If you want agriculture, you first need to find an arable piece of
land. If there are creatures on it, they will need to be killed or
removed. Swiftly now; it is your right.
To effectively work (exploit) the Earth, you need metals.
If you want metals, you have to have a mine. If you have a mine, you
have to hire security to keep poor people away from it and to keep workers from stealing from it. (Look around; the
police stand in front of everything somebody needs.) Mining is miserable
work, but don't worry; employees will be abundant since, after
destroying their way of life via agriculture and domestication, they
will have no choice but to work in the mine. Bosses will keep them in line. Hierarchies develop. This is the way it should be. Plus, in
a few generations, the workers will forget that they were once independent and
call their current situation, "just the way it is".
Agriculture means more food at first, so more people will have children.
That means more agriculture, which means more metals. More smelters.
More security. More houses built. Take more land to build those houses.
Kill off nature or animals on the surrounding lands. Cut down the trees. Clearing the forests
requires more metal. More mining. More workers. More expansion. More force. (If the
people on the land with the resources you need continue to resist, you'll
have to "convince" them.)
More resources now available means more babies, which means people
spread out, which requires more transportation, which needs more
infrastructure. That requires more metal. More workers to do miserable
work. More security to guard the infrastructure, agriculture, smelters,
property and mines. More exploitaiton of nature. More death. (Just don't kill each other and there is no problem.)
Eventually you will run into more people and animals who don't want to
give up their land. They will fight back. You now need an army. That means taxes. Tell the people it is for their own good. You will need politicians to convince them. Politicians are your friends. They look out for you. Without them, your enemies would destroy you.
You need to create fictional justifications of why people are better
off domesticated under the new agriculture system. Call it "progress"
and demonize the ancestors who lived under the old way. (You
don't want anyone not dependent. That would threaten your new, better, deserved way of life.) You'll need
the leaders to repeat this over and over again until people believe it. Tell all the children. Get them young. They are the future. This way is the best way.
Tell
the workers that they only have to be nice to each other. Don't aggress. Follow the rules and you'll get ahead. Nature is not special like us. It is here for us to use. The children are starting to agree. They will tell their children.
While taking what is yours, you will encouter rough terrain. You need technology--chainsaws,
ploughs, etc. More comes out of the Earth. The humans living on the land
with the needed resources don't want to give it up. Send in the military.
Create propaganda to justify it. More leaders emerge to tell the new
generations that this is the way it should be. They hire more enforcers to
keep people in line. Without that security, the system breaks down. This is normal. It is for your own good.
More layers of control develop. People spread farther out. We need regional
leaders. We need more land. More resources. That means more workers.
The workers are now hopelessly dependent on the system that exploits
them. Any that speak out need to be dealt with. That requires police, plus leaders to tell everyone that it is all okay. "Nothing to see here. Move along. Keep your head down and keep quiet. You can't make a difference anyway."
The military makes capitalism possible. Without their guns, we wouldn't
be able to get or transport the raw materials to make stuff that makes
our way of life possible. Capitalism is the best way--the only way. We wouldn't want to go back to how those
"savages" lived, would we? The ones who
created technology to preserve their land instead of destroying it? That would be ridiculous.
After all, then we wouldn't have smart phones, indoor plumbing or fast food available twenty-four hours per day. And everybody knows that is the only way to live. The leaders told me so.
More.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Thursday, December 5, 2013
I Was A Lab'rer Like My Father Was Before
Lately I've been listening to two of the only "salt of the Earth" songs I know:
Downeaster Alexa by Billy Joel
The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald By Gordon Lightfoot
Coincidentally they are both about ships. But, more importantly, they're about downtrodden people who do desperate things for money. Society did not choose them to be affluent, so they do what they can to eat. Commercial fisherman have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Other seafaring workers aren't much better off. They picked the wrong parents.
My full-time job is white collar, but I took a blue collar job on weekends. Why? Because I want to stay mad. I never want to be complacent--to feel that I am separate from the proletariat or above them. I deal with rich people in both positions, and am often treated the same--as "the help". What many fail to realize is just how lucky wealthy people were to have the circumstances they did to amass their fortunes: the right smarts, connections, maybe a touch of sociopathy, and hugely--being in the right place at the right time.
Still, I see much dissatisfaction and neurotic behavior among those blessed with affluence, but most of their problems are their own fault. Living simply is very easy.
Then again, there is the chance that they are trying to fill the hole that civilization left when it began to destroy nature. Buying stuff and telling people what to do seems to help.
The more I learn about primitives, the harder it is to focus. Of course, I will because, quite frankly, I have a gun at my back. If I don't work, I don't eat. I'm out on the street digging through dumpsters for the 92 billion pounds of food people in the US throw out every year. But I can't help but think of the 2-3 hours hunter-gatherers generally worked. I dream of the egalitarian life they had. There was no class division among them. Nobody thought themselves better than the others because they had more green pieces of paper. Few starved because they all shared. And, unlike the salt of the Earth, they did not futiley try to control the world around them. (Farmers are the most aggregious offenders.)
I hold no ill will whatsoever to the blue collar worker. My father is one of them, as am I. But unlike many, I realize the damage of what I'm doing is causing the Earth. Nevertheless, the humility centers me.
Who is richer: the person with many possessions or another with few, but leisure, community and purpose? High stress managing money or low stress dealing with the day by day?
Here is an excellent article with details about Stone Age living.
The technology and "conveniences" humans have created have enslaved them. We are all grown children who, if left without electricity and commercially grown food, would likely starve. The laborers--the salt--might do a little better, but we are nothing compared to even a primitive child. As technology advances, we become even more dependent on it and alienated to nature. I respect the hell out of a calloused hand, but hard work to survive didn't begin until people began trying to rule the Earth with agriculture and domestication.
It all makes me sad... which is probably why I keep coming back to these songs.
Downeaster Alexa by Billy Joel
The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald By Gordon Lightfoot
Coincidentally they are both about ships. But, more importantly, they're about downtrodden people who do desperate things for money. Society did not choose them to be affluent, so they do what they can to eat. Commercial fisherman have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Other seafaring workers aren't much better off. They picked the wrong parents.
My full-time job is white collar, but I took a blue collar job on weekends. Why? Because I want to stay mad. I never want to be complacent--to feel that I am separate from the proletariat or above them. I deal with rich people in both positions, and am often treated the same--as "the help". What many fail to realize is just how lucky wealthy people were to have the circumstances they did to amass their fortunes: the right smarts, connections, maybe a touch of sociopathy, and hugely--being in the right place at the right time.
Still, I see much dissatisfaction and neurotic behavior among those blessed with affluence, but most of their problems are their own fault. Living simply is very easy.
Then again, there is the chance that they are trying to fill the hole that civilization left when it began to destroy nature. Buying stuff and telling people what to do seems to help.
The more I learn about primitives, the harder it is to focus. Of course, I will because, quite frankly, I have a gun at my back. If I don't work, I don't eat. I'm out on the street digging through dumpsters for the 92 billion pounds of food people in the US throw out every year. But I can't help but think of the 2-3 hours hunter-gatherers generally worked. I dream of the egalitarian life they had. There was no class division among them. Nobody thought themselves better than the others because they had more green pieces of paper. Few starved because they all shared. And, unlike the salt of the Earth, they did not futiley try to control the world around them. (Farmers are the most aggregious offenders.)
I hold no ill will whatsoever to the blue collar worker. My father is one of them, as am I. But unlike many, I realize the damage of what I'm doing is causing the Earth. Nevertheless, the humility centers me.
Who is richer: the person with many possessions or another with few, but leisure, community and purpose? High stress managing money or low stress dealing with the day by day?
Here is an excellent article with details about Stone Age living.
The technology and "conveniences" humans have created have enslaved them. We are all grown children who, if left without electricity and commercially grown food, would likely starve. The laborers--the salt--might do a little better, but we are nothing compared to even a primitive child. As technology advances, we become even more dependent on it and alienated to nature. I respect the hell out of a calloused hand, but hard work to survive didn't begin until people began trying to rule the Earth with agriculture and domestication.
It all makes me sad... which is probably why I keep coming back to these songs.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Human Domestication
I misspelled it as "doomestication". How fitting.
I have been living and working with animals my entire life. I've seen them at their best and at their worst. I love them and most of the best relationships I've ever had have been with non-humans.
It breaks my heart with the information I have now: that they are all domesticated. On purpose, for personal gain, humans have blunted their natural instincts.
I own a rescue bird who was taken from the wild by some asshole because she's very pretty. She's also very loud. And messy. And fussy. And bossy. But, what can I expect? The Earth was hers to roam--flying to wherever she wanted. Now, after three homes, she sits in a cage waiting for me to come home. I pet and play with her, but it can never be what she once had.
I have see this bird do things that starkly remind me of human behaviors:
1) Plucking her feathers when she's stressed. This reminds me of humans overeating or doing drugs to deal with anxiety. Wreck the body to quiet the mind. Focus the anguish elsewhere.
2) Repetitive behavior. She will grab a bar on her cage and run in place in her food bowl. This is because she's bored. Humans engage in similar behaviors--especially at work. We fidget, pace, etc.
3) Not eating or drinking because she is depressed. Humans mirror this with anorexia and self-neglect.
The conclusion is obvious: humans are domesticated too. We lived outside with the rest of the planet for millions of years. Now, most of us cower in offices moving around abstractions wishing away the only thing we have: time. We go from phone screen to work screen to TV screen back to phone screen in order to escape the control system into which we were born. We destroy our bodies, fight each other over fictional ideas (like politics), and lie to ourselves and everyone else just so we can face another uphill battle tomorrow. We are cattle to the ruling class, who are our tax farmers. We can choose different flavors of coffee but have no say in whether or not we are free. For most of us, every day is exactly the same. It's a non-stop struggle. The animals suffer silently alongside us.
Why do you think 70 percent of Americans are on prescription drugs? Why do you think over a quarter of Americans have been diagnosed with a mental illness? We are trapped in a civilization cage. Our brain tells us something is wrong, but instead of obeying, we stuff food, drugs and entertainment in the hole where nature belongs.
God damn it. I hate that this culture has taken away our ability to be self-sufficient. It soaked every meal and small pleasure in blood as our existences in technological death machine destroy the land we need to live. Those who murder the Earth are rewarded, and non-humans bear the brunt.
"If animals have religion, surely mankind is the devil."
Please listen to this interview. It describes much more articulately what I' m trying to say.
I have been living and working with animals my entire life. I've seen them at their best and at their worst. I love them and most of the best relationships I've ever had have been with non-humans.
It breaks my heart with the information I have now: that they are all domesticated. On purpose, for personal gain, humans have blunted their natural instincts.
I own a rescue bird who was taken from the wild by some asshole because she's very pretty. She's also very loud. And messy. And fussy. And bossy. But, what can I expect? The Earth was hers to roam--flying to wherever she wanted. Now, after three homes, she sits in a cage waiting for me to come home. I pet and play with her, but it can never be what she once had.
I have see this bird do things that starkly remind me of human behaviors:
1) Plucking her feathers when she's stressed. This reminds me of humans overeating or doing drugs to deal with anxiety. Wreck the body to quiet the mind. Focus the anguish elsewhere.
2) Repetitive behavior. She will grab a bar on her cage and run in place in her food bowl. This is because she's bored. Humans engage in similar behaviors--especially at work. We fidget, pace, etc.
3) Not eating or drinking because she is depressed. Humans mirror this with anorexia and self-neglect.
The conclusion is obvious: humans are domesticated too. We lived outside with the rest of the planet for millions of years. Now, most of us cower in offices moving around abstractions wishing away the only thing we have: time. We go from phone screen to work screen to TV screen back to phone screen in order to escape the control system into which we were born. We destroy our bodies, fight each other over fictional ideas (like politics), and lie to ourselves and everyone else just so we can face another uphill battle tomorrow. We are cattle to the ruling class, who are our tax farmers. We can choose different flavors of coffee but have no say in whether or not we are free. For most of us, every day is exactly the same. It's a non-stop struggle. The animals suffer silently alongside us.
Why do you think 70 percent of Americans are on prescription drugs? Why do you think over a quarter of Americans have been diagnosed with a mental illness? We are trapped in a civilization cage. Our brain tells us something is wrong, but instead of obeying, we stuff food, drugs and entertainment in the hole where nature belongs.
God damn it. I hate that this culture has taken away our ability to be self-sufficient. It soaked every meal and small pleasure in blood as our existences in technological death machine destroy the land we need to live. Those who murder the Earth are rewarded, and non-humans bear the brunt.
"If animals have religion, surely mankind is the devil."
Please listen to this interview. It describes much more articulately what I' m trying to say.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Impotent Anger: Civilization's Biggest Control Mechanism
Honesty is my worst character flaw. It has been nothing but a liability
growing up in this society. I am unable to schmooze and endear myself to
most of the populace because I am interested only in truth, not comforting lies.
I have to pretend that people who support the ruling class--the monopoly of violence with guns and jails--are anything but passive-aggressive oppressors. I have to grit my teeth and deal with individuals who don't care about anything but themselves, and who actually see that as a good thing. I have to humor petty disgusting people who think that selfishness is a virtue and that having a lot of money is an achievement regardless of how it's gotten.
The need for money makes me bottle my rage when people in the upper class use derogatory terms to my face as if it is normal. I am "the help" after all.
I have to sit back virtually powerless and watch these people destroy the planet and exploit the defenseless. This is called being "civilized". The entire Western culture is set up to protect sociopaths who, oftentimes, feel they are good people because they don't beat their wives--all the while keeping others down to uphold their materialistic lifestyles.
Primitive tribes were generally egalitarian; that is, there were no hierarchies. Then the Europeans conquered them and destroyed equality--putting in place an immoral slave culture that assigns people rank based on what they own. Possessing more means exploiting more--turning the living into the dead. That is called progress.
There is no equality with capitalism. Once a creature has a price its value is based on subjectivity. What a sick, twisted way to view the Earth. Owning life. As if humans have any claim to the Earth. As if they were here before the Earth. As if the Earth could not swallow them where they stand.
The arrogance is astounding.
I have to pretend that people who support the ruling class--the monopoly of violence with guns and jails--are anything but passive-aggressive oppressors. I have to grit my teeth and deal with individuals who don't care about anything but themselves, and who actually see that as a good thing. I have to humor petty disgusting people who think that selfishness is a virtue and that having a lot of money is an achievement regardless of how it's gotten.
The need for money makes me bottle my rage when people in the upper class use derogatory terms to my face as if it is normal. I am "the help" after all.
I have to sit back virtually powerless and watch these people destroy the planet and exploit the defenseless. This is called being "civilized". The entire Western culture is set up to protect sociopaths who, oftentimes, feel they are good people because they don't beat their wives--all the while keeping others down to uphold their materialistic lifestyles.
Primitive tribes were generally egalitarian; that is, there were no hierarchies. Then the Europeans conquered them and destroyed equality--putting in place an immoral slave culture that assigns people rank based on what they own. Possessing more means exploiting more--turning the living into the dead. That is called progress.
There is no equality with capitalism. Once a creature has a price its value is based on subjectivity. What a sick, twisted way to view the Earth. Owning life. As if humans have any claim to the Earth. As if they were here before the Earth. As if the Earth could not swallow them where they stand.
The arrogance is astounding.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Capitalism vs. Primitivism (ft. Stefan Molyneux)
Stefan decided that he had something better to do than debate me (no explanation given), so I made this:
Capitalism vs. Primitivism
If you find this useful, please let me know and share.
Capitalism vs. Primitivism
If you find this useful, please let me know and share.
Monday, November 25, 2013
Thursday, November 21, 2013
It's Officially Okay To Dominate People
To many Americans, the Constitution represents freedom--the pinnacle of thought concerning government.
Brushing aside that it's grown to the largest, most destructive government in history, please consider the following:
1) The Constitution is a warning label. Its entire purpose is to restrain the ruling class. The fact that it exists is caution that people will rule over others and try to abuse that power.
2) It's written on parchment, which is generally animal skin. Never human skin of course. Coincidentally, nothing in the document protects the forests, rivers, animals, oceans, etc. It's a bunch of instructions on how to rule the weak.
I laugh at those who have this notion that somehow, if we just get back to the Constitution, everything will be okay. But... Wasn't it written by a bunch of white, rich slave owners? How could that possibly be egalitarian? Giving permission for one group to rule and dominate another was/is a disaster and was doomed to fail before the ink dried.
Brushing aside that it's grown to the largest, most destructive government in history, please consider the following:
1) The Constitution is a warning label. Its entire purpose is to restrain the ruling class. The fact that it exists is caution that people will rule over others and try to abuse that power.
2) It's written on parchment, which is generally animal skin. Never human skin of course. Coincidentally, nothing in the document protects the forests, rivers, animals, oceans, etc. It's a bunch of instructions on how to rule the weak.
I laugh at those who have this notion that somehow, if we just get back to the Constitution, everything will be okay. But... Wasn't it written by a bunch of white, rich slave owners? How could that possibly be egalitarian? Giving permission for one group to rule and dominate another was/is a disaster and was doomed to fail before the ink dried.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Cut Down Your House
Imagine this: you're a lizard. You've lived in the same tree for your entire life. You've never touched the ground.The forest is so thick you've never seen the ground.
All of a sudden, some sweaty asshole with a chainsaw rumbles in. He starts up his death machine and begins hacking relentlessly into your home. You feel the shaking and swaying (especially if it's windy) of your tree--your livelihood. The tree begins to crack, bend, and lean. Suddenly, you're flying through the air as the only surface you've ever known violently falls.
You wake up, groggy, just long enough to see your home being taken away after most of its branches are set on fire. Your spine is broken... too weak to move...
This is called "progress". After all, it's "just" a tree, right? It's better off turned into pulp to make one dollar bills to shove in stripper g-strings.
13 Tree-Dwelling Animals
All of a sudden, some sweaty asshole with a chainsaw rumbles in. He starts up his death machine and begins hacking relentlessly into your home. You feel the shaking and swaying (especially if it's windy) of your tree--your livelihood. The tree begins to crack, bend, and lean. Suddenly, you're flying through the air as the only surface you've ever known violently falls.
You wake up, groggy, just long enough to see your home being taken away after most of its branches are set on fire. Your spine is broken... too weak to move...
This is called "progress". After all, it's "just" a tree, right? It's better off turned into pulp to make one dollar bills to shove in stripper g-strings.
13 Tree-Dwelling Animals
It's Hard To Feel Sorry For Them
A thought: how brainwashed do humans have to be to create water filters?
That product has always amazed me. It serves two ridiculous purposes:
1) It filters polluted water. Yes; instead of not polluting the water, spend precious natural resources creating a throwaway product to clean the sludge.
2) It profits from death. If the rivers weren't polluted--in other words, if the humans weren't killing off marine life--this product would not exist. By all accounts, humans would most likely fight environmentalism that cleans up rivers to keep making water filters and the rest of the enormous "green" industry.
There are so many products like this. Solar panels? Here's what it takes to make a solar panel:
Solar Panel Video
This video doesn't touch on the highly intensive processes to harvest natural resources, including the destruction mining, say, just the copper. The idea that this invention will be "the future" is ludicrous--well, except maybe for the very rich. The materials simply don't exist for it to be widespread.
I'm surprised humans didn't create bandages after cutting themselves on purpose. This culture is blind to something so incredibly obvious that I thought of it when I was a child.
That product has always amazed me. It serves two ridiculous purposes:
1) It filters polluted water. Yes; instead of not polluting the water, spend precious natural resources creating a throwaway product to clean the sludge.
2) It profits from death. If the rivers weren't polluted--in other words, if the humans weren't killing off marine life--this product would not exist. By all accounts, humans would most likely fight environmentalism that cleans up rivers to keep making water filters and the rest of the enormous "green" industry.
There are so many products like this. Solar panels? Here's what it takes to make a solar panel:
Solar Panel Video
This video doesn't touch on the highly intensive processes to harvest natural resources, including the destruction mining, say, just the copper. The idea that this invention will be "the future" is ludicrous--well, except maybe for the very rich. The materials simply don't exist for it to be widespread.
I'm surprised humans didn't create bandages after cutting themselves on purpose. This culture is blind to something so incredibly obvious that I thought of it when I was a child.
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