Derrick Jensen on Identification
“I have another friend who called me and said, ‘how much longer do you think we’re going to be in Iraq?’ I looked around and was like, ‘I thought we were in Northern California.’ And he was like, ‘No, Derrick, how much longer do you think our troops will be in Iraq?’ I said, ‘I got troops? That’s great. Can I tell them to go blow up a damn or something for me.’ And he’s like, ‘You know, this is why I only call you about once a month, Derrick.’
Jensen irritates me a lot, but this is priceless! So apt for today too…
When Derrick Jensen takes credit for defining civilisation as ‘culture based on the expansion of cities’….
The more things change….
‘After all, can not one every day and in every large city observe the same phenomenon that has followed the disaster in San Francisco? Surely there were homeless, starved, despaired, wretched beings in San Francisco before the earthquake and the fire, yet the public’s pity and sympathy haughtily passed them by; and official sympathy and compassion had nothing but the police station and the workhouse to give them.
And now,—what is really being done now? Humanitarianism is exhibiting itself in a low and vulgar manner, and superficiality and bad taste are stalking about in peacock fashion.
The newspapers are full of praise for the bravery of the militia in their defense of property. A man was instantly shot as he walked out of a saloon with his arms full of champagne bottles, and another was shot for carrying off a sack of coffee, etc. How strange that the “brave boys” of the militia,—who, by the way, had to be severely disciplined because of their beastly drunkenness,—showed so much noble indignation against a few clumsy thieves! During the strikes and labor conflicts it is usually their mission to protect the property of skillful thieves,—legal thieves, of course.
Finally what is going to be the end of the great display of superficial sentimentality for the stricken city? An all-around good deal: Moneyed people, contractors, real estate speculators will make large sums of money. Indeed it is not at all unlikely that within a few months good Christian capitalists will secretly thank their Lord that he sent the earthquake.’
Mother Earth - 1906
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27262/27262-h/27262-h.htm#Page_3
"Why do you allow these men who are in power to rob you step by step, openly and in secret, of one domain of your rights after another, until one day nothing, nothing at all will be left but a mechanised state system presided over by criminals and drunks? Is your spirit already so crushed by abuse that you forget it is your right - or rather, your moral duty - to eliminate this system?"
-White Rose SocietyHow not to make friends down pub:
‘At least the traditional christian worldview had within it the idea that our eventual good fortune is predicated on the suffering flesh of an innocent man, and currently, in our lives, our relative good fortune is dependent on the mortified flesh of thousands. Catholic guilt is not just about moral punishment, it is about acknowledging your personal responsibility for terrible suffering. I reckon we could maybe do with some of that acknowledgement now. Guilt is to my mind often a better motivator for altruism than pursuit of an abstract ideal. The guilty know they are fallible. ‘
Devil’s advocate? Maybe, maybe not. I do think there is something to the idea, but I would hardly defend the church. This guilt is of course what feeds people with ‘saviour complexes’ … I guess I’m talking about Christians who use reflection on the torture of Jesus’s body to empathise with others who suffer. Of course those might be the people who would empathise anyway.
‘What atheists dismiss as god is usually the paternal law-giver in the sky, or the ‘ghost’. However, much religious/spiritual thinking and scholarship for thousands of years has used the name ‘god’ to refer to ‘that which is beyond human understanding’, This is one of the reasons for the perceived arrogance of atheism. Not because it denies ‘the awesome power of god’, but because it does not accept the fundamental limitation of human perception and knowledge.’
‘Back in early medieval times, there was no cash economy, few buyers, and even fewer sellers, but there are surprising parallels between these ancient trading outposts and modern shopping centres.’
Shut up BBC.
"But the spirit of purism has so perverted the human mind that it has lost the power to appreciate the beauty of nudity, forcing us to hide the natural form under the plea of chastity. Yet chastity itself is but an artificial imposition upon nature, expressive of a false shame of the human form. The modern idea of chastity, especially in reference to woman, its greatest victim, is but the sensuous exaggeration of our natural impulses. “Chastity varies with the amount of clothing,” and hence Christians and purists forever hasten to cover the “heathen” with tatters, and thus convert him to goodness and chastity."
-Emma GoldmanCouldn’t stand being stuck inside last night and went out for a few whiskeys. My usual filter was off so I defended the middle ages, talked about art, was a Christian apologist and was pretty open about my political views. Huh. Actually had a pretty nice time and a few really interesting chats. I should be less paranoid about being a bore.
Speaking on an interview for 3CR (an Australian community radio station), also in 2008, she described herself as “an old anarchist” and reaffirmed that opposition to “hierarchy and capitalism” were at the centre of her politics.In January 2012, Greer appeared on the BBC television programme Question Time and affirmed her membership of the British Liberal Democrat party.
Wikipedia
Know your enemy…..
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Howard Zinn is a little in love with Emma Goldman in love with Ben Reitman……
28 playsStuck home in bed for three days now. I started coughing up some blood this morning :(..
Movies watched:
Holy Smoke
The Science of Sleep
Nausicaa
Suspiria
Black Swan
Le Temps du Loup
Heavenly Creatures
The Concrete Garden
Das Leben der Anderen
Starship Troopers
Sophie Scholl
Swing Kids
The only ones I’d watched before were The Science of Sleep, Nausicaa and Swing Kids. Maybe it is my slightly fogged brain, I liked them all…usually I’m a pretty harsh critic, but these were all decent. I am taking any and all recommendations. What should I watch?
