Monday, April 4, 2011
A Letter to the Congressional Black Caucus regarding "Redistricting"
"Redistricting" needs to be seen within the context of a transition to Economic Democracy. We need to reorganize and reallocate to and within locales, neighborhoods, villages,based on need and consistent with a mission and principles of inclusion, humanity, equity, peace and well-being, altruism, and sedenarianism (sustainability). Current Governments must play the role in the transition to foster and facilitate and help fund the reorganization and acceptance of their responsibilities and stewardship of the so-called "Private" Sector as they become Quasi-public in relation to a Plan of demand side management and supply side reallocation based on the principles enunciated above and on strategies and programs of ecological economic redevelopment. The neighborhoods/villages must be the starting points, and inter-community, inter-regional, States and National (as we eventually transition away fron such super-structures), and world around cooperation, equity, and solidarity inculcated and implemented with the goal of communitry betterment for ALL communities. Metropolitan areas need to be be viewed as Planning and Inter-Community entities within the context of Regional Watersheds. We need to abolish the Federal Reserve and establish Direct Control of the Treasury to allocate dollars directly to Equity Union(s), which would be a transitioned Banking and Insurance Sharing and Holding Company working in concert with Governments. To reiterate somewhat the new association of Worker/Community Coops would be a unified economic culture dedicated to Community Betterment of all communities within a needs based, equitable, humane, inclusive comprehensive demand side energy and supply side reorganization and reallocation plan of Ecological Economic Redevelopment.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Gender Issues?
Yes, community is a very elusive treasure that is seriously lacking in our male dominated, industrial, militaristic "culture".
In the early days, when it was presented to youth (you are about eleven years my elder) that the women's "movement" (as part of the peoples' "movement") was a good thing because women are more communal than men. I got it. I still do. It got seriously twisted by a Bourgeois Capitalist decadence and many women just became a huge cadre of more "pricks" like their fathers. I have worked in Business with women and in such venues they exhibit very twisted, bizarre, insidious, cutthroat behavior.
I grew up playing and watching sports. I still like to watch and play occasionally, though seldom. It has long been said that sports are a good outlet for warrior instincts that I believe most boys and men exhibit innately. Many years ago, the comparison of the City-States of the Roman Empire and the gladiatorial aspect of sports was pointed out to me and I pointed it out to others, but still enjoyed participation in the sports culture. When men have friendly, but competitive interactions in playing, it builds a feeling of camaradarie and mutual respect that seems to be a proclivity of the gender.
With the growth of Inter-Collegiate and Professional Atheletics as Big Business has come the building of Sports Empires and their absurd "fans" (short for fanatics) and it is as inane and ridiculous as every aspect of our Militaristic, Industrial, Automotive, Exploitative, Genocidal, Ecocidal, Suicidal "Civilization".
Choosing to remain delusional, I think that there is hope for the human species in a feminist movement toward sedentary, communal environments. I have called my extensive philosophical and prescriptive work to describe the plan and implementation plan of an inclusive, humane, equitable, industrious, well-being and peace oriented, ecological and energy demand side management, needs based alternative as requiring an intentional evolution of the species to Homa Ecologica Cooperativo.
In the early days, when it was presented to youth (you are about eleven years my elder) that the women's "movement" (as part of the peoples' "movement") was a good thing because women are more communal than men. I got it. I still do. It got seriously twisted by a Bourgeois Capitalist decadence and many women just became a huge cadre of more "pricks" like their fathers. I have worked in Business with women and in such venues they exhibit very twisted, bizarre, insidious, cutthroat behavior.
I grew up playing and watching sports. I still like to watch and play occasionally, though seldom. It has long been said that sports are a good outlet for warrior instincts that I believe most boys and men exhibit innately. Many years ago, the comparison of the City-States of the Roman Empire and the gladiatorial aspect of sports was pointed out to me and I pointed it out to others, but still enjoyed participation in the sports culture. When men have friendly, but competitive interactions in playing, it builds a feeling of camaradarie and mutual respect that seems to be a proclivity of the gender.
With the growth of Inter-Collegiate and Professional Atheletics as Big Business has come the building of Sports Empires and their absurd "fans" (short for fanatics) and it is as inane and ridiculous as every aspect of our Militaristic, Industrial, Automotive, Exploitative, Genocidal, Ecocidal, Suicidal "Civilization".
Choosing to remain delusional, I think that there is hope for the human species in a feminist movement toward sedentary, communal environments. I have called my extensive philosophical and prescriptive work to describe the plan and implementation plan of an inclusive, humane, equitable, industrious, well-being and peace oriented, ecological and energy demand side management, needs based alternative as requiring an intentional evolution of the species to Homa Ecologica Cooperativo.
Thoughts on 3/13/2011
Notice the Revolutionary Forces in the oppressed USA puppet Arab states uprisings have been primarily non-violent and met with stiff oppressive Military Resistance. It took an HW type insurrection within Libya to get ugly full blown violent with the hopes of capturing the oil fileds for the West. It didn't work. Just like the Capitalist shills of the USA ISO who from the Bourgeois manipulated naive perspective and/or insidious intentions propagandized to try to overthrow the Revolutionary stronghold of Iran, the Capitalist Franco-like will stop at nothing to grab anad maintain Colonialist Corporate Power and Domination.
I don't like violence. AnyOne who has been victimized, I'm sure can relate. I've dedicated my life to peace and as a thoroghly studied idealist (as Green as I can be) Libertarian Socialist, I do see the need for Communist resistance and Participation. We have much to do in the ways and means of reorganizing and reallocating.
At risk of understatement, creating a culture of peace is difficult, but not impossible if we understand everything from the animal instincts to the greatest religious and philosophical teachings of the species and use our best communication skills to press for truth and honesty, for inclusion, humanity, equity, altruism, well-being, peace, sedenatarianism (which is so important to sustainability) in dedicating our organization and allocation activities directly to meeting human needs.
In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity.
I don't like violence. AnyOne who has been victimized, I'm sure can relate. I've dedicated my life to peace and as a thoroghly studied idealist (as Green as I can be) Libertarian Socialist, I do see the need for Communist resistance and Participation. We have much to do in the ways and means of reorganizing and reallocating.
At risk of understatement, creating a culture of peace is difficult, but not impossible if we understand everything from the animal instincts to the greatest religious and philosophical teachings of the species and use our best communication skills to press for truth and honesty, for inclusion, humanity, equity, altruism, well-being, peace, sedenatarianism (which is so important to sustainability) in dedicating our organization and allocation activities directly to meeting human needs.
In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity.
Monday, January 10, 2011
A Letter to James Howard Kunstler
On January 10, 2011, at 10:22 AM JHK wrote:
"Obviously car-dependency has us by the short hairs."
Yes, very obviously. But what if we made it a national, world around campaign to reduce automobile usage in the US by 80% in the next 20 to 40 years? It would be better than leading the depressing "cheers" of the certain doomers, wouldn't it? Sure it's Eutopian (in keeping the delusion of hope alive, I use Mumford's term for "good place") and it seeks to revive the teachings of MacKaye (The New Exploration -1928), who was ignored.
Sure, you've got your niche as Chief Doomer, and I respect your work and wish in my heart of hearts that we could live out the rest of our lives trying to avert catastrophe rather than trumpeting it.
Even wearing your best Cynic hat, look inside yourself and see that if there could be a niche for thee proposing a solution. We understand the problem. We have prescriptive answers. Now, what we need is to make those answers part of the language of every day discussion. To alert those who have influence over discourse that this is the most fundamental issue facing survival. To get the people to understand their entrapment from their flukish History and to understand that working together, in cooperation and solidarity, we may be able to offer a future for the progeny.
"Obviously car-dependency has us by the short hairs."
Yes, very obviously. But what if we made it a national, world around campaign to reduce automobile usage in the US by 80% in the next 20 to 40 years? It would be better than leading the depressing "cheers" of the certain doomers, wouldn't it? Sure it's Eutopian (in keeping the delusion of hope alive, I use Mumford's term for "good place") and it seeks to revive the teachings of MacKaye (The New Exploration -1928), who was ignored.
Sure, you've got your niche as Chief Doomer, and I respect your work and wish in my heart of hearts that we could live out the rest of our lives trying to avert catastrophe rather than trumpeting it.
Even wearing your best Cynic hat, look inside yourself and see that if there could be a niche for thee proposing a solution. We understand the problem. We have prescriptive answers. Now, what we need is to make those answers part of the language of every day discussion. To alert those who have influence over discourse that this is the most fundamental issue facing survival. To get the people to understand their entrapment from their flukish History and to understand that working together, in cooperation and solidarity, we may be able to offer a future for the progeny.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
With Respect to Non-Violence
War and calculated aggression impose an urgency that is incompatible with philosophy as a serious enterprise. Hunger and need may also lead to such an urgency. War is an act of force. Does it follow that force is an act of war? War, although in the mind of the religious philosopher could never be a positive or absolute good, could be a "negative good" in the sense of preventing surrender to an oppressive force.
What is the difference between active battle campaigns and a repressive attrition. The USA, a society that knows little in the way of moral bounds with regards to "pursuit of happiness" is totalitarian in its effect of the multitudes trying desperately to make ends meet and defend their territory, way of life, and indigenous resources.
What is the difference between active battle campaigns and a repressive attrition. The USA, a society that knows little in the way of moral bounds with regards to "pursuit of happiness" is totalitarian in its effect of the multitudes trying desperately to make ends meet and defend their territory, way of life, and indigenous resources.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The Plan
We need some perspective.
Liquid and gaseous fossil fuel use is about 150 years old and automotive use about 100 years old. Look how absurdly, the personal automobile dominates our life and is destroying any hope for a future.
We need to deal with more than incremental adjustments from the modern automotive age. If we want to continue the many benefits of precious fossil fuels, the many opportunity costs of those fuels, to personal automobile usage, then we need to set as a goal (here in the USA) and realize it, to reduce the use of the personal automobile by 80% in the next 20 to 40 years.
It is not encouraging, because Obama explicitly stated the other day that the automobile is such an important part of American history and culture and needs to remain so. This is a statement of a myopic politician beholden to special interests.
If you've never lived in the Northeast (USA) where much of the city, town, and village centers were built before the automobile, it may be hard to imagine a future with the greatly reduced automobile use, but it is very possible and absolutely desirable.
The key is the walkable neighborhood. That is, neighborhoods for everybuddy where everyone can get what they need within walking distance of their residence. This will take a major shift in the way that resources are allocated and products distributed to communities. The major over-supply side mall outlets (for those products and services that have utility) could become regional warehouses and older town and village centers, where they exist could be explicitly brought back as outlets for these products. Where the town and village centers do not exist, such as here out West (I'm in Eugene, Oregon), where the mindless assumption of the automobile has led to the mindless, endless residential districts with their equally alienating and squandering (strip) malls, communities could be rebuilt (think of all the jobs) to provide community centers and outlets.
Of course, this will not happen in the absence of a complete commitment to neighborhood/inter-community/inter-regional/worldwide ecological economic resource planning and allocation and redevelopment.
The resource allocation issue could be handled with a reformed economic system, an equity union, with a "plan and implement" modus operandi for economic operations. Reforming the financial system to take the fundamentally inflationary Capitalist aspect of "discounting the future" (i.e. assuming that money in the future will be worth less) could lead to a system of ecological economical redevelopment where only true growth in wealth would occur and be shared and could occur under the aegis of a mission emphasizing peace, equity, inclusion, humanity, quality of life, wellness, and sustainability.
Removing the gluttonous oil resource use by the USA and Capitalist automotive oriented allies would slowly rescind the need for the hegemonic occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, threats to Iran and to both domestic and worldwide environments which need to be conserved and shared equitably and frugally, particularly with the interests of youth, children, and future generations in heart and mind. The world acting in concert would stand much better prospects for peace.
The Ecology of Redevelopment
A big part of my redevelopment plan (aside from the financial systems reform) is the REBUILDING of neighborhoods to make them walkable for the necessities of life (that is, assuming a goal of a much less harried pace than today, but also assuming that people will have responsibilities, obligations, and desires). Such a plan would include a massive education program in retraining workers and training in youth in the building trades. Human resource management would be utilized to try to maximize the match between where the primary contractors/instructors and student/workers lived and the neighborhood building projects.
Communities would be rebuilt to emulate mature ecological systems, in that they maximize the efficiency of energy and resource input into the community so that once resources enter a community, they stay in the community for the maximum amount of time possible. Once all communities are sufficiently rebuilt (a timeline of 20 to 50 years?) under such guidelines, they would evolve to ongoing day-to-day and maintenance communities and the amount of heavy labor required would decrease and the amount of leisure time increase. Again, (day-to-day and maintenance) workers would be employed in, surrounding, and/or as close to their residency as possible and it would be a priority for real and capital assets to be owned by the workers and the community patrons who ideally would be one and the same. The Neighborhood Equity Union would replace credit unions and of course, other forms of financial institutions. Parks and gymnasiums would be an important part of the plan as leisure time increased and the healthy aspects of physical labor decreased.
Concurrent with rebuilding, and the reallocation of production and distribution resources, would be efforts to make office, communications, knowledge and intelligence based labor into primarily home and/or neighborhood based vocations. Occasional travel would be necessary and desirable, but quiet bus travel and car-sharing cooperatives could be employed to fill this need along with family visit and recreational needs and desires. With respect to the former, extended families would be encouraged to develop, remain, and/or reunite geographically.
Liquid and gaseous fossil fuel use is about 150 years old and automotive use about 100 years old. Look how absurdly, the personal automobile dominates our life and is destroying any hope for a future.
We need to deal with more than incremental adjustments from the modern automotive age. If we want to continue the many benefits of precious fossil fuels, the many opportunity costs of those fuels, to personal automobile usage, then we need to set as a goal (here in the USA) and realize it, to reduce the use of the personal automobile by 80% in the next 20 to 40 years.
It is not encouraging, because Obama explicitly stated the other day that the automobile is such an important part of American history and culture and needs to remain so. This is a statement of a myopic politician beholden to special interests.
If you've never lived in the Northeast (USA) where much of the city, town, and village centers were built before the automobile, it may be hard to imagine a future with the greatly reduced automobile use, but it is very possible and absolutely desirable.
The key is the walkable neighborhood. That is, neighborhoods for everybuddy where everyone can get what they need within walking distance of their residence. This will take a major shift in the way that resources are allocated and products distributed to communities. The major over-supply side mall outlets (for those products and services that have utility) could become regional warehouses and older town and village centers, where they exist could be explicitly brought back as outlets for these products. Where the town and village centers do not exist, such as here out West (I'm in Eugene, Oregon), where the mindless assumption of the automobile has led to the mindless, endless residential districts with their equally alienating and squandering (strip) malls, communities could be rebuilt (think of all the jobs) to provide community centers and outlets.
Of course, this will not happen in the absence of a complete commitment to neighborhood/inter-community/inter-regional/worldwide ecological economic resource planning and allocation and redevelopment.
The resource allocation issue could be handled with a reformed economic system, an equity union, with a "plan and implement" modus operandi for economic operations. Reforming the financial system to take the fundamentally inflationary Capitalist aspect of "discounting the future" (i.e. assuming that money in the future will be worth less) could lead to a system of ecological economical redevelopment where only true growth in wealth would occur and be shared and could occur under the aegis of a mission emphasizing peace, equity, inclusion, humanity, quality of life, wellness, and sustainability.
Removing the gluttonous oil resource use by the USA and Capitalist automotive oriented allies would slowly rescind the need for the hegemonic occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, threats to Iran and to both domestic and worldwide environments which need to be conserved and shared equitably and frugally, particularly with the interests of youth, children, and future generations in heart and mind. The world acting in concert would stand much better prospects for peace.
The Ecology of Redevelopment
A big part of my redevelopment plan (aside from the financial systems reform) is the REBUILDING of neighborhoods to make them walkable for the necessities of life (that is, assuming a goal of a much less harried pace than today, but also assuming that people will have responsibilities, obligations, and desires). Such a plan would include a massive education program in retraining workers and training in youth in the building trades. Human resource management would be utilized to try to maximize the match between where the primary contractors/instructors and student/workers lived and the neighborhood building projects.
Communities would be rebuilt to emulate mature ecological systems, in that they maximize the efficiency of energy and resource input into the community so that once resources enter a community, they stay in the community for the maximum amount of time possible. Once all communities are sufficiently rebuilt (a timeline of 20 to 50 years?) under such guidelines, they would evolve to ongoing day-to-day and maintenance communities and the amount of heavy labor required would decrease and the amount of leisure time increase. Again, (day-to-day and maintenance) workers would be employed in, surrounding, and/or as close to their residency as possible and it would be a priority for real and capital assets to be owned by the workers and the community patrons who ideally would be one and the same. The Neighborhood Equity Union would replace credit unions and of course, other forms of financial institutions. Parks and gymnasiums would be an important part of the plan as leisure time increased and the healthy aspects of physical labor decreased.
Concurrent with rebuilding, and the reallocation of production and distribution resources, would be efforts to make office, communications, knowledge and intelligence based labor into primarily home and/or neighborhood based vocations. Occasional travel would be necessary and desirable, but quiet bus travel and car-sharing cooperatives could be employed to fill this need along with family visit and recreational needs and desires. With respect to the former, extended families would be encouraged to develop, remain, and/or reunite geographically.
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