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 | Apr 6, 2016 | Bernie Sanders, ecology, evolution, fear, intuition
As much as I would like to gloat, this really isn’t about proving the NYTimes wrong, Facebook wrong, the Oil Companies wrong, or any of these other institutions that never thought that Bernie would have a chance to win. This is about giving us, and the planet, one last chance. The mainstream, tight-fistedly controlled newmedia never thought Sanders had a chance. The NYTimes writes today, Senator Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday, his sixth straight victory in the Democratic nominating contest and the latest in a string of setbacks for Mrs. Clinton as she seeks to put an end to a prolonged race against an unexpectedly deft and well-funded competitor. I can’t help but thinking that Secretary Clinton has no right to stipulate the beginning or end of a race that doesn’t involve her. Her existence–no matter how established she is–does not generate a coronation. She is one among competitors. And if she seeks to “put an end to a prolonged race,” then she should concede. Otherwise, she should polish her credentials, and increase her transparency. I have to hand it to Amy Chozick for at least running a Sanders story with a positive headline. That’s a first for the news agency, which sabotaged Steinhauer’s recent article on him which initially was positive, and then changed into a smear by editorial staff. What matters most, though, is not that Sanders is finally getting a little respect long overdue. No, Sanders is an important magnetizing force because the truth is, the policies that Cruz, Drumpf, and Clinton propose, will not lead to the deep, broad, and swift...
by Prateado | Aug 28, 2015 | ecology, evolution, intuition, Uncategorized
I had this meditation over the last month, as I have been eager to start a family. But after spending time in nature, both in Berlin and California, I realized how dire our problems are ecologically, and what a supreme responsibility and tragedy it is to have children in this age of machines destroying the earth. Our earth is getting warmer, less hospitable. Food and water are becoming scarcer. There is less grace and abundance being sent our way, as we have raped and murdered nature’s creations relentlessly. Action and equal and opposite reaction. The laws of the universe. Only the arrogant ego (maya, illusion, ignorance) could ever think that he would be above the inexorable cycles and laws of creation, of our cosmos. Action and action in kind. Also, in my meditation, I realized that I thought I was ready to have a partner. I was so sure that finally I was mature enough, that I had put in “the work” and paid my dues spiritually, and that finally, miraculously, just because I had moved on to a new phase in my life professionally, that that automatically meant that I was also mature enough to start a family. And my meditation helped make me aware what a conceit that was; that I had been well-wishing and self-delusional. That I had not looked at those things that were really blocking me from enacting my visions, from realizing my dreams. I had not done the shadow work. And part of that shadow work helped me reexamine whether having kids at all is ethical in this day and age; let alone popping...
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....
Recent Comments