Saturday, October 17, 2009

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

From Integral Life



Bring awareness to perspectives: The world is a vast terrain of perspectives and potential perspectives. However, perspectives alone exist in a state of confusion, crashing into one another in cycles of mindless conflict. Awareness is the act of holding multiple perspectives in a space that nurtures their value and constrains their short-sightedness. Such a space allows depth to emerge in our understanding and actions.

http://integrallife.com/node/47214

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Friday, July 3, 2009

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

David korten on our economy


Why This Crisis May Be Our Best Chance to Build a New Economy
by David Korten



Wall Street is bankrupt. Instead of trying to save it, we can build a new economy that puts money and business in the service of people and the planet—not the other way around.

Whether it was divine providence or just good luck, we should give thanks that financial collapse hit us before the worst of global warming and peak oil. As challenging as the economic meltdown may be, it buys time to build a new economy that serves life rather than money. It lays bare the fact that the existing financial system has brought our way of life and the natural systems on which we depend to the brink of collapse. This wake-up call is inspiring unprecedented numbers of people to take action to bring forth the culture and institutions of a new economy that can serve us and sustain our living planet for generations into the future.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

CLASS TOMORROW!


Yes!!

WOW the idea index

http://challenge.bfi.org/ideaindex

Welcome to the Buckminster Fuller Challenge Idea Index, a database of entries submitted to the Buckminster Fuller Challenge - the winner of the 2009 Challenge will be announced on May 4th. To read a summary of an entry, just click on its title or featured image. We offer this Idea Index as a source of inspiration and hope, as a trimtab in itself. The goal of the Idea Index is to catalyze and facilitate the support needed to implement truly comprehensive solutions

New Currency

http://challenge.bfi.org/application_summary/462

http://www.berkshares.org/


This is truly a momentous time for anyone who has ever championed relocalization as an alternative to the faceless, harried, destructive global economy that exerts influence over our communities and activities. Sea change is in the air, with collapsing global financial systems, tenuous energy grids, and food insecurity, there is a welcome resurgence of farmers’ markets, renewable energy projects, and buy local initiatives. People are on the lookout for alternatives—sound, sane alternatives

Money as Debt

Buckminster

“Ninety-nine percent of who you are is invisible and untouchable.”

“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.”

“Integrity is the essence of everything successful.”

“The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun.”

“Out of my general world-pattern-trend studies there now comes strong evidence that nothing is going to be quite so surprising and abrupt in the future history of man as the forward evolution in the educational process.”

“You have to decide whether you want to make money or make sense, because the two are mutually exclusive.”



Richard Buckminster Fuller

crying and digging

http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/magazine/la-tm-altdeath06feb06,1,1477791.story?coll=la-headlines-magazine

Green Burials

http://www.greenburials.org/

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

On Trauma

more Derrick Jensen

This is a radio interview of Derrick that goes deeper than just resistance. Please listen.

http://resistanceisfertile.ca/derrickparasites.html

-Dillon

The gift economy

http://www.gift-economy.com/giftpara_eng/giftparadigm01.html

http://www.giftingit.com/

"I have hoped . . . to speak of the inner gift that we accept as the object of our labor, and the outer gift that has become a vehicle of culture. I am not concerned with gifts given in spite or fear, nor those gifts we accept out of servility or obligation; my concern is the gift we long for, the gift that, when it comes, speaks commandingly to the soul and irresistibly moves us." Lewis Hyde

“Love, work, and knowledge are the wellsprings of our lives, they should also govern it.”

Wilhelm Reich

Only the liberation of the natural capacity for love in human beings can master their sadistic destructiveness.”

Wilhelm Reich

"Gifts economies, in which human beings are worth more than the market, are fundamental to most traditional and indigenous peoples. Here is a case where a just alternative already exists, and has for thousands of years.

In its purest form, the gift economy is about the collective, allocation based on need, and abundance. Behind gifting is human relationship, solidarity, generation of goodwill, and attention to the nurturance of the whole society, and not just one’s immediate self and family. Maintaining economic and social relations outside of the market keeps respect, cooperation, and ethics thriving."

Monday, May 18, 2009

Stars

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Everything is Waiting for you

Everything is Waiting for You

Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.

-- David Whyte
from Everything is Waiting for You
©2003 Many Rivers Press


http://www.davidwhyte.com/english.html

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Interdependent realities, health, and symbiotic insainity

I saw Derrick Jensen (DJ) speak last night and I have a few thoughts.

First a quote from some reading on interdependent realities.
From Buddhism and the public sphere:

"Rather than blending and blending in with the limitless, mutual relevance of all things, attention and action rooted in blindness impose a single meaning or set of meanings on things determining what things "are" and "will be." In a world composed of things with essentially fixed natures, this might not be troubling. Determining what things really 'are' and 'are' not is to be able to act precisely and certainly in pursuing our own interests. But in a world in which all things are best seen impermanent or dynamic, in which our own interests are finally inseparable from those of others, and in which the predictable and the unprecedented are configuring our bodies, our lives, and our circumstances. Reacting or responding to challenging situations without clear understanding of their dramatic precedents and consequents the currents of meaning, outcomes, and opportunities that constitute our karma is almost invariably a guarantee of continued, if not intensified, trouble or suffering."
Hershock 2006 pg45


The Domination reality is as Totten puts it:

“The patterns of power and submission are inscribed on the bodies (or rather through the experience) of its members, through the ways we are taught to use, (experience), and treat our bodies from infancy onwards.” Totten, 2003. pg47

We are swimming in the reality that we wish to resist, we are that reality, we are the very thing we are seeking to resist. The Jail Cell, the government, our minds, our lives are in a symbiotic interdependent insanity loop that is inseparable by normal means. Any "way" that comes out of the reaction to any end of this loop is actually bound for further destruction of the biosphere. This is the difficulty of my solution, it requires a radical shift in perception that is not from the location of "doing, thinking, reacting, changing through more neocortical responses." No I am not suggesting a magical newage response, nor a passive response, nor a violent over throw. Yet anything that comes out of our imagination at this point in history will only repeat all that is historical and thus continue the symbiotic interdependent insanity loop. We are seeking to live in primitive ways, yet we are too far gone from this and any attempt to force this will result in furthering the domination of all living things. We are trapped!

Yet what we are trapped in; this box, this jail cell is completely and totally able to mutate, to reform, to fall off, to shed. But the efforts required to do this are great and the location is currently missing from our imagination as a collection of historical nervous systems strung together by family and passing on the historical trauma's of multiple generations. We are the edges of our species, no other time has a better way to deal with what is on our plate right now, so solutions must come not out of our insanity loop, but rather out of our interdependent mutual growing, maturing, creating, and reaching into the present vital moment, like nature, like play, like rage, and love that is in service to our mutual evolution and into the intelligent heart brain. No this is not some fantasy. It might seem like a fantasy especially since our species has collective amnesia to this vital organ, yet this organ like all the organs in our body have the capacity to be perceived, physically, emotionally, and somatically. This is why most responses to our global human situation will not include this organ, because it has been forgotten and to return to it will take effort. Not effort in doing or thinking, but rather in not doing, but in feeling. If we fail to feel our way through this time we will all play in some way or another into the symbiotic interdependent insanity loop and perpetuate the domination of all life.

This is a time for a new response, one that has never been an option and one that is difficult to see its fruit, except through how our values-intentions-actions create either virtuosity, interdependent connectivity, creative ever present awakening, and radical new ways to interact with the complexities of our reality or further to birth the domination reality that we swim in.

Simultaneously to these thoughts, I have a great understanding in my heart as to what he speaks, our human tragedy, our planet and our home. I too am terrified and feel a powerful rage at our situation. Yet I too feel called in the face of DJ's thoughts to mobilize for a radical shift in how we understand, respond, and relate to our predicament. First I must understand my place in all things, I must connect to the vital breath of life, and take ownership over making more creative interdependent beauty to relate, to return to my senses, and make actions based upon consciousness.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

bodymindy meets natural world

"The Pullitizer Prize, Harvard biologist, Edward O. Wilson, observes that "Only in the last moment of human history has the delusion arisen that people can flourish apart from the rest of the living world. Preliterate peoples were in intimate contact with a bewildering array of life forms." By contrast, as citizens of Western civilization we spend, according to Cohen, "an average of over 95 percent of our lives indoors, cloistered from nature. We live over 99 percent of our adult lives knowing nature through detached words, stories and pictures." This detachment of our psyche from its biological and psychological origins stressfully and hurtfully estranges us from creation, from nature's supportive, non-verbal wisdom, spirit and love within and about us." This loss creates the insatiable wants and greed that underlie our disorders. We become psychologically addicted to rewarding technologies and relationships that often have destructive side effects. The consequences of our alienation from nature manifest as the myriad of lasting personal, social and environmental problems which beset the modern world." Common Futures Magazine

Depressed? Go Play in the Dirt-
http://www.livescience.com/health/070411_happy_bacteria.html

"Sun exposure is perhaps the most important source of vitamin D because exposure to sunlight provides most humans with their vitamin D requirement. Ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun trigger vitamin D synthesis in skin. The seasons, geographic latitude, time of day, cloud cover, smog, and sunscreen affect UV ray exposure and vitamin D synthesis... Industrial pollution, which increases shade, also decreases sun exposure and may contribute to the development of rickets in children with insufficient dietary intake of vitamin D. It is important for individuals with limited sun exposure to include good sources of vitamin D in their diet."

More on urban gardening
http://www.wiretapmag.org/rights/43579/

Go Barefoot! Barefoot parks-
http://www.terraplana.com/news/go-barefoot-trentham-gardens-and-adventure-play-barfuss-park-barefoot-walk/

Learn how to make a bee garden- help the threatened honey bee and yourself! Did you know insect pollinators are responsible for 1/3 of our food crops' success?
http://nature.berkeley.edu/urbanbeegardens/

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Sunday, May 10, 2009

The Fresh Movie

http://www.freshthemovie.com/

Exploring Emergence

http://llk.media.mit.edu/projects/emergence/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergent_curriculum
From Wikipedia on defining emergence:

In philosophy, systems theory and science, emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. Emergence is central to the theories of integrative levels and of complex systems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence

Laughter Yoga

Saturday, May 9, 2009

How to save the world

Derrick Jensen

An Evening with Acclaimed Author and Activist Derrick Jensen

Derrick Jensen is an activist, philosopher, author, and a leading voice of uncompromising dissent. He is the author of "Endgame," "A Language Older Than Words," "The Culture of Make Believe," and "What We Leave Behind."
Time
Friday, May 15
7 p.m.
Fraser Hall 4
Admission
Sliding scale: $2-10 WWU students w/ ID, $4-20 general

And then if you're interested in something a bit more radical there's -
http://squattheplanet.com/forum/where/events/6823-deep-green-resistance-05-15-bellingham-wa.html

Friday, May 8, 2009

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

the organism vs. the machine

'As the machine metaphor has led us to the brink of self-destruction, the metaphor of the organism holds the key to the ecological revolution.'

‘Human economies can and should nurture cultural, social, and economic creativity and diversity and share information within and between place-based economies. These conditions are the keys to system resilience and creative transcendence.’


- David C. Korten in The Post-Corporate Economy

Monday, April 20, 2009

collective liberation

Our overall goals are collective liberation from systems of domination, violence, and oppression and the cultivation of alternative communities rooted in tenderness, compassion, love, kindness, generosity, recognition of the sacredness of all life, and awe and wonder at the grandeur of the universe.

We recognize that neither liberation nor the creation of alternative community is possible without concurrent transformation within ourselves as we allow the values of the dominant culture to be rooted out of us. In other words, we believe that liberation comes as we enter into full aliveness ourselves and align ourselves and our work in the service of life; this then catalyzes aliveness in others.

Nichola Torbett

Monday, April 13, 2009

what I'm curious about...

economy-
- what is happening to the economy right now - reasons for recession - and what is emerging?
- 'peak oil'... how fast are we approaching it? are there trends already moving toward a post-petroleum economy, and if so, where and how?
- taking the pulse - how well is 'mainstream' America prepared for a post-petroleum future, on an emotional and social level? how do we make this transition easier on older generations and those who will be resistant to it?

science and technology-
- I've been hearing about innovative village-scale technologies in 'peripheral' areas (Africa and India in particular)... which of these kinds of democratic technologies could be usefully introduced in America? (is it even legal?) what kind of inputs do they require (are they sustainable)?
- we know that industrial civilization relates to technology in a largely destructive and self-destructive way. what are the root causes of this dysfunction, and what technologies are emerging that are promoting positive relationships within society and between society and nature? Are these technologies sustainable, or can they be made sustainable? (the Internet as the most obvious example)

industrial civilization and conscious evolution -
- What are trends in awareness, across the board? how can we track cultural consciousness and its evolution? (media, science, economics?)
- What do different groups in America think about what is happening? even the most disconnected person has heard about climate change, economic recession (collapse?), etc... are
they concerned? do they care? do they even think about it? how do we respond when they don't care?

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Daniel Pinchbeck on the Age of Uncertainty

http://realitysandwich.com/age_uncertainty?page=1

Excerpt:

"I don't know whether to stockpile gold or create an intentional community. I don't know whether to stay in Manhattan or head for the hills. I don't know whether we are approaching global enlightenment or regressing into barbarism. I don't know whether biotechnology and nanotechnology will fuse to give us immortal physical bodies or if we will all croak as our mistreated planet falls apart. I don't know if anything special will happen on December 21, 2012. I don't know if I should start a riot or throw a party. I don't know whether to panic or relax."

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Obama and GM

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php

Human-Earth Relations: Thomas Berry

I believe this man to be very wise and having a voice that civilized humans desperately need to hear.

Monday, April 6, 2009

What is an Emergent Economy?

Dillon your comments on the last post bring up an excellent question, "What is an emergent economy?" As we can see that an Economy separate from the Ecology is pure insanity. The word comes from the same derivative: Home, or Dwelling, or Place. So Eco-nomy and Eco-ology are essential in our design for directing emergent economies. The two fields have been in deep opposition for some time and each camp have amassed much armor. As I track an emergent economy I (idealistically) see a merger of both. One thought is that the immense complexity of our modern era, the ecological situation, and the rapid and dynamic change is creating multiple streams of power struggle and simultaneous to that power cooperation. I am interested in the power cooperation as this is a fine evolutionary trait, found in recent research. One area that we humans shine around cooperation is our endocrine system reveals large boosts of health and well-being, thus increasing immunity when we participate in altruism and cooperation. Much like an ecosystem cooperating, thrives in abundance, companion planting, and eco diversity. Perhaps we are seeing a similar thing occurring in an emergent economy.
Thoughts?
See yall tomorrow
scot

Emergent Economy or Economies? (playlist)

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=143E59F5A37A9C84

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The illusion of selfish economy

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/benkler09/benkler09_index.html

We have a lot of sophisticated analyses that try, with great precision, to predict and describe existing systems in terms of an assumption of universal rationality and a sub-assumption that what that rationality tries to do is maximize returns to the self. Yet we live in a world where that's not actually what we experience. The big question now is how we cover that distance between what we know very intuitively in our social relations, and what we can actually build with.

From
http://www.edge.org/

Good morning, world. This is your wake-up call

http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/print/61/peter-russell-wake-up-call