by Prateado | Mar 4, 2019 | boldly onward!, divest, ecology, evolution
The “wall” state of emergency bs, climate change, growing fascism all over the world. We are living truly in a time of either making a positive difference, or not. It’s an active choice. I give 10% of my income, for example, to environmental and environmental justice organizations; some people dedicate their lives to policy change, or creating more resilient mental health, or teaching people about non-violent diets. Everybody can find where they fit it, stretch a little more, and do their part. Some people don’t realize that we’re living in such a decisive moment in history, because empire does such a good insulating middle class and rich white people from the stark realities around the world. Rome and other empires always try to shield and distract the core from the violence and ravages of the peripheries. It’s old empire playbook stuff. The more we can pretend that there’s nothing wrong with climate change, with income inequality, etc., the more we can blithely and blindly keep consuming. It’s all part of the evil game, perpetrated by people who think that they are good people, even as their actions create hell on earth–when things could be otherwise. #TakeAction is part of working towards that...
by Prateado | Dec 19, 2017 | boldly onward!, bullshitt, de-evolution, divest, ecology, evolution, fear, fear the fearmongers, intuition, Uncategorized
The Wisdom of Uncertainty is probably Alan Watts’ best-known book. In it, he describes the fundamental openness of the future, the horrible indeterminacy, and the lack of control that is indicative of our condition as embodied beings in this collective experience we call human life on planet earth. This embodiment, this consciousness, is a fragile, finite thing–despite the ramparts and buttresses especially western civilization has erected to attempt to dam(n) the inexorable flow of life and death. This fear of death, what Freud diagnosed as Thanatos, or the death instinct, is precisely what compels us towards our destruction. For the desire for death (thanatos) and the fear of death, are just the Janus faces of craving and aversion. That is, both instincts, are out of alignment with the fact of death itself. And of life, for that matter. Death and life are not events or limns to be fetishized, but respected. As we’re reaching a low for the human race, ecocide, renewed racism and sexism, there is hope. And there is despair. Resting in either of these is unwise, as they are both incomplete half-truths. The steps back with every step forward, are indicative of predators and parasites holding on to their host, believing that their stability and certainty is tied up with dominating others. There is no recognition that maybe they themselves also are fluid, queer beings, subject to change and metamorphosis. No, instead–and in fact what ontologically makes a parasite a parasite–they are blind to the potential to be anything else. They are scared of evolving. They are scared of readapting to a changed ecology. This is...
by Prateado | Feb 3, 2017 | bullshit, bullshitt, divest, mechanization of life, Planned Obsolescence
Apple has become obsolete before their products even come out. This is because while they attempt to be industry leaders, their sights are shorter than a politician’s. They paradoxically want to create the most cutting-edge new products that have a less than 18 month lifespan. I’ve been an Apple slave since 2003. I learned their operating system, got used to the way my consciousness extended into their products, and got hooked. Sure, you couldn’t customize as much as on a PC, but their shiny aluminum casing and the attention to detail made me feel that my fingers had their own magic carpet to ride. But then the vice squeeze of greed and control destroyed a once useful technology. Gross profit got in the way of user experience, and the sleek feel of Apple’s products became an empty signifier, a symbol without depth. The coup d’état even forced out Steve Jobs, the mythical creature that Apple attempts to moor its brand in. No, it is corporate interests, Goldman Sachs and Co. that are calling the shots, and creating Soccer Mom and Metrosexual products, useless to professionals, but easy for the computer-illiterate masses. Apple is now superficial details, without the power behind it. To call their product line “Pro” becomes laughable at this point in time. While I am well aware that right now, we have bigger fish to fry, as Apple is one of the biggest companies out there, they could lead by example, delivering energy-efficient technologies, and lying less. As it stands, they are the Donald Trump of the computer industry. Dear Apple, Why do your computers suck...
by Prateado | Aug 12, 2015 | bullshit, divest, Uncategorized
Dear computer geek friends: My macbook pro is on its last legs and its time for a new computer. I don’t want to support apple anymore because they are the biggest company in the world, valued at 1 trillion US, and their computers have a planned obsolescence of 3 years. Also, I’ve noticed that in the last 10 years, they have been doing everything they can to shut down sharing, making it difficult to share files except through their locked-down services. I say bollox to all of this. And yet, I need a computer that has Live (Abelton), is fast, portable and user friendly. Ubuntu (Linux) is what I’m leaning towards, but they don’t make Live or other music-making software I’m used to for Linux. That makes me shy away from it. Plus, I’ve heard that if you aren’t a programmer (which I’m not), it’s very hard to fix little bugs. I was thinking buying a chromebook or thinkpad and partitioning the hard drive linux windows (i would only use windows for music) but that seems very complex for me right now. Do I lose my Mac files? Can they be seamlessly converted? How can I evolve and go Ubuntu without losing all of my sunken costs in mac? Please...
by Prateado | May 26, 2015 | divest, ecology, Uncategorized
Divest towards a livable future Stanford University. Norway. Who is next? This earth we inhabit has for 2 centuries had the great boon of coal to power its technological inventions to get us to where we are now. Colonialism 2.0 would never have been possible without it. Which is precisely why we need to get rid of it. Because those who mine coal, do so under duress, not because they enjoy being paid a pittance to destroy their local ecology. Divesting from fossil fuels is one of the most tangible ways to move the lever of power from subsidizing programs of power that benefit a minority at the expense of the majority and the earth. It’s sort of like that old bumpersticker: The same goes for fossil fuels. But, without being too Pollyannish about the future of divestment (which–may it continue until there is no more money in oil, fracking, and gas, and renewables carry the day (and night)), let us remember a flaw in their policy: The UN’s Sustainable Development policy in Rio, Brazil clearly stated in 1992: reduce, reuse, recycle. Hence the hanging question: where is the reduction in energy use on the horizon? With any energy ‘solution’ must come a German-style reduction policy, so that the states, citizens, and industries are using less resources, that appliances are increasingly (and obliged to be) efficient; that we learn to live more in cycles that resonate with the sun (thereby reducing the need of electricity), and find ourselves increasingly engaged in activities that do not require artificial power, and help steward and support those processes that autopoietically generate power....
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