Apoca-potpourri
September 2, 2010 | by Maxwell | Comment
the Tea-Party© have claimed a flag
HD: Tragedy of the Commons
September 1, 2010 | by Maxwell | 2 Comments
Garrett Hardin (pictured above) articulated an economic theory called “The Tragedy of the Commons” in 1968.
The tragedy is as follows: Herdsman grazes sheep on land that is soley in the hands of nature and is expected to maximize herd whenever possible. This may be of detriment to a neighboring herdsman. If encroaching sheep from an alien herd prevent neighboring herdsman from subsisting on what land is available, the neighboring herdsman will die.”
This may be how things mechanically happen, if culture were a machine. But we know it isn’t.
Why would a herdsman maximize his herd whenever possible if the herdsman has knowledge of his neighbor’s suffering, has adequate sustenance himself, and knows it would mean more time tending the animals? Hardin assumes the herdsmen have no empathy, no limit to labor and/or technology, and does not relate leisure time with a high quality of life.
Throw this theory out the window.
Cool Cat: Pete Seeger
August 30, 2010 | by Maxwell | Comment
Sing-a-long if you know the words.
Manufacturing Consent
August 17, 2010 | by Maxwell | Comment
As one of our brightest suns, Noam Chomsky, begins to set, we should again take note, before his light has gone out, of his contribution to the unending discourse between deception and truth.
“Verily, the universe swims in light. Everything is alive and alight. Man too is the recipient of inexhaustible radiant energy. Strange, only in the mind of man is there darkness and paralysis.
A little too much light, a little too much energy (here on earth), and one is rendered unfit for human society. The reward of the visionary is the madhouse or the cross. A grey, neutral world is our natural habitat, it would seem. It has been for a long time now. But that world, that condition of things, is passing.”
-Henry Miller 1963
Tags: Henry Miller > media > mind fuck > Noam Chomsky
High Definition: Affluenza
July 15, 2010 | by Maxwell | Comment
n. 1. a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.
2. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses.
3. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by pursuit of the American Dream.
4. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth.
Read more about the pandemic here.
Cool Cat: Masanobu Fukuoka
June 29, 2010 | by Maxwell | Comment
Check out Masanobu Fukuoka and his radical disciples farm the natural way. Then read his book.
Part One
Part Two
Pollution of the Mental Environment
May 24, 2010 | by Maxwell | Comment
Micah White‘s new anti-advertising message is refreshing, albeit reminiscent of a quick-hit advertisement. Watch with caution.
What Animals Do
May 3, 2010 | by Maxwell | Comment
“The oil’s creep toward the coastline comes awkwardly on the heels of a plan by President Barack Obama to increase domestic offshore drilling. The timing rather neatly recalls a 1969 spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., that thrust environmental concerns into the national consciousness.”
Our friend Steve is keeping the people of New Orleans aware of how the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will affect real people in real places.
Read his entire article here.
Bombs Away
April 30, 2010 | by Maxwell | Comment
“Here lies the present paradox: work has totally triumphed over all other ways of existing, at the same time as workers have become superfluous. Gains in productivity, outsourcing, mechanization, automated and digital production have so progressed that they have almost reduced to zero the quantity of living labor necessary in the manufacture of any product. We are living the paradox of a society of workers without work, where entertainment, consumption and leisure only underscore the lack from which they are supposed to distract us.”
Cultivating Food Justice
April 21, 2010 | by Maxwell | Comment
Come have breakfast with me at SDSU.
Beekeeping, Permaculture, the Farm Bill, NAFTA, you name it. The Ecological Intelligentsia is going to be dropping knowledge this weekend.
Volunteer if you have the motivation to do so. Otherwise, just come!
Tags: food > food Justice > permaculture > San Diego > SDSU > urban farming