have
to be found and deployed, and that work of rebuilding will have to
be done amid the stresses and unpredictable impacts of a troubled
time.
It’s a harrowing task and the one source of reassurance I know is
that the other human societies, in other ages, have managed the
same thing within the hard limits of the resources, opportunities
and wisdom available to them at the time.
Seen from another perspective, however — the perspective of
the emerging religious sensibility — the time ahead of us takes
on a different meaning.
At the heart of the older sensibility that’s now guttering out
around us was a daring, if not necessarily wise, attempt to break
free of the natural world entirely so that humanity could launch
itself beyond all limitations and break through into eternity and
infinity.
The religions, the intellectual movements and ultimately the
superlative technological achievements of Western civilization
were all pressed into service in making that attempt.
In a certain very limited sense, that effort succeeded.
A modest number of human beings were tossed briefly outside
the atmosphere and circled around our planet for a while before
returning home, while a handful went further still, to stand on
the surface of the Moon or orbit through the void surrounding it.
Their voyages may well provide our descendants with a powerful
symbol of the subtler but equally real journey of billions of people
in the world’s industrial societies, who managed to talk themselves,
for a while, into believing that they were outside nature, superior
to it, waiting only for some final dramatic change — spiritual,
social, technological, or some blending of the three — to bring
ordinary existence to a close forever.
In a deeper sense, though, the grand attempt to transcend the
human condition forever has been a resounding flop and its failure
has brought harsh consequences to the biosphere that supports us
and to our own humanity.
The task before us at this point in the turning of time’s wheel,
though, is prefigured by those short journeys outside the
atmosphere that simultaneously fulfilled and betrayed the
dream of the space age, that strange cultural phenomenon
that briefly loaded hopes of transcendence onto a collection
of rocketry.
Once the astronauts had finished gathering rocks, taking photos
and pursuing their other chores on the Moon, the remainder of
their journey beckoned: not a leap further outward through
some bleaker void to some yet more desolate destination, but
the simple task of returning to the living planet they had so briefly left behind.
That same task awaits the people of the world’s industrial
nations today.
We have taken the old quest to break free from nature and
the human condition very nearly as far as our considerable
technological powers would permit, and in the process,
created landscapes — spiritual, cultural and in some places
physical as well — very nearly as bleak as the Moon’s silent
and airless wastes.
Whether that was a good idea or a bad one, a choice or a necessity,
a triumph or a terrible failure, is ultimately less relevant than the
fact that the effort has run its course.
A different quest calls us now, murmuring through the emerging
religious sensibility of our age, rising stark before us in the cold
gray dawn of a world after progress: to return to the living Earth
and come to know it again as the whole of which each of us is a
part.
After all our wanderings, it is time to come home.
— John Michael Greer, After Progress
https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/120/new-quest.html
By John Michael Greer
Adbusters.org
August 6, 2015
It’s almost impossible to overstate the impact these tectonic
shifts will have on contemporary culture.
Ideas, institutions and ways of life forged in an era of prolonged
economic contraction and environmental blowback.
As they collapse, other ideas, institutions and ways of life will have
to be found and deployed, and that work of rebuilding will have to
be done amid the stresses and unpredictable impacts of a troubled
time.
It’s a harrowing task and the one source of reassurance I know is
that the other human societies, in other ages, have managed the
same thing within the hard limits of the resources, opportunities
and wisdom available to them at the time.
Seen from another perspective, however — the perspective of
the emerging religious sensibility — the time ahead of us takes
on a different meaning.
At the heart of the older sensibility that’s now guttering out
around us was a daring, if not necessarily wise, attempt to break
free of the natural world entirely so that humanity could launch
itself beyond all limitations and break through into eternity and
infinity.
The religions, the intellectual movements and ultimately the
superlative technological achievements of Western civilization
were all pressed into service in making that attempt.
In a certain very limited sense, that effort succeeded.
A modest number of human beings were tossed briefly outside
the atmosphere and circled around our planet for a while before
returning home, while a handful went further still, to stand on
the surface of the Moon or orbit through the void surrounding it.
Their voyages may well provide our descendants with a powerful
symbol of the subtler but equally real journey of billions of people
in the world’s industrial societies, who managed to talk themselves,
for a while, into believing that they were outside nature, superior
to it, waiting only for some final dramatic change — spiritual,
social, technological, or some blending of the three — to bring
ordinary existence to a close forever.
In a deeper sense, though, the grand attempt to transcend the
human condition forever has been a resounding flop and its failure
has brought harsh consequences to the biosphere that supports us
and to our own humanity.
The task before us at this point in the turning of time’s wheel,
though, is prefigured by those short journeys outside the
atmosphere that simultaneously fulfilled and betrayed the
dream of the space age, that strange cultural phenomenon
that briefly loaded hopes of transcendence onto a collection
of rocketry.
Once the astronauts had finished gathering rocks, taking photos
and pursuing their other chores on the Moon, the remainder of
their journey beckoned: not a leap further outward through
some bleaker void to some yet more desolate destination, but
the simple task of returning to the living planet they had so briefly left behind.
That same task awaits the people of the world’s industrial
nations today.
We have taken the old quest to break free from nature and
the human condition very nearly as far as our considerable
technological powers would permit, and in the process,
created landscapes — spiritual, cultural and in some places
physical as well — very nearly as bleak as the Moon’s silent
and airless wastes.
Whether that was a good idea or a bad one, a choice or a necessity,
a triumph or a terrible failure, is ultimately less relevant than the
fact that the effort has run its course.
A different quest calls us now, murmuring through the emerging
religious sensibility of our age, rising stark before us in the cold
gray dawn of a world after progress: to return to the living Earth
and come to know it again as the whole of which each of us is a
part.
After all our wanderings, it is time to come home.
— John Michael Greer, After Progress
https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/120/new-quest.html
Monday, August 3, 2015
Time
Time
By Jitter Flowers
August 3, 2015
Today is Monday, August 3rd, 2015, the 21st Century, of the 3rd
Millennium, of the Holocene Epoch, in Quaternary Period, in the
Cenozoic Era, inside the Phanerozoic Eon, on planet Earth, of the
Sol Solar System, in the Milky Way Galaxy, located in a cluster
called the Local Group, among infinite other Galaxies, contained
in infinite other Universes.
Time is so limitless, yet so short.
What are you doing with it?
By Jitter Flowers
August 3, 2015
Today is Monday, August 3rd, 2015, the 21st Century, of the 3rd
Millennium, of the Holocene Epoch, in Quaternary Period, in the
Cenozoic Era, inside the Phanerozoic Eon, on planet Earth, of the
Sol Solar System, in the Milky Way Galaxy, located in a cluster
called the Local Group, among infinite other Galaxies, contained
in infinite other Universes.
Time is so limitless, yet so short.
What are you doing with it?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
