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Newest Blog Entries:
Adbusters: Spiritual Insurrection, the Ultimate Culture Jam
We awoke one morning to the dark realization that humanity is being dragged into a black hole of ecological, financial and spiritual catastrophe … that our democracy has been seized by a corporatocracy … that every day two hundred species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become forever extinct … that a deluge of advertising is sleepwalking our civilization to the brink of insanity … and that unless we fight back in the most visceral and creative way possible all will be lost.- Adbusters
And yet, what sets our struggle apart in 2012 is that we are not fighting to save a distant future. We are not trying to prevent some terrible event that is still to come. This is not about our unborn grandchildren. Instead, many of us sense that the threshold has already been crossed; the tipping point has already happened and what we are fighting for is our present. We are living in that tragic moment of eerie stillness where the fatal damage has been done, widening cracks can be seen, yet the edifice still stands and business as usual continues … but for how much longer?
Our days may be shadowed by this dark realization, but there is reason to be deeply optimistic for “where danger is, grows the saving power also.” Never before has the tantalizing possibility of a Global Spring, a worldwide people’s insurgency for democracy, seemed as close. For perhaps the first time in human history, we just might be on the edge of an everywhere-at-once revolution against the financial fraudsters, corporate lackeys and the ideology of consumerism that has brought the Earth to the precipice of collapse.
In this, the era of the total and transcendent indignato swarm, we look to each other, not to the masters above, to find out what it will take to pull off the ultimate culture jam: spiritual insurrection.
for the wild,
Culture Jammers HQ
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Truthdig – Where Were You When They Crucified My Lord? – Chris Hedges
Posted by Michael Butler, Wednesday, December 7, 2011Global Crises are Spiritual: A Time for Awakening | Common Dreams
Posted by Michael Butler, Wednesday, November 2, 2011Asia Zeitgeist Satire in the UK Financial Districts
Posted by Alexander Harper, Monday, October 17, 2011Glenn Greenwald: Steve Jobs and Drug Policy
Glenn ..from the NYT obituary of Jobs: "[Jobs said] that taking LSD was one of the two or three most important things he had done in his life" .. Unlike many people who have enjoyed success, Jobs is not saying that he was able to succeed despite his illegal drug use; he’s saying his success is in part — in substantial part — because of those illegal drugs (he added that Bill Gates would “be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once”). These quotes (first published by a New York Times reporter) have been around for some time but have been only rarely discussed in the recent hagiographies of Jobs: a notable omission given that he himself praised those experiences as an integral part of his identity and one of the most important things he ever did .. America’s harsh prohibitionist drug policies are grounded in the premise that the prohibited substances have little or no redeeming value and cannot be used without life-destroying consequences. Yet the evidence of its falsity is undeniable. Here is one of the most admired men in America, its greatest contemporary industrialist, hailing one of the most scorned of these substances as integral to his success and intellectual and personal growth.. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Sunday, October 9, 2011
Scott Atran: Living on the Cusp, Singularity or Nightfall in the Age of Terror?
Atran via Adbusters ..I’m reasonably sure that whatever new forms arise, they will have to accommodate fundamental aspects of human nature that have barely changed since the Stone Age: love, hate, jealousy, guilt, contempt, pride, loyalty, friendship, rivalry, the thrill of risk and adventure, accomplishment and victory, the desire for esteem and glory, the search for pattern and cause in everything that touches and interests us, and the inescapable need to fashion ideas and relationships sufficiently powerful to deny our nothingness in the random profusion of the universe. As things now stand, I see a chance that political freedom and diversity will triumph, but also a chance that a brave new world of dumbing homogeneity and deadening control by consensus will prevail.. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Saturday, September 10, 2011
NYT (6): National News
CA will pass its own "DREAM" Act; Palin still toying with candidacy; Could Buffett investment in BOA backfire?; In blow to alternative energy, federally-funded solar firm goes under; Judge allows racial profiling lawsuit against NYPD; and the (Scientology) empire strikes back at The New Yorker.Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, September 1, 2011
A Platform for Retrieving the American Dream: The Pursuit of Happiness
This posits a situation whereby we must alter the mantra of money, possessions, etc for what is truly important, our happiness. Happiness which independent of greed, a new system. mbPosted by Michael Butler, Sunday, August 28, 2011
IANDS: Key Facts about Near-Death Experiences
watched a movie last night called "Hereafter" (starring Matt Damon) where the question of life after death is explored from a scientific perspective .. made me want to get on the Google and find this from IANDS (Int'l Association for Near Death Studies) ..More than 15 common characteristics of an NDE [Near-Death Experience] have been reported by near-death experiencers. An NDE may include only one or two of these elements, and, in a few cases, all of them. These include: a sense of being outside one’s physical body, sometimes perceiving it from an outside position; a sense of movement through darkness or a tunnel; intense emotions; heightened perceptions; experiencing a great light or darkness; perceiving a spiritual realm, which may include vividly memorable landscapes; encounters with deceased loved ones, spiritual beings and/or religious figures; knowledge of the nature of the universe; a life review; a sense of oneness and interconnectedness; a border of no return; a sense of having knowledge of the future; messages regarding life’s purpose.- mab .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Monday, June 6, 2011
The Sense and Morality of Agnosticism
Posted by Michael Butler, Monday, May 16, 2011Harry Potter and the Network of Neutrality
Posted by Michael Butler, Monday, April 18, 2011Grace Lee Boggs on Democracy Now
here's Grace Lee Boggs in a roundtable discusssion about the the budget plan ..I think that we are at a very critical time in the history of the world .. I think people understand that the empire is dying, that the welfare state that it made possible is also no longer possible, and therefore that we have to begin recreating our relationships with one another and with the rest of the world .. [T]his is really the time to grow our souls, to begin making a life and not just a living, to begin talking about things not just in terms of budgets and how we can use this sum of money and that sum of money for that purpose. People are suffering economically, but I think they understand that the issue is not an economic issue. It’s a question of, how shall we live? How shall we continue the evolution of human beings? What does it mean to be a human being at this time on the clock of the world?Boggs is 94 years old .. watch video
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Friday, April 15, 2011
NYT (7+): Foreign Affairs
RECORD-BREAKING 8.9 QUAKE AND TSUNAMI HIT NORTHERN JAPAN; As momentum swings toward Qaddafi, Obama announces five-point strategy; Egyptian general is point man for Pentagon; Saudi police fire on protesters; Dalai Lama cedes political role; and Zimbabwe gov't in jeopardy.Posted by Ian Alterman, Friday, March 11, 2011
Tribes resume sacred ritual: Hunting bison – U.S. news – Life – msnbc.com
Posted by Michael Butler, Friday, February 25, 2011Ronald Reagan, Enabler of Atrocities
Posted by Michael Butler, Sunday, February 6, 2011Truthdig – In the Presence of My Enemy: A Reflection on War and Forgiveness – Ron Kovic
Posted by Michael Butler, Saturday, January 22, 2011NYT Op-Eds (3)
"This was a year of spectacular hypocrisy. From politicians (mainly Republicans), that meant you got your money for nothing and your tax cuts for free" (Krugman); "As members of the baby boom generation begin to turn 65, they may need to re-examine the notion that 'age is just a number'" (Guest Op-Ed); "Two philosophers argue for living life by riding the unexpected whooshes that come along, whether at a sporting event or at church" (Brooks)Posted by Ian Alterman, Friday, December 31, 2010
AlterNet: Harmony: Prince Charles Offers a New Way of Looking at the World
Posted by Michael Butler, Thursday, November 18, 2010AlterNet: Why Atheists Are Better Prepared for Death Than Believers
Posted by Michael Butler, Saturday, November 13, 2010NYT (4): Foreign Affairs
U.S. election could derail ties with Russia; A religious revival in China; A book on America's addiction to war; and a book on narco-violence along the Mexican border.Posted by Ian Alterman, Sunday, November 7, 2010
Bruce McEwen: The Great Marijuana Boom
McEwen on CounterPunch via Mendecino County's Anderson Valley Advertiser ...With ever more people getting into the marijuana business, the pot market has become glutted. Prices are down. But two thousand dollars a pound still looks good to people fighting the economic downturn with outdoor agriculture. The “Green Rush†is on, and it's been building for a decade now ... Black is the color of the DEA. They wear black jump suits, drive black SUVs, and fly black helicopters. They had a whole squadron of little black choppers at the Ukiah airport a few weeks ago to train law enforcement personnel from all over in spotting and eradicating marijuana crops. The DEA also uses military choppers, and they had a big Blackhawk apparently working as flagship with the smaller choppers brought in for the training exercises. Some of the little black choppers are still around, as is a big CH 46, the one with the twin rotors and a tailgate that you can drive a Hummer into. It seems to be the mothership.. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Thursday, July 29, 2010
Hedges: A Needed Antidote to the Worst of Commodity Culture
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Tuesday, July 6, 2010NYT (8): National News
AS 50,000 MARCH IN AZ, BREWER TRIES TO REIN IN AG; Ohio as gauge for midterms; Salt industry fights regs; How YouTube is planning to get you to watch more; a book on Obama's first year; a book on "national security, the media, and the rule of law"; a memoir by a Muslim woman who survived radical Islam; and a new translation of The Second Sex.Posted by Ian Alterman, Sunday, May 30, 2010
NYT Editorial & Op-Eds (7)
"Changes the Texas State Board of Education made to the state’s social studies curriculum bear no relationship to neutral pedagogy" (Editorial); "Though every religion has a sense of exclusivity as part of its core identity, there is genuine potential for mutual understanding" (Dalai Lama); "All those acronyms from Wall Street to Washington to the wetlands — and crises abound" (Dowd); "It’s shameful for Brazil and Turkey, nascent democracies, to embrace the Iranian president, who crushes democracy" (Friedman); "Elena Kagan’s law review writings betray a desire to trim back the president’s powers" (Yoo); "BP has been an environmental menace since before the recent gulf disaster. Federal regulation and oversight have been weak, and the president must take action" (Herbert); "America has never settled whether its governing form of reason is one of radical abstraction or humility and gradualism" (Brooks)Posted by Ian Alterman, Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Joe Bageant: The Fearless Plain
Bageant ...This great loom of media images, and images of images, is so many layers deep that it has replaced reality. No one can remember the original imprint. If there was one. The hologram is a hermetic snow globe, a self-referential circuitry of images, and a Möbius loop from which there is no logical escape... No thinking required, we just cycle and recycle through an aural dimension. Not all that bad, I guess, if it were not generated by forces out to fuck every last pair of eyeballs and mind plugged into it. The investing class has put thousands of billions into movies, TV and other media to keep the hologram lit up over the past six decades. Which is to say, keep the public in an entertained stupor, awed, mislead, and most importantly, distracted. But the payoff probably runs in the trillions.. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Saturday, May 15, 2010
