Posts
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| Mindfully walking around Wagon Wheel Farm on Great Bay estuary today: 11/30/11 |
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| Photographing beginnings... |
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| Endings... |
The Nature of Impermanence
The End
(and The beginning)
(and The beginning)
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
The Nature of Impermanence
Monday, November 28, 2011
Occupying nomads: uniting the 99% of us
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| Genghis Khan † |
Why it it – if the mainstream media and talking heads are right about OWS being such a bumbling failure without a message or goal – why is it, then, that the police, all across the US, have been ordered to mount such a violent assault against these misguided but peaceful protesters?
Naomi Wolf is speaking for all of us when she says “US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparalleled police brutality against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week."
The answer is, of course, is that the Occupy movement is not a failure. Quite the opposite: instead it has dared to touch the third rail of American politics. As Wolf and others have written, the Occupy movement has been attacked because it has directly challenged the the political class and corporate elite in this country.
The answer is, of course, is that the Occupy movement is not a failure. Quite the opposite: instead it has dared to touch the third rail of American politics. As Wolf and others have written, the Occupy movement has been attacked because it has directly challenged the the political class and corporate elite in this country.
Meanwhile, the mass media and talking heads are fiddling while Rome burns, being, as they are, well-paid front people for the powerful in this country – they are in denial, whether willfully or not, about the big picture, choosing to obsess instead on the red herring of why OWS doesn't have concrete goals.
This is like the entrenched establishment in Asia dismissing Genghis Khan as clueless – for not having a slick PR message and a list of ten demands properly vetted by an approved focus group – even as he swept across Eurasia conquering all in his path.
The difference is that Genghis Khan came to power by uniting the nomadic tribes of Asia while Occupy is coming to power by uniting the 99% of us who, up until now, were isolated, nomadic individuals and tribes. Genghis Khan conquered by military force while Occupy is conquering by celebrating nonviolence and diversity, creating a space for all to be heard, creating a community of trust and commitment, and, in the end, "showing, by its internal organization and methods of proceeding, that an alternative form of democracy is possible." *
*This last is from Peter Marcuse. As opposed to our mass media’s obsession with Occupy goals or messages, Marcuse views the Occupation movement as having a number of roles and functions. This seems to me to be a much more productive way to understand and analyze our movement. Seven functions he lists are:
A confrontation function, "taking the struggle to the enemy's territory, confronting, potentially disrupting, the operations at the center of the problem." A symbolic function which registers a collective and "deeply felt unhappiness about things as they are and the direction in which they are going." An educational function, "provoking questioning, exploration, juxtaposition of differing viewpoints and issues, seeking clarification and sources of commonality within difference." A glue function, "creating a community of trust and commitment to the pursuit of common goals; [providing] a way of coming together in a community for those who are deeply affected and concerned. "An umbrella function, "creating a space ... in which quite disparate groups can work together in pursuit of ultimately consistent and mutually reinforcing goals ... a political umbrella, an organizing base for an ongoing alliance, not just a temporary coalition, of the deprived and discontented." An activation function, "inspiring others to greater militancy and sharper focus on common goals and specific demands ... providing space for ... cross discussions among supporting groups and interests, organizing ... events in support of ... reforms that [suggests] Occupy's own ultimate goals of change." A model function, "showing, by its internal organization and methods of proceeding, that an alternative form of democracy is possible."
† Khan image thanks to to kungfumagazine.com
† Khan image thanks to to kungfumagazine.com
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Let your soul occupy you
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| Parker Mtn. Sunset: 12/11/04 J. Stimmell©2011 |
“Remember this: Most likely, the corporate state has, to some degree, colonized your mind, as it is well on its way to destroying the ecosystem of the entire planet.
“Conversely, let your soul occupy you. While there might be an ongoing effort to scour Liberty Park of liberty, they cannot do likewise to your heart without your consent. Turn the tables on them: Evict the corporate occupiers from the public realm within--as all the while, you challenge propaganda whenever it crosses your path…on the streets, at your workplace, at family gatherings, and on social media-- because a lie left unchallenged begins to be accepted as truth. And worse, invades, colonizes and exploits (and often kills) a portion of the soul of the world…”
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“The ground is shifting below our feet and this phenomenon involves more than the echoing footfalls of marchers and the trudging of militarized formations of riot cops on city streets worldwide.
“The first vibrations, closer to tremors, transpired because the ground below us has been fracked of dreams...the void engendered seismological activity. Now, from Cairo, Egypt's Tahrir Square to Syntagma Square in Athens, Greece to Liberty Park, in New York, New York to Oscar Grant Park, in Oakland, California, we have become like tuning forks, in sympatico with the resonances of the tormented earth.”
The above quotes are from an article by Phil Rockstoh published on Wednesday, November 23, 2011 by CommonDreams.org
Phil Rockstroh is a poet, lyricist and philosopher bard living in New York City. He may be contacted at: phil@philrockstroh.com. Visit Phil's website or at FaceBook.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Occupy Delusion
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| Schizophrenic Delusion Photoshop Collage J. Stimmell©2011 |
I had an “aha moment” while reading a piece in today’s NYT by Benedict Carey: Finding Purpose After Living With Delusion.
Carey's article is about people with schizophrenia who are now arguing that their delusions are not solely from a biological illness “but also in fears, longings and psychological wounds” stemming from their environment. Now, he writes, these psychiatric veterans are coming together in increasing numbers.
It struck me that Finding Purpose After Living With Delusion is a perfect metaphor for the Occupy Wall Street Movement which is also people coming together, much like a huge support group, to validate each other while disputing the prevailing attitude that their problems are due solely to personal failure and incompetence.
“It’s a thrilling time,because people with lived experience are beginning to collaborate in large numbers,” says Gail Hornstein, author of Agnes’s Jacket: A Psychologist’s Search for the Meaning of Madness. “They are developing their own theories, their own language about what their experiences mean from the inside.”
Just like the Occupy Movement: people coming together to share their own felt experience about what it actually feels like to be poor, hungry, uninsured, unemployed, homeless and hopeless.
And more than that, what it feels like to have society turn its back on them and call them losers because they no longer play the only game that counts in America: Buying things. Shopping until you drop.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Occupy Peace
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| The Perimeter Between Us and Them J. Stimmell: Vietnam 1966 |
We need to stop fearing each other and treat each other with kindness. Consideration for the 99 percent does not stop at a country's border. We are all humans together, and we need each other to be fully human. We need to embrace our common humanity. In the nuclear age, war is far too dangerous; it has the potential to end civilization and most life on the planet. Peace is an imperative. We need to find a way to occupy peace, which begins in our hearts and must expand to encompass the world.
The above quote is from an Op-Ed by David Krieger published on Truthout on 11/23/11
Thank you, Pat, for sending me this.
Thank you, Pat, for sending me this.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Grounded in the present moment on Thanksgiving
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| Taking nothing for granted Battered yet standing tall Last collard in our garden Grounded in the present moment |
But (w)hat a strange thing! In filling myself, I had emptied myself. In grasping things, I had lost everything. In devouring pleasures and joys, I had found distress and anguish and fear."
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Are you running in circles like a mad dog?
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| Coco doing her crazy running J. Stimmell©2011 |
"The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation in violence. The frenzy of the activist...destroys his own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of his own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful."
–above quote from Cojectures of a Guilty Bystander by Thomas Merton–
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