Political dump (aka interesting stuff to my green anarchist self)

Attractive title, right?

Anyway, I realized that I've only really talked about unschooling for a while now, and been really quiet (for me, anyway) about my political (or lack thereof) views. However, that doesn't mean that I haven't been watching, reading, talking, and thinking about said lack of politics views. So, I decided to share a bunch of stuff that's been interesting to me lately. I hope this is of interest to at least a few of my readers!

Firstly, I absolutely LOVE Submedia.tv. They have a show called It's The End of the World As We Know It every week or couple of weeks, usually around 15 minutes, that just does a wonderful job of putting current events, news, and information on green anarchist (anarchist in general, but with a very definite green lean) stuff in an amusing, engaging, and informative way. You should definitely check it out: Submedia.tv

The newest episode:


Next, I also enjoy watching videos by these two guys on YouTube, AdamHintz and MeursaultBateman. They both talk about issues of green anarchy, sustainability, and similar things.

Something I'm very against is the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia (if you look at the sidebar of my blog, you may have noticed that I have a badge against the Olympics). Lots of people react with surprise when I say that. "What's wrong with the Olympics?", they ask. Well, here's what's wrong with the Olympics: Why We Resist 2010 (taken from the website no2010.com)

I've also been looking into the G20 summit protests since I got home from camp, and there seems to have been the seemingly fairly normal amount of police brutality. Here are a couple of videos showing what I mean:

Police State Uses Violence Against Protesters - Intro by Howard Zinn



Police Attack Students at University of Pittsburgh



Also, I may have mentioned a while back that I really wanted to go to the Rethinking Education conference, especially so I could hear Daniel Quinn speak. Well, I didn't end up making it, but his speech was posted online! Thanks to both Eli and Josh for sending the link to me! :-) Check out part one here.

Oh, and here's Derrick Jensen's newest article from Orion magazine: Side with the Living

FINALLY, for a long time, I didn't like rap or hip-hop music. However, relatively recently I've discovered that there's some really good stuff out there! The main thing I never liked was the lyrics. The whole gansta hip-hop thing, with ho's and money and guns, never appealed to me. Radical political hip-hop, on the other hand, is totally different! So here are a couple of my favorites...

Light It Up 2.0, produced by Ratatat, and as far as I can tell, lyrics and (obviously) sung by zzz33333



You're a Fucking Terrorist by Resident Anti-Hero (you can listen to, and download, all of their music for free at their site)



Annnd that's all for now! Hope I didn't make this too long!

Peace,
Idzie

Expect Resistance

I'm currently reading, among others, a book called Expect Resistance, written and published by the Crimethinc collective. I haven't gotten all that far, but so far, it's quite interesting and thought provoking... I figured I'd share a couple of short excerpts, to show you what I mean...

"Exchange economics presupposes a one-dimensional scale of value, according to which everything can be appraised: if an avocado costs a dollar, and a new sports car costs $20,000, then a sports car must be worth exactly twenty thousand avocados. But such equations are absurd. Can you calculate the financial value of a friendship, or the exchange rate of a clever joke for a meal tenderly prepared, the comparative worth of the sound of birds singing in the trees against the current market value of lumber? Those who would measure such things miss everything that is beautiful and unrepeatable about them; once one recognizes this, it becomes clear how pathological such calculations are in any context. To asses the commercial value of experiences and sensations, let alone trade in the very lives of the human beings around you with an eye to your own advantage, is to flatten the world for yourself and everyone you touch."

"Some call this a democracy--did you get a say in what the billboards you pass every morning say, what they go on repeating inside your head all day, the trees they cut down by your house to make room for the new gas station? How about the preservatives they put in the food you eat, or the conditions in the factories that produce them? What about your wages at work, or how much money the IRS takes from you? These aren't just inevitable "facts of life"--they are the manifestations of conflict as the system of human relations, every man for himself and force against us all. The leagues of intimidating red tape and the battering of woman, the biased news coverage and the inhumanity of factory farms, the jockeying for ascendance between colleagues and countries, all these are simultaneously expressions of the strife at the heart of our civilization and weapons which, used by factions fighting for survival on its terms, perpetuate it."

Peace,
Idzie

More problems with "Green"

I was just thinking about something that I think a lot about, and that is the whole problem with environmental destruction, and green living, and environmentalism and all that. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll most likely know that I have real issues with the whole "Green" thing. And I finally thought of a good way to articulate why I do just a little while ago. My problem is that all mainstream environmental activists talk about is how to live sustainably in an industrialized, capitalist, hierarchical, patriarchal society. Basically EXACTLY how things are now. My problem with that is that I think it is absolutely impossible to live sustainably in that type of system. It just doesn't work. Our current economy is built on growth. There MUST be growth for the economy to be "doing well". But when the economy is doing well, the earth suffers. The forest suffers. The creatures who live on land and sea and everywhere else suffer. And poor people the world over suffer. Whenever the numbers in the stock exchange go up, many, many creatures both human and otherwise either lose their lives or are otherwise greatly harmed. An economy and society that values money far above life, and an economy that works on infinite growth with finite resources, do not by any means foster sustainable living. Therefor, by my logic, we cannot live sustainably in such a system. As the Infoshop.org slogan so charmingly puts it: "Kill capitalism before it kills you!"

Peace,
Idzie