As strong supporters of Portland culture and as a way to celebrate her innovative thinkers and doers, we’re taking on a Portland Lifestyle Campaign.  Meet our latest subject, Kricket Caffery of PegStilts.com who talks about her passion for teaching circus arts and confidence building.

Video by Starchild Interactive

Hey everyone,

Yesterday was one of the truly fun days in this whole wild year of organizing. We had hundreds of referees outside the Capitol, and we blew our whistles like crazy, and we threw penalty flags, and we had a hell of a good time.

My favorite scene, actually, was watching hundreds of people in ref shirts descending the escalators to the subway for the ride to the day’s final stop, the American Petroleum Institute. It was an endless line of black and white, a long human stripe of fair play!

Not only that, it was productive. Two great things happened: one, Senator Bernie Sanders announced at the demonstration that he’s introducing a bill to remove all the subsidies from the fossil fuel industry. And two, Barack Obama, eight hours later in his State of the Union address, joined us to demand that handouts to the world’s richest companies stop. The speech wasn’t perfect — he called for far too much new drilling — but this was an important bright spot.

Ending those handouts is absolutely crucial to our big fight against climate change. A new report from the International Energy Agency shows that ending subsidies for the fossil fuel industry will cut half the carbon emissions we need to stop catastrophic climate change. And it’s partly because they take so much monety from the government that Big Oil can afford to spend millions lobbying for projects like Keystone XL.

It felt darned good to be on the offensive for once, not just trying to beat back disasters like Keystone, but taking the battle to Big Oil.

I’d like to ask you to join in the fun by leading an action that blows the whistle on your local Member of Congress who is taking money from the oil industry. We need to be a little nuanced: for those of you with representatives who have been taking lots of oil money and then voting for handouts for oil companies, then the task is clear — they need to hear from some refs. For those of you with representatives who are doing what’s right already, get in touch with us – I’m sure there is some other elected official nearby who needs to hear from some refs.

To sign up to lead an action to blow the whistle on Congress, click here.

Even five or ten of you can form a “referee squad.” All you need are shirts and whistles (and maybe some strips of cloth to throw as penalty flags!) — and you need some knowledge: how much money did your Congressperson or Senator take from the fossil fuel industry. The 350.org organizers are ready to help you with the supplies, and information on your representatives is available here.

With those things in hand, you’re prepared to go to a district office, to a town hall meeting, or to almost any other occasion and raise uncomfortable questions: Are you going to vote for or against subsidies for big oil? And if you’re going to vote on these company’s interests, why do you take money from them?

We’ll be doing a lot of this. We need to make these outfits a feared sight for corrupt Congresspeople everywhere. In fact, it’s already happening—early this morning, a dozen college students in ref shirts lined up to make sure they’d get in the room for new hearings on the Keystone pipeline. They dominated the coverage, using their flags to call foul on the proceedings.

You don’t need to wait for your politicians to get home for recess. You can mount a small demonstration outside their office—and if you do it in the run up to the Super Bowl, you’re almost certain to get some media notice. Remember: if one team was buying off the refs in the big game, it would be a national scandal. In DC, it’s business as usual—until now.

I know that in some ways this is harder than traveling to DC to be with a big crowd. But you’re capable of this kind of activism, and it’s what we need so badly right now.

And here’s the thing: it was indeed a little strange to dress up like a referee and blow whistles all afternoon in Washington DC – and I haven’t blown a whistle since I was a kid – but with a big movement behind us, that awkwardness evaporated immediately and we started to have a really good time.

So go to it!

—Bill McKibben for 350.org

democracynow.org – The Obama administration has rejected the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline that would stretch from the Alberta tar sands to the Gulf Coast. On Wednesday, President Obama said he was turning down TransCanada’s application for the pipeline because there was not enough time to review an alternate route that would avoid the Ogallala Aquifer in Nebraska. Obama had tried to delay a decision until next year, but Republicans responded by passing legislation forcing a decision by the end of February. Environmental groups have hailed the permit’s rejection but it does not mark the end of the pipeline fight. TransCanada has already announced it will re-apply for a permit based on a different route, and Obama said he was only making his decision based on time constraints, not on the pipeline’s “merits.” We get reaction from Jane Kleeb of Bold Nebraska and 350.org founder Bill McKibben, an expert on climate change who has led massive protests in Washington, D.C. against the pipeline over the past six months. “This was a real victory for people standing up,” McKibben says. “If we hadn’t gone and done what we did in the streets … then the oil industry, as usual, would have gotten away with a really bad idea.”

To watch the complete daily, independent news hour, read the transcript, download the podcast, and for the additional information about Democracy Now!, visit http://www.democracynow.org.

The MarchFourth Bus Project

Your favorite intergalactic marching band, MarchFourth, needs a new space ship! Our beloved bus, Razzle Dazzle, is getting old and she ain’t what she used to be. Razzle’s not very gas efficient and spews more exhaust than we’d like to admit… and she broke down three times last year! (though amazingly we never missed a gig =) Without a reliable ride, we can’t get to your town to rock your face off.

We’ve got our eye on Razzle 2.0, but it won’t come cheap. We need YOUR love and support. We want nothing more than to continue zig-zagging around this beautiful continent, leaving a wake of biodegradable glitter and joy, for years to come. Wouldn’t you like that too?

If that’s not enough, we are offering some AWESOME incentives to those who back us. Git some. Every supporter over the $10 level will be immortalized on a plaque on our new bus. Thanks in advance and Joy Now! We love you…

Here’s my first attempt at offering a kick-ass incentive! Check out my short video and then go to http://thepeoplespdx.com/shop/propgear/ to purchase your two items and email me at info@thepeoplesrepublics with what you want your third item to be. (t-shirt only please)

Video by Andros Sturgeon

As strong supporters of Portland culture and as a way to celebrate the innovative thinkers and doers of our fair city, we have decided to take on a Portland lifestyle campaign. In the coming months we’ll be documenting members of our community at work and at play as a way to capture the many different personalities and cultures that make up our wonderful city of roses. Here is our first clip of Thomas from Cellar Door Coffee Roasters talking about why he looks forward to going to work every day.

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In all these places, I talked with diverse individuals at many meetings and popular assemblies. I met people involved in occupations, as well as audiences assembled by my hosts to hear about participatory economics. Beyond addressing assigned topics, my own priority was to learn about local movements. I repeatedly asked what folks struggling for many months wished to say to other folks first embarking on similar paths.

Boredom, Disempowerment, and Consensus Obstruct Growth
In Greece and Spain, a single message predominated. It had nothing to do with analyses of capitalism or other analytic focuses. Instead, Greek and Spanish activists reported that they had massive assemblies in widespread cities and their occupations grew, grew, grew, so that assemblies were up to 12,000, 15,000 – and then they shrunk, shrunk, shrunk, so that assemblies are now not meeting, or are meeting in the hundreds, or less.

Yet I heard, time after time, that nothing had diminished regarding the population’s rejection of unfolding injustices. The people remain fed up in huge numbers and still turn out massively for demonstrations, marches, and strikes. So why were most people who were rallying and marching no longer assembling? The reply I heard at every stop was that the decline of the assemblies wasn’t due to repression, or to people being co-opted, or to people being tricked or saddened by media distortion or dismissal. In fact, the assemblies shrinking wasn’t due to anything anyone else did to the assemblies, or said about them, or didn’t do to them, or didn’t say about them, activists repeatedly reported. Instead, they told me, the problem emanated from within.

For example, Greek and Spanish activists said that at assemblies initially people spoke with incredible passion of their plights and desires. Their voices often broke. Their hands shook. Each time someone rose to speak, something real, passionate, and persistent happened. It was enchanting and exciting. People were learning not only new facts and interpretations – and, indeed, that kind of learning was relatively modest – they were also learning new confidence and new modes of engaging with others. But after days and then weeks, the flavor of the talks shifted. From being new folks speaking passionately and recounting their reasons for being present and their hopes for their future by delivering deeply felt and quite unique stories, the speakers shifted toward being more seasoned or habituated folks, who lectured attendees with prepackaged views. The lines of speakers became overwhelmingly male. Their deliveries became overwhelmingly rehearsed. Listening to robotic repetition and frequent predictable and almost text-like ranting got boring and alienating. Sometimes it was even demeaning.

At the same time, new people, who were still far more prevalent, didn’t know what to do while they were occupying. We could assemble, they reported. We could talk and engage with each other. We could listen to others and sometimes debate a bit – the Greek and Spanish Assemblers reported – but, how long could we do that and feel it was worth the time we had to spend away from our families, friends, and jobs, not to mention from rooms with a roof?
As they first formed, the assemblies were invigorating and uplifting. We were creating a new community, I was told. We were making new friends. We were hearing from new people. We were enjoying an environment where dissent was the norm. But as days passed, and then weeks, it got too familiar. And it wasn’t obvious to folks what more they could do. There weren’t tasks to undertake. We weren’t being born anymore, we were dying. It was hard. For many it was impossible to keep learning and keep contributing. There was a will, but there was not a way. Folks didn’t have meaningful things to do that made them feel part of a worthy project. We felt, in time, only part of a mass of people.

After a time, many asked, why should I stay and listen to boring talks? Why should I be hugely uncomfortable and cut off from family and work, if I have nothing to do that is constructive, nothing that is empowering, nothing that furthers worthy aims? And so people started to attend less, and then to leave.

Another factor that was initially exciting but later became tedious, was seeking consensus. At first it was novel. It implied trust, which felt good. It implied shared intentions, which felt inspiring. But after awhile, seeking consensus became tortured, a time waster, and its reason for being the only decision making approach became steadily less compelling.

Why can’t we arrive at decisions which some people do not like and don’t even want to participate in? Why can’t we arrive at decisions, and have a strong minority that dissents, and then respect that minority, and even have it pursue other possibilities to see their worth? Why do we allow some small group to cause discussions to continue without end, turning off many from relating when the small group has no legitimate claim to greater influence than anyone else – save that our mode of decision making gives them a veto?

Folks recounted all these dynamics very graphically and movingly. No one said that people stopped participating in assemblies because of fear or the cops or depression over the newspapers. No one said people left because they had developed doubts about protest or resistance, much less about the condition of society. Instead, everyone I spoke with, and it was a lot of very committed people, told me participants left due to lacking good reasons to stay. The bottom line was that the assemblies got tedious and, ironically, even disempowering. Folks wondered, why must I be here every day and every night? The thought nagged. It led to legions moving on.

Making the Very Good Even Better
What is the solution, I asked, in each new city, and we discussed possible answers.
Occupy but better yet, self manage, I was told. The former option is basically passive – the latter is active and yields tasks and opportunities to contribute.

Grow in numbers and awareness, but those who become well learned must stay in touch with new people, and always remember that new people’s involvement matters most. Otherwise old timers are getting more knowledgeable but also more aloof, and new people will not stay.
Why not have classes for learning? Why not have activities for creating? Why not have actions for winning changes? Always speak to the new people. Always speak from experience, from events, not from preconceived lines. Always involve yourself and new people in tangible and worthy activity. Make the options evident and easy to become involved with.

Of course some things can’t be solved at occupations themselves. Sleeping out is a young person’s passion – but not an option for everyone. In Dublin, this was particularly evident. So, while sleeping in an occupied space makes sense for some young or homeless folks, why not proactively take for granted that many other folks, particularly with families, will not and cannot sleep under the stars? Why not have a program of activities that returns people to their home locales for organizing purposes each night, or even for all but the explicit time of assembly meetings, perhaps?

Ideas that resonated in the many discussions, and that activists involved felt needed preponderant support, included: once an occupation has a lot of people, have subgroups initiate other occupations in more places, all federated together and providing one another mutual aid. In the most local, neighborhood occupations, visit every home. Talk with every resident. Involve as many neighbors as possible. Determine real felt needs. If what is most upsetting neighbors is housing concerns, daycare issues, traffic patterns, mutual aid, loneliness, whatever, try to act to address the problems.

Have occupations self manage and create innovations artistically, socially, and politically. Have occupations occupy indoors, not just outside. It is a leap, perhaps, but not much of one. In Barcelona and Madrid – some have tentatively begun occupying abandoned apartments and other buildings, preparatory, I believe, to inviting the homeless to dwell in them, as well as to using them for meetings and the like. In Valencia I was at a very fledgling university occupation, begun, indeed, after a talk. But to occupy buildings, especially institutions like universities or media, isn’t just a matter of call it, or tweet it, and they will come. It is a matter of go get them, inform them, inspire them, enlist them, empower them, and they will come.

In Greece and Spain, and to an extent the other venues I visited too, violence was another focus. All who I talked with agreed it was a suicidal approach on two counts. First, violence is the state’s main strength. Shifting the terms of conflict toward violence shifts it precisely where the state and elites want it – toward their strength. Second, violence distorts the project. It makes it inaccessible for many. It makes bystanders critical. It diminishes outreach, and outreach is the basis of all gains.

I have been to Greece a number of times, and in earlier trips this view was quite weak among young Greeks, who were more typically ready and eager to rumble. But now the non violence stance has growing traction in Greece. In Spain, from the start, it was predominant and Spanish activists have successfully avoided giving the state an excuse for violence, thus causing every act of violence by the state to reverberate to its disadvantage.

Forget about violence and rioting, develop campaigns emanating from occupations, which means, said activists in Spain, developing demands to fight for. Indeed, over and over activists involved asked about demands that could unite constituencies and which could be fought for in creative and participatory ways so that victories were possible which would really matter to people’s lives and enthusiasm and spur further struggle. They felt that while the open ended character of dissent worked fantastically initially, and was warranted while waiting for enough outreach so demands would represent a real constituency’s views, not just those of a few leaders, over time, one needs focus.

Some suggestions for demands that arose were welcome. Others less so. For example, everyone liked demanding big cuts in military spending and reinstatement and enlargement of funds for social programs. But what folks really liked was when that demand was explored and enlarged to include transforming the purposes of military bases that would otherwise be shrunk or closed due to budget cutting to instead stay open and do worthy public works such as building low income housing, first for base residents who would need and appreciate it, and then for the homeless.

And regarding the homeless, a demand that hit home was freezing foreclosures, returning homes, distributing vacant homes, housing the homeless – including the idea of enacting occupations to undertake these results directly, a process that has begun in Barcelona and Madrid which also have robust movements to block foreclosures.

Another approach that seemed to gather considerable support was to demand full employment. But that wasn’t all. Recognizing the lack of current demand for produced goods people realized a sensible full employment demand would require also reducing the work week by 10 – 25 percent, depending on the country’s unemployment rate. Of course if most people saw their incomes decline by a corresponding amount, they would face catastrophe, and thus the reduced hours demand has to be combined with a demand that most people would incur no loss of income. (Living wage policies and redistributionist progressive taxation would also be part of the mix.) Full employment additionally strengthens working people because when they all have jobs, the threat of being fired declines to near irrelevance. Winning this demand also means workers enjoy more leisure and higher hourly wages for those in need. Additional costs would have to be born by owners, and if they don’t agree, that’s fine – workers might want to occupy those factories, and then move to self manage them.

Another popular notion was going after media. One option that resonated as a possible campaign goal, even while obviously falling short of total transformation (though certainly on the way toward it), was demanding one or more new sections of mainstream newspapers, or shows, or whatever which would be devoted to, for example, labor dissent, or feminism, or peace, or ecology, and so on. Crucially, these would not be managed in the usual corporate fashion, but, instead, via self management of their participants under the umbrella of major labor, women’s, peace, or ecology organizations, for example.

In these exchanges, activists were imagining a worldwide campaign against mainstream media, against military spending, for low income quality housing, and for full employment including accompanying income redistribution and increased leisure. They envisioned these campaigns unifying protest into resistance and then unifying resistance into creative self management, even as each occupation also related to its own local concerns.

Self Managements!
Occupations – or what might come to be known, in time, as self managements – would occur in local neighborhoods and federate up to cities and beyond, but also at the entrances to, and perhaps even inside, mainstream media, and at military recruiting stations and bases, at government ministries and branches, and finally, one can envision, even at factories and other workplaces. And in such endeavors not everyone would have to sleep outdoors but everyone would have to give some of their time, resources, insight, and energy to aid one or another campaign of the overall project.

The revolution, so to speak, is not immediately at hand. In my youth we bellowed – “We want the world and we want it now!” It was fine as a rousing chant. But we need to also understand that it takes time, it takes sustained effort, traversing not weeks or months, but years.
Indeed, even with the incredible speed and ingenuity of current outbreaks of activism, there are undeniably pessimistic scenarios in which occupations wind down and then demos happen for a time but manage to win only minor if any gains until movement morbidity sets in. This is what the Greeks and Spaniards are trying to avoid. It is why they are beginning new kinds of occupations aimed at media, housing, universities, and at the transformation of budgets, and soon, perhaps at hiring and firing. Projects that are designed to enhance and widen participation in ways leading to massive involvement of masses of people – all knowing what they want and how they can contribute to attaining it.

There are, however, also optimistic scenarios in which occupations diversify and morph into self managing projects radiating out campaigns for change while also welcoming into sustained participation countless actors of all ages and orientations. In this picture, daily marches to support other campaigns in a city – like in New York currently – with growth in numbers and confidence, leads to empty buildings becoming residences and meeting places, to mainstream media businesses becoming targets for occupation, and likewise for universities, and other workplaces of all kinds. Simultaneously, local neighborhoods generate their own assemblies, again, like in New York, initiated by the residents who had been schooled in the earlier, larger, city-wide endeavors, and then local participants patiently and empathetically enter every house, every kitchen and living room, and elicit desires, and, in time, participation.

Paths Forward
Envisioning all this and much more, once people’s ambition is unleashed from the shackles of daily pessimism, was not hard for folks I talked with. The optimistic path is a scenario involving planting the seeds of the future in the present. It is a scenario that marshals energy and insights to building alternatives, but also winning gains now all fought for and implemented in ways that build desires and organization aimed at winning still more gains in the future.

We need a sense of proportion and pacing. The occupations now underway still involve only a small fraction, indeed a tiny fraction, of the people in pain and angry about it. To grow, the occupations need to very explicitly conceive themselves in ways that address immediate needs, are aimed at viable and worthy long term goals, and develop modes of participation that cause normal folks, enduring normal harsh conditions, to feel that giving their time makes good sense because it can eventually lead to a new social system with vastly better outcomes than those presently endured. Occupations that began in response to economic insanity need, as well, to broaden and adopt a more encompassing focus taking into account not only the economy, but also, and equally, matters of race, gender, age, ability, ecology, and war and peace. This is what makes a movement a threatening project able to induce capitulation from authorities afraid to make it grow even larger. It is what makes a movement worthy of winning, as well.

We need not only patience in the face of a long struggle, but also a sense of optimism and desire. The occupations are a start, a veritable firestorm of initiation, and they already have vastly wider support than their direct participation evidences. There is a possibility lurking in these events that is awesome in its potential implications. We should all be patient and keep our heads, yet we should all also realize that this may be a very special time, especially for young people, during which it is possible to make an indelible, enduring, and incredibly desirable mark on history.

http://interactivist.autonomedia.org/node/33609

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It is called “Mic Check”. When someone among thousands of people, has the floor, they yell out “Mic Check”. The crowd responds by repeating what is said. This continues until the message is finished. While I was recording I heard many messages, but there seemed to be a common theme.

Take a listen (with headphones) to what I heard.

With the words “We hold these truth’s to be self-evident” our country’s founding fathers stated in unequivocal terms their belief that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.” Powerful words that are at the heart of The Declaration of Independence, a document that listed the principles upon which America was founded. Yes, it is true that our founding fathers were wealthy white male slave owners and most likely had more in common with the 1% than the 99%. But that does not take away from the words they wrote, words upon which our Constitution was based. America’s independence came about because a group of people believed that they should not have to live under the “tyranny” of British rule. It took a ‘revolution’ to free themselves from that tyranny. We celebrate America’s independence every 4th of July. It is a time when speeches by politicians ring with the word ‘patriotism’, when an American flag flying on the front porch is a sign of pride in being an American. It is ironic that those who so righteously deem themselves patriotic denounce anyone who questions what they are doing as unpatriotic. But we are America, we are the people. Wall Street, aided by corrupt politicians, has become what the British were to the revolutionaries of the 1700s – tyrants. And we the people are once again in the midst of a revolution because we the governed insist on a government that represents not just an elite few but all its citizens.

We are following in some pretty formidable footsteps and we should be proud!

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There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history. Either you obstruct, in the only form left to us, which is civil disobedience, the plundering by the criminal class on Wall Street and accelerated destruction of the ecosystem that sustains the human species, or become the passive enabler of a monstrous evil. Either you taste, feel and smell the intoxication of freedom and revolt or sink into the miasma of despair and apathy. Either you are a rebel or a slave.

To be declared innocent in a country where the rule of law means nothing, where we have undergone a corporate coup, where the poor and working men and women are reduced to joblessness and hunger, where war, financial speculation and internal surveillance are the only real business of the state, where even habeas corpus no longer exists, where you, as a citizen, are nothing more than a commodity to corporate systems of power, one to be used and discarded, is to be complicit in this radical evil. To stand on the sidelines and say “I am innocent” is to bear the mark of Cain; it is to do nothing to reach out and help the weak, the oppressed and the suffering, to save the planet. To be innocent in times like these is to be a criminal. Ask Tim DeChristopher.

Choose. But choose fast. The state and corporate forces are determined to crush this. They are not going to wait for you. They are terrified this will spread. They have their long phalanxes of police on motorcycles, their rows of white paddy wagons, their foot soldiers hunting for you on the streets with pepper spray and orange plastic nets. They have their metal barricades set up on every single street leading into the New York financial district, where the mandarins in Brooks Brothers suits use your money, money they stole from you, to gamble and speculate and gorge themselves while one in four children outside those barricades depend on food stamps to eat. Speculation in the 17th century was a crime. Speculators were hanged. Today they run the state and the financial markets. They disseminate the lies that pollute our airwaves. They know, even better than you, how pervasive the corruption and theft have become, how gamed the system is against you, how corporations have cemented into place a thin oligarchic class and an obsequious cadre of politicians, judges and journalists who live in their little gated Versailles while 6 million Americans are thrown out of their homes, a number soon to rise to 10 million, where a million people a year go bankrupt because they cannot pay their medical bills and 45,000 die from lack of proper care, where real joblessness is spiraling to over 20 percent, where the citizens, including students, spend lives toiling in debt peonage, working dead-end jobs, when they have jobs, a world devoid of hope, a world of masters and serfs.

(Most news sources are funded by corporations and investors. Their goal is to drive people to advertisers while pushing the corporate agenda. NationofChange is a 501(c)3 organization funded almost 100% from its readers–you! Our only accountability is to the public. Click here to make a generous donation.)

The only word these corporations know is more. They are disemboweling every last social service program funded by the taxpayers, from education to Social Security, because they want that money themselves. Let the sick die. Let the poor go hungry. Let families be tossed in the street. Let the unemployed rot. Let children in the inner city or rural wastelands learn nothing and live in misery and fear. Let the students finish school with no jobs and no prospects of jobs. Let the prison system, the largest in the industrial world, expand to swallow up all potential dissenters. Let torture continue. Let teachers, police, firefighters, postal employees and social workers join the ranks of the unemployed. Let the roads, bridges, dams, levees, power grids, rail lines, subways, bus services, schools and libraries crumble or close. Let the rising temperatures of the planet, the freak weather patterns, the hurricanes, the droughts, the flooding, the tornadoes, the melting polar ice caps, the poisoned water systems, the polluted air increase until the species dies.

Who the hell cares? If the stocks of ExxonMobil or the coal industry or Goldman Sachs are high, life is good. Profit. Profit. Profit. That is what they chant behind those metal barricades. They have their fangs deep into your necks. If you do not shake them off very, very soon they will kill you. And they will kill the ecosystem, dooming your children and your children’s children. They are too stupid and too blind to see that they will perish with the rest of us. So either you rise up and supplant them, either you dismantle the corporate state, for a world of sanity, a world where we no longer kneel before the absurd idea that the demands of financial markets should govern human behavior, or we are frog-marched toward self-annihilation.

Those on the streets around Wall Street are the physical embodiment of hope. They know that hope has a cost, that it is not easy or comfortable, that it requires self-sacrifice and discomfort and finally faith. They sleep on concrete every night. Their clothes are soiled. They have eaten more bagels and peanut butter than they ever thought possible. They have tasted fear, been beaten, gone to jail, been blinded by pepper spray, cried, hugged each other, laughed, sung, talked too long in general assemblies, seen their chants drift upward to the office towers above them, wondered if it is worth it, if anyone cares, if they will win. But as long as they remain steadfast they point the way out of the corporate labyrinth. This is what it means to be alive. They are the best among us.

This article was originally posted on Truthdig. You can also find it on nationofchange.org.

Official Statement from Occupy Wall Street – this statement was voted on and approved by the general assembly of protesters at Liberty Square: Declaration of the Occupation of New York City…

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

On Oct. 6th, 12:00 pm, thousands will gather at the Waterfront near SW Ankeny and Naito Parkway (http://tinyurl.com/44rl474) to march to Pioneer Courthouse Square. This is in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, where thousands have been staying near the Wall Street stock exchange to protest the corruption of Washington politicians, misdeeds of big banks, and the cancerous rein of corporate lobbyists.

Here is a link to the OccupyPortland Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/284344344909229/

You can also see where other Occupations are being held at OccupyTogether.org

Created by: College At Home

If you want to get to the great stuff, then jump to the 2:30 mark.

A friend of mine introduced me to an interesting audio series called, “Build 2020 Manifesto“, by Molina. In this 10 track series, the narrator guides us through a cautious tale of history, present and future seen through the eyes of the people. What I have posted above is the track titled, “Tomorrow’s Sun”, and refers to the power of optimism, creativity and community.

I think that the community behind the People’s Republic of Portland breathes this message and therefore can understand it. We appreciate that in the modern context, community has no boarders and is therefore a dispersed collective. In our world of Internet connectivity, the energy it takes to build a zeitgeist or collective identity is much less then previously required.

We wanted to share this from The Post Carbon Institute:  a team of highly regarded experts, whose collective mission is to lead the immediate transition to a resilient, equitable and sustainable world.  Their mission is to get society off fossil fuels, fast!  Check em’ out at http://www.postcarbon.org.

Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle Ep 28 “Show Time” from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

August 18, 2011 – A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. On a visit to Ft. Collins, the band plays a lively show for a amazingly responsive audience at the Aggie.

Camera: Gogo Bambino

More on M4:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

© Diggable Monkey
diggablemonkey.com

Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle Ep 27 “Little Stars of Bethlehem” from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

August 14, 2011 — A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. The annual Musikfest in Bethlehem, PA proved to be very fertile ground for the band. The big finale show at Levitt Pavillion Steel Stacks was EPIC!

Camera: Gogo Bambino

More on M4:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

© Diggable Monkey
diggablemonkey.com

Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle Ep 26 “Bulgarian Bar” from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

August 11, 2011 — A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. While in Manhattan, the band squeezes into Mehanata Bulgarian Bar on John’s birthday and surprises him with a song as he conducts the count in to Space Hole.

More info on M4:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

© Diggable Monkey
diggablemonkey.com

Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle Ep 25 “New York City” from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

August 11th, 2011 — A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. The band plays in New York City at the Lincoln Center and stuns the locals.

Cameraman: Gogo Bambino

More info:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

© Diggable Monkey
diggablemonkey.com

Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle Ep. 24 “Tower of Power” from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

August 7, 2011 — Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. The M4 brass section joins in with Tower of Power while at the Telluride Jazz Festival.

More info:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

© Diggable Monkey
diggablemonkey.com

Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle Ep. 23 “Grammy” from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

August 5, 2010 — Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. Ryan stops into the metal shop where the Grammy Awards are made in Ridgeway, Colorado.

More info:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

© Diggable Monkey
diggablemonkey.com

Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle Ep. 22 “High and Tight” from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

August 5, 2010 — Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. While in Fruita, Jeremiah demonstrates his hair cutting skills on Dan.

More info:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

© Diggable Monkey
diggablemonkey.com

Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle Ep 21 “Gypsies” from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

August 3, 2011 – Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. Taylor and Alex rip up a tune while the band enjoys the spectacular Utah landscape.

More info:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

© Diggable Monkey
diggablemonkey.com

Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle Ep 20 – Chakras Gone Wild! @ Wanderlust (2011) from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

July 30, 2011 — Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. The crew takes a little R&R opportunity by the pool while at the Wanderlust yoga festival in Squaw Valley, CA.
More info:
marchfourthmarchingband.com
Diggable Monkey
diggablemonkey.com

Trail Mix: A Life with Razzle Dazzle Ep 19 Wino from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

July 22, 2011 — Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. Jen, Russell and the dance team entertain folks in Sun Valley, Idaho for their 30th anniversary wine auction.

More info on M4:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

© Diggable Monkey
diggablemonkey.com

Trail Mix: A Life with Razzle Dazzle Ep 18 “ESPY’s” from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

July 13, 2011 — Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. The gang orients themselves before playing for TV and celebs at the ESPY (ESPN) Award Show.

More info on M4:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

© Diggable Monkey
diggablemonkey.com

July 9, 2011 — Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. Daniel leads the Cumberland Marching Band in a song at the Vancouver Island Music Festival.

More on MarchFourth:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

© Diggable Monkey
diggablemonkey.com

July 7, 2011 — Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. John and the band horse around on the ferry while a media team on assignment needles the group in anticipation of the Vancouver Island Music Fest.

More info on M4:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

© Diggable Monkey
diggablemonkey.com

What Will You Do? http://www.fouryearsgo.org | http://www.twitter.com/fouryearsgo | http://www.facebook.com/fouryearsgo – FOUR YEARS. GO. is a campaign to change the course of history. The next four years will determine the quality of life on this planet for the next 1,000 years. There is still time to act, but no time to waste. For more information go to http://www.fouryearsgo.org

June 29, 2011 — Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. Jeremiah kicks in with his handyman building skills during Bus Cleaning, while the next morning the band packs up at the Egg for the next tour.

More info on M4 @ marchfourthmarchingband.com

© Diggable Monkey Productions @ diggablemonkey.com

June 7, 2011 — Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. The band opens fire on the venerable Exit/In, a 40-year old club in Nashville, Tennessee.

More info:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

© Diggable Monkey Productions
diggablemonkey.com

June 6, 2011 — Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. During downtime at the overnight spot, Ryan takes charge of a formation rehearsal.

More info:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

© Diggable Monkey Productions
diggablemonkey.com

June 4, 2011 — Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. The MarchFourth rhythm section and stilters are invited to play along on the finale of the last Quixotic Fusion show at Wakarusa 2011.

More info on Quixotic
quixoticfusion.com

More info on MarchFourth:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

© Diggable Monkey Productions
diggablemonkey.com

May 31, 2011 — Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. Daniel and the band chat with our host, Monk and enjoy the beautiful landscape from Granny’s House just outside of Carbondale, Colorado.

More Info:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

© Diggable Monkey
diggablemonkey.com

May 30, 2011 — Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. Somewhere near Winnemucca, Aaron takes us through a little M4 bling production with his adjustable hat design and the new trophy.

More info
marchfourthmarchingband.com
Cover photo by GoGo Bambino

© Diggable Monkey Productions

May 27, 2011 — Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. The bus breaks down on Hwy 58 near McCredie Springs, OR and delays the group while they wait for parts to arrive from…. somewhere.

More info on MarchFourth:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

Cover Photo by Gogo Bambino
© Diggable Monkey Productions
diggablemonkey.com

The You Inspire Me team is launching a whole new way of creating a show! We want YOU to help write, design and build the best musical-theater experience we can all dream of!

Support through Kickstarter:
kickstarter.com/​projects/​inspire-musical/​inspire-a-mobile-musical-circus-co-created-by-you?ref=search

Cover photo by Christopher Worth
© Diggable Monkey Productions
diggablemonkey.com

Via: OnlineMBA.com

There’s a place in St. Louis so whimsical and awesome that even the renowned freaks in MarchFourth are beside themselves upon entering. On the band’s first visit to City Museum last November, someone commented how it was just like Burning Man, only no dust! Talk about the most perfect place to see M4 play a gig…

Housed in the 600,000 square-foot former International Shoe Company, the museum is an eclectic mixture of children’s playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects. The brainchild of internationally acclaimed artist Bob Cassilly, a classically trained sculptor and serial entrepreneur, the museum opened for visitors in 1997 to the riotous approval of young and old alike.

Cassilly and his longtime crew of 20 artisans have constructed the museum from the very stuff of the city; and, as a result, it has urban roots deeper than any other institutions’. Reaching no farther than municipal borders for its reclaimed building materials, CITY MUSEUM boasts features such as old chimneys, salvaged bridges, construction cranes, miles of tile, and even two abandoned planes!

“CITY MUSEUM makes you want to know,” says Cassilly. “The point is not to learn every fact, but to say, ‘Wow, that’s wonderful.’ And if it’s wonderful, it’s worth preserving.”

citymuseum.org/​home.asp

More info on MarchFourth:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

Narrated by Jen Forti and Dan Stauffer
Shot and Editing by Kevin Balmer
© Diggable Monkey Productions
diggablemonkey.com

We Are The People’s Republic of Portland from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

The People’s Republic of Portland (PROP) models progressive change with the ultimate intent of positively influencing our world. Through the mediums of music, art, and a line of hip clothing; we recruit, promote, and celebrate the unique people and businesses in Portland that share our vision and values.thepeoplespdx.com

We are knitting communities together with a common thread. JOIN TODAY!

More info on PROP:
info@thepeoplespdx.com

Chevron design and cover photo by Lander Beauchamp
© Land3r Design
land3r.com

Music by Matt Voth, Silver Saturn Music
Shot and edited by Kevin Balmer
© Diggable Monkey Productions
diggablemonkey.com

As if the current job market and economy didn’t make it hard enough for low income households in America to make ends meet, it turns out that living below the poverty line is actually more costly in many respects as well. It not only takes money to make money, it also takes quite a bit of money to live in poverty. Our friends at Online Sociology Degree put together this graphic to illustrate how expensive it is to be a poor American.

Via: OnlineSociologyDegree.net

Was Ist Das? MarchFourth Marching Band in Germany (2011) from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

Was Ist Das? MarchFourth Marching Band in Germany is an up-close and personal ride along with Portland Oregon’s most colorful musical export, MarchFourth Marching Band! Described as eclectic mix world music, imagine Duke Ellington meets Sgt. Pepper in an international big-top Fantasia. Shadow the gigantic 25-member band closely on the 9-day German leg of their most recent 2010 European tour and bear witness to the joyous impact of their infectious show in various locations across Deutschland.

Was Ist Das? MarchFourth Through Germany (2011) 30min.
Shot in Germany from September 3rd-10th, 2010
Starring the MarchFourth Marching Band
marchfourthmarchingband.com

MarchFourth Booking Info Contact:
Mark Lourie, VP of Development
mark@skylineonline.com
866-531-2172 ext. 104

Produced and Directed by Kevin Balmer
© 2011 Diggable Monkey Productions
diggablemonkey.com

Just Below the Surface is a one session discussion guide that explores the connections between Deepwater Horizon, energy policies and our lifestyles. The course offers an opportunity to reflect further on this historical event and the lessons it holds for us moving forward—individually and collectively. The intent is not to assign blame, but rather to take responsibility—as conscious consumers and concerned, active citizens.

Here is an article that we wanted to share written by Anna Berardi titled:

From Reaction To Intentionality

by Anna Berardi

All humans are hard-wired to respond to danger.  When we sense a threat to our safety, we instantly know whether to defend ourselves (fight), run because if we don’t, we won’t survive (flight), or play dead because we’re probably done no matter what (freeze).   The beauty of our built-in sensors is that they are highly efficient when an immediate danger is upon us.  The downside is that our stress-response system is reactionary and cannot discern when a more intentional choice is needed, as in the case or the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.

These responses were evident in the stories I heard from the Gulf Coast residents I met last summer.  As a psychotherapist trained in trauma response, I was most interested in learning how this most recent disaster impacted those most socially and emotionally vulnerable, particularly the working-class communities reliant on local industries of fishing, oil, or tourism.  These communities live at the center of the impact zone and cannot flee from the problem, and will respond differently than their more advantaged neighbors.  Two coastal residents I met, Luke and Gus, illustrate differing, yet typical, stress-responses of local residents, and to a certain degree, the emotional responses of those watching the events unfold from a distance.

Luke, a life-long resident of the Gulf Coast community, takes great pride in personally knowing hundreds of families impacted by the spill. Like many Gulf Coast residents, his livelihood is dependent upon the oil industry.  Luke subcontracts with BP, processing the lost wage claims due to the oil spill.  He expressed a genuine compassion for those hardest hit by the spill and patriotic determination to ensure that “America fights to the death” to protect its access to oil, whether in local waters or abroad.  “Outsiders” and anyone who disagreed with this belief were suspect.  Luke’s response to the disaster was to deny key parts of the story: that our dependence on fossil fuels is undermining the environment, health, and security, not only of his own community, but of our entire planet.

Gus, a 30-something man who makes a living as a “Jack of all trades”, shared Luke’s distrust of anyone who criticized the region’s economic dependence on oil.  At the time, he was employed as an independent contractor for BP and the US military, running boat tours for scientists and reporters monitoring clean-up efforts.  He made it clear he could lose his job if his employers knew he was talking to me.  Yet, Gus also conveyed a deep sense of attachment to the landscape and anger at the destruction wrought by neighboring states who use its tributaries as an agricultural sewer system and oil companies who caved out marshes and fishing grounds to make way for pipelines.  “I’ve traveled every inch of this coast and I see how it is being destroyed, and now we want to act as if BP is the one who ruined it.”

And then he added, “Our need for oil will probably destroy life as we know it, but what can any of us do?”  Unlike Luke, Gus saw the whole picture – our country’s dependence on a finite resource and how money, power, and bureaucracy were undermining viable alternatives.  Yet, given his options, Gus felt powerless, and hence his view was fatalistic.

While residents of the Gulf Coast like Luke and Gus experienced the trauma and stress of the disaster most acutely, many following the developments from afar may have experienced similar responses.  Consciously and unconsciously traumatized by the images of a burning inferno and oil soaked wildlife, we, like Luke, may have distanced ourselves from any personal responsibility, or slipped into avoidance of the matter altogether.  Others, who recognize how systemic the problem is, may feel some of Gus’ sense of resignation and despair.

Fear, denial, fatalism, and inertia are givens; we can’t avoid these reactions.  But responding from (rather than being informed by) any of these places will not solve the problem.  Ultimately, change requires an intentional shift in our collective conscience and individual behaviors.  I believe that shift is most life-producing when grounded in genuine care for the welfare of persons, communities, and the environment, hope in our capacity individually and collectively to create new solutions, and a sense of responsibility to work towards those solutions.

Where do we start?  First, by sharing stories from the Gulf, we can move beyond blame, judgment or guilt.  The Deepwater Horizon disaster provides an opportunity for all of us to look at our own uneasy alliances with oil and the comfortable lifestyles it fuels.

Next, we can make daily adjustments in how much we consume, not just at the pump, but also at the grocery store, when we choose food that was produced locally or opt for less packaging.  As we begin to make lifestyle changes, we also need to network with like-minded persons for the encouragement and support.

And finally, we need to support alternatives.  Gus needs more options.  The hundreds of families known by Luke need more options.  Behavior change requires viable alternatives to choose from before an old behavior can be completely let go.  To only see the magnitude of the problem without providing a vision for change just sends us back to fear, fatalism and inertia.  And this is where things get tough.

The paradigm shift this type of change requires isn’t merely internal, but global.  It doesn’t just require each person to change, but systems world-wide.  And most of the personal choices you and I might long to make are highly dependent on broader systems that resist change.  This is where many of us cycle back to Gus’ fatalism.

What we must remember is that systemic change starts with the individual.  And deep inside each of us, we know that change is possible and the only option for healing the past and ensuring a future.  To stand in solidarity with Gulf residents means transitioning from our natural fight-flight-freeze reactions that reflect our anger, fear, or inertia, to intentional actions reflecting hope, care, and responsibility.

Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle – Ep. 8 “SloMo Austin Redux” from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

March 22, 2011 – Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle video diary with MarchFourth from the road. A few choice selections from SXSW of the M4 drum section nailing their parts – in slow mo!

More M4 info:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

Diggable Monkey Productions
diggablemonkey.com

More details to come!

Humans and bunnies are by nature social beings.  Our society is continuing to evolve in ways that isolate us from one another. A recent barrier is mobile devices. As convenient and entertaining as they are – they also tend to divide us – especially in public places. I am creating this game to encourage socializing. The game helps us remember who we are and introduces us to other humans sharing the commons with us. The possibilities of where the game could take players is endless. When we are present and interacting with our surroundings we are open to life’s offerings. Please join me in both playing the game, downloading future game pieces, and creating your own. Thanks for playing and taking one step today to break down the isolation that’s building in our society.

This game should also increase our presence and availability to offers that are available around us

Here are some common ways one can “get points” in this game:

1. putting bike on bus
2. silencing cellphone
3. unplugging from music
4. talking to someone – INITIATING A CONVERSATION (start anyway you can, work towards deeper topics – “what inspires you lately” is a good one
5. group conversation
5.1 giving directions (transit, foot, bike, etc.) to a fellow passenger
6. group song – big points
7. playing an instrument
8. interacting with bus driver (if welcomed)
8.5 Thanking your bus driver on your way out the back exit (Michael Andersen)
9. giving up your seat for a disabled or elderly person, pregnant woman
10. giving someone your biz card
11. Offering a section of your newspaper, or a completed magazine, to a seatmate
12. Helping a fellow passenger deal with someone who is being difficult
13. Picking your bag off the seat besides you, or moving to the window, when the last empty row fills up in the bus

By taking a form of transit, or walking, taking your bicycle, you’re doing a lot to help – reducing ecological footprint, financially supporting transit system, reducing traffic congestion, possibly making a better health choice (walking/biking/skate-boarding)

Look for other players with this (TBD) logo for people who like to connect.

Happy Year of the Rabbit!

Sincerely,

Gamemaster: Albert Kaufman –  albertideation.com/game

Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle – Ep 7 “Austin @ SXSW” from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

March 19, 2011 – A video diary with MarchFourth from the road. Taylor and Joel play a swinging little ditty on the bus as the marching band blazes across Austin for the 2011 SXSW festival.

More info: marchfourthmarchingband.com

Diggable Monkey Productions diggablemonkey.com

Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle – Ep 6 “Texas Invasion” from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

March 17, 2011 — A Life With Razzle Dazzle – Video diary with MarchFourth from the road. M4 marches into Austin, Texas for the SXSW music festival and drops the bomb on an unsuspecting crowd…

Cover photo by Gogo Bambino

More info on M4:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

Diggable Monkey Productions
diggablemonkey.com

Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle – Ep 5 “Earth Ship Livin’” from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

March 15, 2011 — A Life With Razzle Dazzle – Video diary with MarchFourth from the road. Ben shares his sweet digs after the Taos gig, then takes the band down by the river for a little R&R…

Groovy tunes by Lucky Brown
Cover photo by Gogo Bambino

More info on M4:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

Diggable Monkey Productions
diggablemonkey.com

Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle – Ep. 4 “Panini Tetris” from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

March 14, 2011 — A Life With Razzle Dazzle – Video diary with MarchFourth from the road. Sid chefs up gourmet breakfast while demonstrating tricky bus cooking techniques in Razzle’s kitchen.

Groovy tunes by Lucky Brown
Cover photo by Gogo Bambino

More info on M4:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

Diggable Monkey Productions
diggablemonkey.com

Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle Ep 3 – “Uh Oh!” from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

March 12, 2011 — A Life With Razzle Dazzle – Video diary with MarchFourth from the road. A traditional pit stop at the In and Out Burger in Casa Grande, AZ leads to a bus meltdown. Watch the kids spring into action to make it to the gig in Tempe, 45 miles away…

Groovy tunes by Lucky Brown
Cover photo by Gogo Bambino

More info on M4:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

Diggable Monkey Productions
diggablemonkey.com

Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle Ep 2 “Teamwork” from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

March 11, 2011 – A Life With Razzle Dazzle – Video diary with MarchFourth from the road. Heading down to Tucson, Aaron gives us the run down on the idea of teamwork and what it takes to keep us moving.

Hammond B3 Vibes by Eric Aspnes, Tucson, AZ
Cover Photo by Gogo Bambino

More info on M4:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

Diggable Monkey Productions
diggablemonkey.com

Trail Mix: A Life With Razzle Dazzle – Ep 1 – “The New Banner” from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

PROP and Diggable Monkey Productions on the “March Madness” tour with MarchFourth Marching Band giving you a behind the scenes glimpse of the artistry, craftsmanship and daily chores the band takes on.

March 9, 2011 — A Life With Razzle Dazzle – Video diary with MarchFourth from the road. Faith works on a replacement banner for the upcoming LA show.

Groovy tunes by Lucky Brown
Cover photo by Gogo Bambino

More info on M4:
marchfourthmarchingband.com

Diggable Monkey Productions
diggablemonkey.com

It is not through the use of a transportation technology that we will be able to experience time travel. Infact, it is through creative technology that we are already able to travel back or forward through time. Media, such as your Facebook profile picture, is a premature stage of the ability to re-experience another moment.

As we already know, there is only a series of “nows” that make up reality as the future and the past are illusions. If this is true then time travel is, in a sense of movement, impossible. Therefore we must recreate the moments of the past or create the possibilities of the future with media-like technology. Today, we might call this “virtual reality” but, according to your senses, it would be called “reality”. This is a world of such realism that you cannot but help but get lost.

Now, this is not a new idea and has been tossed around in popular culture entertainment for decades. 16 years ago, in 1995 (!) Nintendo released Virtual Boy and introduced me to the world of “3D” quite abruptly. Here is what I saw on my Saturday morning cartoons.

The modern pretext for how to travel back in time is to recreate it using “Virtual Reality”, something that hasn’t really changed much in 16 years. The only thing that has become more clear is the degree to which reality can be reproduced and with what amount of ease can it be done with. To demonstrate this, scroll the video below to 4:15 and you will get a much more elegant take on what I am trying to express.

In this moment, through the power of YouTube and many other online utilities, we are able to transport ourselves back through time in a limited fashion on demand. Videos, photos, text and audio are all pieces of an increasing body of representations of ourselves. We are essentially taking the idea of a time capsule to the next logical step. Now we don’t have to dig up our forgotten memories, they can be recalled on a whim in Technicolor and stereo sound.

While our creative and commonsense understanding of what media can do has expanded, there are things that can’t be fathomed today that will be true in tomorrow, but remember that is an illusion.

Above is a video piece I put together about “The Future of the Internet.”  Have a listen!

It wasn’t until I sat down the owner, Erin Sutherland, and asked her about her new venture that I realized how unique this clothing store was. Above you will find the audio from our conversation and below you will find a photo gallery of Lodekka. Enjoy!

1. Overcome the culture of conspicuous consumption

Portlanders rarely buy new things except for undergarments and food. Some dumpster divers don’t even do the latter. We like to make things and fix them. If we don’t have the time or capacity to do so, we usually have talented unemployed friends do it for us for trade.

We shop at Goodwill a lot, which supports our ladies in their sexy grandma fashion and our weekly costume theme parties. We prefer to get home goods at the Rebuilding Center and go to Scrap Recyclers for arts and crafts supplies. Part of this is environmentally driven, since new things equal future landfill junk. Part of it is economical, and we’re all pretty broke. It’s not necessary to drive nice cars, or any car really, to get a hot date, because bikers are sexy. There is less social pressure to be rich, and more social pressure to be conscious of how you’re actually impacting the world.

Methodology 101

Naked Lady Parties (or Nude Dude Corrals)
Invite your mutually gendered friends and acquaintances to come over to your house with bags of their unwanted clothes. Clear one room, set up a full-length mirror, and lower the curtains. Offer snacks and drinks until most have arrived, and then have everyone drop their bags into one giant pile of apparel and dig dig dig for your finds! Guests strip down as they try on new fashions and stow away their new trashed treasures in the same bag they just unloaded. As you return the leftovers to a donation site, you can delight that your new favorite bodice top is the same one that helped your best friend hook up with her hot boyfriend.

2. Support your Local . . . Everything

With the way the economy is suffering, do you really want your dollars going to a megalith like Wal-Mart? The few extra dimes that you spend at local places will get turned back into the local economy much more quickly, thus raising the overall economic health of your community. If the mom and pop’s have all shut down, then you can avoid chain restaurants and buy your groceries at the farmer’s market.

Methodology 101

Start a local non-profit radio station. Use the internet radio feeds to start up and flyer the hell out of your town. Invite schools to participate. Advertise local businesses. Play music from local bands. Share local political concerns in an intelligent discussion instead of watching idiot pundits on major news networks tell you what to fear. Enjoy how easy this is in our current technological universe.

3. Prioritize Art in your Life

The biggest river in this city is not the Columbia or the Willamette, it’s the creative flow of art that floods the hearts and minds of every inhabitant. We’re not so much into going to museums as we are into having arts and crafts nights to do decoupage or learn welding. Creating art fills up your soul. It’s mentally and emotionally healthy. It’s what is lacking in the TV-centric lifestyle.

Methodology 101

Throw a costume party. Have a pile of stuffed animals that people can cut apart and re-sew back together to make monsters. Offer a talent show portion of any event. Invite closet musicians and other friends to sing songs that they love to cover or wrote themselves. Dork out.

Have gatherings where your friends teach each other how to craft, sculpt, weld, dress, design, stitch, knit, draw, paint, dance, and then put a bird on it.

Turn off the TV and make something. Don’t worry if it’s crap. You can burn it and use the remnants of charcoal to draw a portrait of your TV.

4. Survive the Awkward to get to the Amazing

I dated a guy who knits. He’s not gay. He just likes knitting. I think he’s way hotter because he’s not afraid to be a man who knits. When I visit my old hometown in suburban San Diego, I find it hilarious that everyone is in costume, but they just don’t know it.

Portlanders revel in their unique tastes. Yet, it’s not the zoo bomb bikers with thick- gauged plugs in their earlobes who stand out the most. It’s the people who just play around with figuring out what best suits their authentic selves, and wearing it well. They are allowed to play because no one flinches or jeers when they unicycle past playing a bagpipe.

Granted, Portland has some issues with being a city of cliques who don’t merge enough. It’s also way too Caucasian to be called diverse. But, one thing is clear, we like our fringe freaks just fine.

Methodology 101

Next time you meet someone who seems strange and makes you feel awkward, take a breath and find common ground. Ask them a question that you may be able to relate to. Avoid small talk and stating the obvious.

Try something new that makes you feel anxious. Step outside your own identity boundaries to see if it feels good to push your limits of self. Use  an eyeliner to decorate your cheekbones. Even if you’re a boy.

Improvise. Risk it.

5. Eco-logical becomes eco-nomical

Upon arrival from Berlin, my Omi would unload a collection of creamers, jams, and plastic forks she collected from her airplane meals. She wasn’t an environmentalist; she had simply survived poverty. The two go hand in hand. People who wear sweaters in the house in the winter and turn off the faucet between wetting the toothbrush and spitting are saving money. It’s simple and extremely un-entitled in mentality. So if it’s yellow, let it mellow, and if it’s brown, flush it down.

Don’t just buy into anything that sells you with the words green, organic, natural, or cage-free. Consider whether the amount of waste resulting from buying a new ‘environmental’ product is comparable to the good it may do. Be progressive enough to find out for yourself. Research where your food comes from. You don’t have to go to the farm, just look online for people who have done so already.

If you want to beautify your area, then advocate for community gardens, re-greening plans, bicycle commuter paths, and protecting the land that you still have left. Portland is a town of protesters, and we love signing petitions and going to local meetings to speak our thoughts on keeping things visually and physically green, and public lands publicly owned.

Methodology 101

Educate yourself with movies like Food, Inc. and books like Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Maybe even experiment in whole food diets to see how your health improves.

Grow a garden of your own. Install a rain barrel (purchased from your local industrial zone that uses big plastic bins) and save water. Compost.

Get on your bike or go on a hike and get out in it! Share the road with pedestrians and bikers when you drive.

6. Community Community Community

Nearly every party I go to involves a potluck and a snuggle pile. It’s what I love. The potluck often has a mix of treats from bacon to vegan, because Portlanders eat like red neck hippies. The snuggle pile is a safe place to get some human touch without any creepers, because my crew frown on unsolicited grabby vibes. Now, you may not desire potlucks or cuddle puddles, but create the types of gatherings you do like
even if it sounds weird to your guests at first.

The best bonding happens when you give each other the room to experiment. Personal growth is a popular goal in these parts. It can definitely get self-gratifying,
but that’s better than self-depreciating. So yeah, we make vision boards around solstice and process polyamorous relationships more than most. If that’s not your angle, then simply direct yourself into the path that is. Then call your friends over to join you.

Methodology 101

Meet your neighbors by doing a beautification project together. Get ideas for this from Village Building Convergence at http://vbc.cityrepair.org/

Contribute or start up a local ignite gathering. http://ignite.oreilly.com/

Collaborate! Do the things you love in cahoots with other people who’s input will enhance or refine your own project, and you theirs. Trade a ‘mine’ for ‘ours’ here and there.

Portlanders are totally guilty of most of the jokes poked at us on the show Portlandia, but behind each of them is a cry out to the rest of the US to play with using our awesome freedoms a little more creatively. By no means have we made utopia here. But, well, we try. Overall, we’re pretty lazy about it too, so step up and get inspired to create the world you want in your own city. Maybe for you that is the dream of the 90’s. It is alive in Portland. But you can bring it to a town near you.

listen to Delhi Belly – by Luke Solmon

This video was meant as an instructional video for the members of MarchFourth Marching Band. Ariel and I revised one of the “Delhi Belly” dance moves known as “the bunny hop” with a new move now entitled “the wrist clap”. It’s been 11 months since we posted the original video on You Tube titled “Learn The Delhi Belly Dance” and we’ve since gotten almost 2,ooo views! This piece is a huge hit at our shows and the feeling of seeing an entire room full of people dancing in unison is indescribable. As rough as this video is (and not even meant for public viewing) I felt like posting it and blogging about it. It’s a way for me to share with you the stuff that happens behind the scenes. It’s special I think and it deserves recognition. Recording this the other day with Ariel brought me back to the days when I was like 12 years old and my friend and I would record our voices on cassette tape. It was a very nostalgic moment for me. If you plan on coming to one of our shows (the next one being our anniversary show at The Crystal Ballroom on March 4th!) you should take the time to learn the Delhi Belly dance. It’s super fun, especially when you’re doing it with a room full of people!

WAS IST DAS? MarchFourth in Germany Trailer (2011) from Diggable Monkey on Vimeo.

As I enter my 7 year run as a performer with The MarchFourth Marching Band, I’m pleased to announce that The Germany tour Documentary “Was Ist Das?” is in it’s final stages of completion. Thank you Diggable Monkey Productions!!! As a matter of fact, tonight we will be gathering with members, friends and family of M4 for a pre-screening. This is so exciting for all of us, not only to have our magical journey documented, but to be able to offer the public a glimpse of what it’s like to be on and behind the scenes with one of Portland’s most iconic and eclectic musical outfits. Not to mention, it’s going to make a killer promotional video! This 28 min. documentary should be hitting the Portland screens sometime this spring. For now, here’s a little teaser for your viewing pleasure.

Charles Dickens walked a winter night and watched white snow turn black in the acidic rain of nineteenth-century England. He saw children as young as five filing from factories dirty, hollowed-eyed, silent, and tired from the long hours of work in dirty factories fired with greed and fraught with danger. Raw sewage from the thousands of horse drawn cabs, cattle, and hogs mixed with human waste that ran down the street into the Thames where London’s masses got their water and their cholera. Dickens often walked ten to twenty miles a day through London’s filth. Privileged kids sang in a school yard, “Ring around the Rosie, pocket full of poses, Ashes, Ashes, we all fall down.” The cryptic song echoed through the streets. Coal fired chimney pots belched black soot that covered London’s edifices and coated London’s lungs. Two classes of people passed in a cloud of pollution mistakenly called fog. They seldom acknowledged one another, but barriers break down on Christmas Eve.

Mr. Dickens faced his own set of problems. His literary career teetered on failure’s ledge with attendant financial ruin. Nineteenth century Britain used debtor’s prison as common means of punishing the poor; thus, even a person of Dickens’s stature feared poverty. Watching a family trim a tree through a frosty window, he probably reminisced about past, simpler times. Did a father coughing up black mucus tear him back to the present? A man and a nation hung in the balance. Dickens later wrote in The Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of time, it was the worst of times. This night Dickens thought of Christmas past, present, and future. He went home and wrote a haunting tale about greed and death and the consequences of a life spent chasing wealth. Unlike the cutesy Christmas movies we watch on television this Christmas Eve, “A Christmas Carol” paints a bleak picture. In spite of the soot and sewage Dickens’s finds a message of hope. People can change, and they can make a difference in the lives of others.

Today I pedaled through a bitter cold wind sucked from Hood River down the Columbia River Gorge into Portland’s streets. I stopped my bicycle on a bridge overlooking Interstate 205 to warm my hands and to practice something they call “mindfulness “in psychology. As a writer I simply call in looking–really looking in the same way that Dickens’s looked on his twenty mile walks through the city. He observed with all five senses. I attempted the same. The harried air carried no smells as if in too big a rush to carry odoriferous baggage. It’s cold sting on my face made me feel strangely alive in its deathly grip. A dark, gray cloud blanket muted winter’s light, and drivers turned on their lights not to see but to be seen. The clock read 2:30 pm. Like a huge Christmas tree, a red string of taillights snaked through the gigantic fir boughs covering hillsides adjoining I 205.

Standing over that highway I thought of Dickens and the world he faced. I thought of my world. A few days ago a young man plotted to blow up thousands of Christmas revelers in Portland Pioneer Square at the annual tree lighting event. America fights on the fronts of two wars this night. Iran and Korean could make for two more. Setting a new high for Christmas, gas prices surpassed the three-dollar mark. Over-population, pollution, world-wide economic collapse, and threat of pandemics threatens our very existence. Rather than seek solutions, nations fight. Wikileaks exposed them. The Wikileaks founder finds himself in jail.

As in the days of Dickens’s Our Christmas Carol has a bleak side. It also has a bright side found in people driven by the cold winds of Christmas that in some way makes one feel strangely alive even in the presence of death and disaster. One finds hope in the random acts of kindness (RAK) performed on city streets without fanfare, at little expense, with no expectation of profit or payback.

Our forefathers created the first government in all of human history run by the people for the people. They expressed a confidence in the people to govern themselves. Forces threaten that government and those people. We the people have made our share of mistakes, but dammit we have some good people in this country. America we have much to fix, and we have people with hearts and hands and heads to do just that if we focus a bit more on what we share in common and focus a little less on what separates us.

This is a man who has so much faith that he feels compelled to spend his waking hours helping others before they ask for it. His pulpit is the street and his sermon of salvation, given daily. It is truly the degree to which a man believes in something larger than his life that defines him. And appreciating this, it makes sense that there would be something definitive about Ron, something needing to be shared.

When I was looking for already existing media to help recreate the environment in which Ron and I had the conversation, I didn’t expect to what I did as seen below.

View Larger Map

What you see above is a Google Street View Car having photographed Ron while he was at work. Ron has been doing his street preaching long and often enough for Google to have found him. I am surprised by the consistency in Ron, most others don’t have his apparent dedication to a cause. But hey, Ron is a man with a mission.

PROP’s community is beginning to take form and so are our efforts to create a stronger sense of identity on and offline. In this attempt to understand ourselves, we are beginning to ask the community to describe themselves. Here is a link to our first Community Survey: http://bit.ly/fBIFCy.

Help PROP out by taking 30 seconds to answer four questions. Your guidance defines us.

I write as a new convert to The People’s Republic of Portland and just now read through the several entries in this blog. WOW! Take some time to read for yourself. This blog has extremely insightful, very honest assessments of issues facing our world. Bloggers analyzed standard accepted answers and dispelled the many totally wrong concepts floating in my consciousness. I take my hat off to you and lay down my pen. Keep it coming fellow writers.

I found it very surprising that this blog says next to nothing about The People’s Republic of Portland nor its co-founder and present moving force, Jennifer Forti. I found it surprising until I met Jennifer. Now I understand. Jennifer would never write an article about herself or PROP. I think a force greater than myself drew me to PROP just for this reason. Someone needs to say what everyone thinks and everyone knows.

Recently I spoke at a friend’s funeral and found myself summing up his life in one word. Since that day I have secretly done this exercise with people that I know and those I want to know. I choose “understated” as Jen’s word. She earned a degree in art and design, plays drums, creates with clay, dances with March Fourth Band, maintains a growing business, involves herself in social causes, collaborates with like-minded businesses, designs clothing, and meets with countless creative types akin to me.

Her websites say little about her. She says little about her. Her websites speak only briefly about The People’s Republic of Portland. You see why I chose “understated.” I sat across from a very accomplished woman with an disarming smile, a tremendous background, an entrepreneurial spirit, a boundless energy, and an almost unnerving humility. When I asked about her background, she answered but never showcased. On first impression Jen and PROP seemed mysterious even coy. Upon second look I saw a person who let her work and her actions speak for her.

She has the ability to communicate in words; however, the artist in her chooses her medium. I think Jennifer Forti speaks through her work, and she speaks through other people. Riding home from my meeting with her it dawned on me that Jen has chosen in addition to dance, clay, and cloth yet another medium. She has chosen the medium of people. I can’t tell if she made a conscious choice or even if she knows, but she definitely has another medium.

The people medium comes out in words like collaborate, promote, celebrate, and recruit. I knew that Jen had much on her plate the day we met. We sat and talked for a couple hours during our first. awkward time together. She never looked at her watch, fidgeted, or even hinted that she had more pressing matters to which to attend. She never made me feel like she had more important people with which to meet.

I met Jennifer originally at the Mississippi street fair and offered my services as a writer to her. When I followed up with an email, she contacted me with a meeting date. I have few delusions about my ability to help her. What skill could I possible have that she might need? The only gift I have; I give right now. I tell the story that she humbly has withheld. I know that if she will allow me to hang out that I will receive much more than I could ever give.

I felt ashamed of myself. I like to shine the light on my meager accomplishments and the exciting things going on my life. She showed interest but probably thought “what a pompous boob.” Her humility slowly but surely shut my mouth. Society tends to think of artists as isolated, tortured souls. Jen seemed neither isolated nor tortured; although, I suspect that she has experienced enough pain to rend her empathetic to those in process.

I found Jen touchingly empathetic toward and amazingly understanding of the creative side of my personality. Artist once they learn to accept the creative person living inside themselves then need to learn how to live with that person. Gosh, that sounds terrible when I write it. Anyway, she understood me without excessive explanation on my part.

If I had to interview someone to fill the role of director and owner of The People’s Republics, I can think of no one better than the person presently in the role. Again riding home another thought hit me. I often feel like a conservative in liberal clothing. I wonder if Jen sometimes feels like a liberal in conservative clothing. I’ll have to ask her next time we meet. In any case it didn’t really seem to matter between us. We had bigger fish to fry to steal a metaphor.

Jen will display at Alberta Street’s last Thursday this Thursday. I suggest you meet the lady behind the shirt. You will walk away saying but one word, “understated.”

Sierra Club Beyond Coal and Sierra Club Student Coalition together presented nearly 3,000 petitions calling for a 2014 shutdown of the coal plant.

There was some really good press…KGW 8, KOIN 6, KBOO, the Oregonian, and blogger Dennis Newman of Natural Oregon.

All in all is seemed like what could be deemed a successful night for us environmentalists. Now we’re just waiting for the verdict.

One of the speakers that night, Lloyd K. Marbet, the Executive Director of the Oregon Conservancy Foundation, knew he wasn’t going to be able to cover all his points in the two minute time frame that he had, so he made copies of his testimony. He handed them out to the PUC as well as to anyone in the crowd who wanted one. Within, his testimony was this article written by James Hansen titled Coal-Fired Power Stations Are Death Factories. Close Them.

WOULD ANY SANE PERSON think dumpster diving would have stopped Hitler, or that composting would have ended slavery or brought about the eight-hour workday, or that chopping wood and carrying water would have gotten people out of Tsarist prisons, or that dancing naked around a fire would have helped put in place the Voting Rights Act of 1957 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Then why now, with all the world at stake, do so many people retreat into these entirely personal “solutions”?

Part of the problem is that we’ve been victims of a campaign of systematic misdirection. Consumer culture and the capitalist mindset have taught us to substitute acts of personal consumption (or enlightenment) for organized political resistance. An Inconvenient Truth helped raise consciousness about global warming. But did you notice that all of the solutions presented had to do with personal consumption—changing light bulbs, inflating tires, driving half as much—and had nothing to do with shifting power away from corporations, or stopping the growth economy that is destroying the planet? Even if every person in the United States did everything the movie suggested, U.S. carbon emissions would fall by only 22 percent. Scientific consensus is that emissions must be reduced by at least 75 percent worldwide.

Or let’s talk water. We so often hear that the world is running out of water. People are dying from lack of water. Rivers are dewatered from lack of water. Because of this we need to take shorter showers. See the disconnect? Because I take showers, I’m responsible for drawing down aquifers? Well, no. More than 90 percent of the water used by humans is used by agriculture and industry. The remaining 10 percent is split between municipalities and actual living breathing individual humans. Collectively, municipal golf courses use as much water as municipal human beings. People (both human people and fish people) aren’t dying because the world is running out of water. They’re dying because the water is being stolen.

Or let’s talk energy. Kirkpatrick Sale summarized it well: “For the past 15 years the story has been the same every year: individual consumption—residential, by private car, and so on—is never more than about a quarter of all consumption; the vast majority is commercial, industrial, corporate, by agribusiness and government [he forgot military]. So, even if we all took up cycling and wood stoves it would have a negligible impact on energy use, global warming and atmospheric pollution.”

Or let’s talk waste. In 2005, per-capita municipal waste production (basically everything that’s put out at the curb) in the U.S. was about 1,660 pounds. Let’s say you’re a die-hard simple-living activist, and you reduce this to zero. You recycle everything. You bring cloth bags shopping. You fix your toaster. Your toes poke out of old tennis shoes. You’re not done yet, though. Since municipal waste includes not just residential waste, but also waste from government offices and businesses, you march to those offices, waste reduction pamphlets in hand, and convince them to cut down on their waste enough to eliminate your share of it. Uh, I’ve got some bad news. Municipal waste accounts for only 3 percent of total waste production in the United States.

I want to be clear. I’m not saying we shouldn’t live simply. I live reasonably simply myself, but I don’t pretend that not buying much (or not driving much, or not having kids) is a powerful political act, or that it’s deeply revolutionary. It’s not. Personal change doesn’t equal social change.

So how, then, and especially with all the world at stake, have we come to accept these utterly insufficient responses? I think part of it is that we’re in a double bind. A double bind is where you’re given multiple options, but no matter what option you choose, you lose, and withdrawal is not an option. At this point, it should be pretty easy to recognize that every action involving the industrial economy is destructive (and we shouldn’t pretend that solar photovoltaics, for example, exempt us from this: they still require mining and transportation infrastructures at every point in the production processes; the same can be said for every other so-called green technology). So if we choose option one—if we avidly participate in the industrial economy—we may in the short term think we win because we may accumulate wealth, the marker of “success” in this culture. But we lose, because in doing so we give up our empathy, our animal humanity. And we really lose because industrial civilization is killing the planet, which means everyone loses. If we choose the “alternative” option of living more simply, thus causing less harm, but still not stopping the industrial economy from killing the planet, we may in the short term think we win because we get to feel pure, and we didn’t even have to give up all of our empathy (just enough to justify not stopping the horrors), but once again we really lose because industrial civilization is still killing the planet, which means everyone still loses. The third option, acting decisively to stop the industrial economy, is very scary for a number of reasons, including but not restricted to the fact that we’d lose some of the luxuries (like electricity) to which we’ve grown accustomed, and the fact that those in power might try to kill us if we seriously impede their ability to exploit the world—none of which alters the fact that it’s a better option than a dead planet. Any option is a better option than a dead planet.

Besides being ineffective at causing the sorts of changes necessary to stop this culture from killing the planet, there are at least four other problems with perceiving simple living as a political act (as opposed to living simply because that’s what you want to do). The first is that it’s predicated on the flawed notion that humans inevitably harm their landbase. Simple living as a political act consists solely of harm reduction, ignoring the fact that humans can help the Earth as well as harm it. We can rehabilitate streams, we can get rid of noxious invasives, we can remove dams, we can disrupt a political system tilted toward the rich as well as an extractive economic system, we can destroy the industrial economy that is destroying the real, physical world.

The second problem—and this is another big one—is that it incorrectly assigns blame to the individual (and most especially to individuals who are particularly powerless) instead of to those who actually wield power in this system and to the system itself. Kirkpatrick Sale again: “The whole individualist what-you-can-do-to-save-the-earth guilt trip is a myth. We, as individuals, are not creating the crises, and we can’t solve them.”

The third problem is that it accepts capitalism’s redefinition of us from citizens to consumers. By accepting this redefinition, we reduce our potential forms of resistance to consuming and not consuming. Citizens have a much wider range of available resistance tactics, including voting, not voting, running for office, pamphleting, boycotting, organizing, lobbying, protesting, and, when a government becomes destructive of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we have the right to alter or abolish it.

The fourth problem is that the endpoint of the logic behind simple living as a political act is suicide. If every act within an industrial economy is destructive, and if we want to stop this destruction, and if we are unwilling (or unable) to question (much less destroy) the intellectual, moral, economic, and physical infrastructures that cause every act within an industrial economy to be destructive, then we can easily come to believe that we will cause the least destruction possible if we are dead.

The good news is that there are other options. We can follow the examples of brave activists who lived through the difficult times I mentioned—Nazi Germany, Tsarist Russia, antebellum United States—who did far more than manifest a form of moral purity; they actively opposed the injustices that surrounded them. We can follow the example of those who remembered that the role of an activist is not to navigate systems of oppressive power with as much integrity as possible, but rather to confront and take down those systems.

By Derrick Jensen

Stephen L Hopp
http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/

-Steven L. Hopp
http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/

Steven L Hopp
http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/

Steven L. Hopp

Steven L. Hopp

-Steven L. Hopp

-Steven L Hopp

-Steven L Hopp

-Steven L. Hopp

For information on farmers markets in your area visit http://www.localharvest.org

Until next time…

It is time for me to reveal myself
I am an embedded agent of a secret, undercover
Clandestine
Global operation
A spiritual conspiracy
We have sleeper cells in every nation on the planet

You won’t see us on the T.V.
You won’t read about us in the newspaper
You won’t hear about us on the radio

We don’t seek any glory
We don’t wear any uniform
We come in all shapes and sizes
Colors and styles

Most of us work anonymously
We are quietly working behind the scenes in every country and culture of
the world
Cities big and small, mountains and valleys, in farms and villages, tribes
and remote islands

You could pass by one of us on the street and not even notice
We go undercover
We remain behind the scenes
It is of no concern to us who takes the final credit
But simply that the work gets done

Occasionally we spot each other in the street
We give a quiet nod and continue on our way so no one will notice

During the day many of us pretend we have normal jobs
But behind the false storefront at night is where the real work takes place

Some call us the “Conscious Army”
We are slowly creating a new world with the power of our minds and hearts
We follow, with passion and joy
Our orders from the Central Command
The Spiritual Intelligence Agency

We are dropping soft, secret love bombs when no ones is looking
Poems
Hugs
Music
Photography
Movies
Kind words
Smiles
Meditation and prayer
Dance
Social activism
Websites
Blogs
Random acts of kindness

We each express ourselves in our own unique ways with our own unique
gifts and talents

“Be the change you want to see in the world”
That is the motto that fills our hearts
We know it is the only way real transformation takes place
We know that quietly and humbly we have the power of all the oceans
combined

Our work is slow and meticulous
Like the formation of mountains
It is not even visible at first glance
And yet with it entire tectonic plates shall be moved in the centuries to
come

Love is the new religion of the 21st century

You don’t have to be a highly educated person
Or have any exceptional knowledge to understand it

It comes from the intelligence of the heart
Embedded in the timeless evolutionary pulse of all human beings

Be the change you want to see in the world
Nobody else can do it for you

We are now recruiting
Perhaps you will join us
Or already have….
All are welcome…
The door is open

-Brian Piergrossi
(From the book “The Big Glow”)