[p2p-research] john pilger on the greeks

[j.martin.pedersen]

On 28/05/10 16:47, Ryan Lanham wrote:
> 
> I may be tainted in some minds for adopting the mores of conventional
> society, and in finding comfort in stable governments and economies, and you
> are right in that I believe that thinking that way is in my own best
> interest, the interests of those I care most about, and the interests of
> most people I know.

Then you are very privileged. Not since I left home in the White North
in the early 1990s have I felt like that very much and also back there I
saw white trash and people not feeling that great thing you speak of
that has swept our nations and made us all feel so flippin' great that
we just want to swallow the next gadget........

> Revolution may sweep me and my type aside.  If it does, so be it.  We are a
> vicious species.  I will defend myself as any other sane person or culture
> would.  My guess is that the new boss will be the same as the old boss...or
> worse.  And we will get fooled again.

You make a wrongful assumption here. Not all social change will have to
be a new state and a new paternal, coercive, external force. However, a
stable environment for the pursuit of individual pleasure, gain,
development and fulfillment, will require a form of organisation. From
the ground up. Some relevant ideas can be found in autonomous marxism
and anarchist, radical feminism, but labels are not important. The
practice of shared values and acting in cooperation is. Anarchism as a
theory and practice of social organisation, autonomous marxism as a
class analysis framework, loosely, some spiritual perspective to be able
to relate to the sacred nature of many places that are the vital life
force centres of the environment we thrive in. Waterfalls, rivers,
oceans, forests, that kind of stuff. The good cells in our gaian body.
We need them.

You can take the labels out again, they are only indicators, the
important issue here is that social values of transformation are lived
practices. Commoning is one such practice. In these processes the
guiding principle is not some political ideal or abstract conception.
The real in the struggle lies in solidarity and mutual recognition
between groups of the oppressed and between a network of the oppressed
and those in the middle, who can and are able to take a side. That would
be us. You and me and everyone else on this list. We can show
solidarity. Again, take the exact words out again, - who are the
oppressed anyway?!?!?! And here again we find something else that guides
us - ideas, movements, intergenerational intellects and skillful
traditions, moment of glory and moments of defeat. There are mańy
defeats, but there are also victories in our past. You enjoy them right
now. To ensure their future, get organising with your friends,
colleagues, neighbours. Find out about the exploitative past and connect
with the people who also do so.

This does not have to lead to a state, a new oppressive regime. It can
lead to something different. In fact, it is probably the only thing that
can. Back to life, and bye bye technocracy and technological fetishism
and bad backs. Swim into the future, not sink into the virtual abyss.
People are on the case out there, doing it. Getting together. It is
necessary to log off, though, for some time and boot up a natural
environment and load some project windows and exchange with non-virtual
friends.

Claim back land.

Show solidarity with the landless, they have amazing movements, and come
the collapse, perhaps, one day, you are likely landless to, and can you
grow a carrot, what will you eat? Maybe not you, maybe you are fine, but
many won't be.

Land grab and resource squeeze are by now mainstream terms in development.

------------the last movement to grab the last bits of land and of
knowledge................... take a stand now! why don't come on back to
the war, as Cohen sang, that's right get in it. There is a war between
the rich and poor, a war between the odd and the even. The liberal
statements are against the poor, - but they represent the empathically
poor, the easy way out. The couch potato, not the warrior. The
complicit, the comfortable.

To the barricades of mind, time and space!

!Hasta La Victoria Siempre!