Just the other day, I was thinking about how my attitude has changed since reading Daniel Quinn's work, particularily: Ishmael, My Ishmael and The Story of B. Most people who read the trilogy refer to themselves as "B" after the character in The Story of B. And when you call yourself B you usually adopt certain attitudes that you may or may not have had before. I thought I would post the B attitudes from the Ishmael Community here to refresh my memory.
B Attitudes
Blessed are those who refrain from exalting themselves above their neighbors in the community of life, for their children shall have a world to live in.
Blessed are those who listen to their neighbors in the community of life, for they shall escape extinction.
Blessed are those who refrain from imposing on others their "one right way to live," for cultural diversity shall be restored among them.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for the survival of Leaver cultures, for they shall preserve a legacy of wisdom accumulated from the beginning of time.
Blessed are those who do not fancy themselves rulers or managers or stewards of the earth, for the earth managed to thrive for three billion years without any of us.
Blessed are those who do whatever they can wherever they are, for no one is devoid of resources or opportunities.
Blessed are those who awaken others as they have been awakened, for they are B.
Ishmael Books Daniel Quinn Sustainability Environment
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Saturday, September 23, 2006
The Process of Building our Cordwood Round House
I can't find any pictures of Annie and I forming up the footings. Here is what they looked like when we were finished. It took us about four weeks to form up the footings. We didn't have to pack the sand because we let it sit over winter.
The outer footing of the ring beam.
My Dad and I striking off the outer footing. This was in the first weekend of May.
The day we poured went really well besides the fact that we didn't order quite enough cement, we were about three wheelbarrows short. Luckily, they could send out another truck ASAP.
Everything has been poured and striked off. It took us (My Dad, Brother-in-law, Annie, Daniel and I) about six hours to do.
Daniel and I are loading up some red pine logs into the back of my pick-up. I cut those logs out of the red plantation that is behind my parent's house.
Annie and Daniel peeling the logs we harvested. These logs are being used for the inner posts of the post and beam framework.
Buck watching over the process of peeling logs.
Some of the red pine logs cut and peeled.
The 3/8" plywood form boards have serve their purpose and are ready to come off.
The timbers for the post and beam framework we had sawed at a local sawmill.
The masonry stove was started about the third week of June.
The masonry stove a few days later.
The firebox being built. We used refractory cement to bond the bricks together on the sidewalls.
The firebox with the face plate and wooden arch added to it.
The start of the first of three horizontal runs of 8"x12" flue that will run through the masonry stove.
Buttering and laying the bricks across the wooden arch.
The bricks have all been laid to complete the firebox. Also a form has been set to support the rocks that will create the arch.
Laying the mortar cap over the arch of the firebox.
The arch stones have been carefully picked out and set above the arch form.
The posts for the post and beam framework are starting to go up.
A horizontal run of flue has been completed.
We have a good start on putting up the posts on the inner ring beam.
The heavy 8" x 12" girders are being put up on the posts. This was the hardest part of the process, the girders were pretty heavy. But we did it!
The outer girders on the outer ring beam have been completed.
Well...atleast I know it can hold me...:-)
Annie is smoothing out the strong 3" portland cement cap for the rafters to sit on.
The 4" x 12" rafters are being set on the masonry stove.
My dad and I carrying a rafter over to the ladders.
Most of the 2' X 6" roof decking has been put on. Annie is working on the 3' cylinder part of the masonry stove that will come up through the rafters. The form is made out of aluminum printing plates.
We've started putting on the waterproofing membrane for the earth roof.
energy efficiency Alternative Building Architecture
Thursday, March 16, 2006
We Respond Back.
This week Annie and I responded to the two letters that were related to my original article "Time is Precious" in our local newspaper. I'll post the letters we wrote below. And, this week, there was another response by someone in the community that I'll be posting when I get some time.
Here is my letter.
Learning
This letter is a follow-up to the letters by Brad Talbert and Dan Schullo in last week’s paper.
First of all, I’d like to make clear that my intentions of writing “Time is Precious” in a previous Letter to the Editor was not to make students who are content with the schooling system feel bad. If the system is working for them, that is great! Stick with it. Although, based on my personal experience, I know a lot of people who hated it. And this is all right, too. But usually the people who hate it are made to feel like there is something wrong with feeling that way.
And I think those who openly admit they hate the process of schooling need to be liberated from it. And why should not taxpayers, teachers, and administrators facilitate this? But instead the current trend seems to be more laws and rules, psychological labels and medications, hidden cameras and police on campus, all to make students adhere to the system.
The problem is not with certain individuals. The very fact that grades exist within the system is an explicit acknowledgement that what students are doing is not sufficiently rewarding enough. (The same holds true for wages). This external reward system exists mainly to entice them into doing the work. Usually, if someone is doing what he or she loves to do, the process is rewarding enough internally to not need a grade or a wage.
Lastly, why do not teachers and administrators sit down with the students and ask them what they want to learn? Should not the teachers and administration be there to facilitate what the students are passionate to learn about? Or does this disrupt the interpersonal politics of the system too much to do so?
As it stands now, the state, the administration, and the teachers tell the students what they need to learn. They are the authority on what knowledge needs to be presented. And this is supposed to teach children, as Dan Schullo puts it, to “learn perseverance, to set goals, and practice competition”? But these learning points lead to, as author Arthur Evans put it so well, “Modern schools and universities push students into habits of depersonalized learning, alienation from nature and sexuality, obedience to hierarchy, fear of authority, self-objectification, and chilling competiveness. These character traits are the essence of the twisted personality-type of modern industrialism. They are precisely the character traits needed to maintain a social system that is utterly out of touch with nature, sexuality, and real human needs.”
As it stands now I would put my money on the students knowing what is important for them to learn, not the state, not the administration, not the teachers. Learning starts from the bottom up.
And here is Annie's letter.
Reality
This letter is in response to the “Educational Reform” and “Stereotyping” letters in the last issue. Bradley Talbert wrote in his letter “…there are many students who enjoy going to school…we are proud of the education we receive”. All students receiving an education should feel the same way; unfortunately most do not.
I am a 1996 graduate of Spooner High School. I was a good student too and even believed that I enjoyed going there. In truth, I hated being up before 6:00am every day and not having time to do the things that mattered to me. I hated being rushed through my life. Recently I came across a real life opportunity to use geometry only to find that I couldn’t remember it even though I had received an A in the class. Like most things I learned in school it was all committed to short-term memory only to be kept until test time was over. It is in this that I find most of my disappointment with the current school system. With the amount of time spent there I should remember SO much. Instead, the deeper lessons learned had nothing to do with education. But we, as students, were not allowed to understand the banality of this because to do so would have uncovered the lie that is so ingrained in this educational system. The lie is that the school system is set up the way it is to give us better education. It is not. Its purpose is to keep young adults away from meaningful, decent paying jobs as long as possible. Before WWI it was common for young people to end their schooling around 8th grade. Some did continue, but not a lot. What do you suppose would happen now if millions of young people joined the workforce after 8th grade? The jobless rate would go through the roof. With the limited number of jobs available now, who do you suppose would be working? How many gainfully employed adults would be willing to give up their jobs to these young people? Not too many. So then, the educational system’s job is to keep young people out of the workforce as long as possible, not necessarily to give them a better education. It doesn’t always appear this way though. In fact the system goes through quite a lot to make it appear that they are trying to help these young adults become better educated so they have a chance to get better jobs. The promised is that once out of high school and college we will receive high paying jobs because we have a degree! But out on our own we find that even a degree doesn’t always help. Too many people, who have degrees, work below their qualifications. The degree didn’t help. Why?! In reality, adults who have worked their entire lives to get where they are aren’t going to give up their higher positions to high school and college graduates. Neither would they appreciate the younger graduate ascending to the higher positions without having to “climb the ladder”. Therefore no matter how well educated these young people are “supposed to be” they will still have to start at the bottom.
We cannot blame the teachers for this; we must blame the system. The teachers would love to awaken young minds but the system, from within which they must work, frustrates that desire by insisting that all minds must be opened on a certain schedule, by the same techniques, and all at the same time. The students learn that the curriculum takes precedence over their own learning desires. Some learn this quickly and adapt, some learn this slowly and painfully.
The solution is that we must all recognize this. Once we do we can change it, because it will only continue for as long as we perpetuate it. This does not mean that there should be no education, only that there are different ways to teach. Understanding that there is more to learning than tests, memorization and authority. All children desire to learn; it is the system that destroys the desire.
The thinking behind our letters was strongly influenced by My Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn and Walking on Water, by Derrick Jensen.
Ishmael Unschooling Northwest Wisconsin Education
Here is my letter.
Learning
This letter is a follow-up to the letters by Brad Talbert and Dan Schullo in last week’s paper.
First of all, I’d like to make clear that my intentions of writing “Time is Precious” in a previous Letter to the Editor was not to make students who are content with the schooling system feel bad. If the system is working for them, that is great! Stick with it. Although, based on my personal experience, I know a lot of people who hated it. And this is all right, too. But usually the people who hate it are made to feel like there is something wrong with feeling that way.
And I think those who openly admit they hate the process of schooling need to be liberated from it. And why should not taxpayers, teachers, and administrators facilitate this? But instead the current trend seems to be more laws and rules, psychological labels and medications, hidden cameras and police on campus, all to make students adhere to the system.
The problem is not with certain individuals. The very fact that grades exist within the system is an explicit acknowledgement that what students are doing is not sufficiently rewarding enough. (The same holds true for wages). This external reward system exists mainly to entice them into doing the work. Usually, if someone is doing what he or she loves to do, the process is rewarding enough internally to not need a grade or a wage.
Lastly, why do not teachers and administrators sit down with the students and ask them what they want to learn? Should not the teachers and administration be there to facilitate what the students are passionate to learn about? Or does this disrupt the interpersonal politics of the system too much to do so?
As it stands now, the state, the administration, and the teachers tell the students what they need to learn. They are the authority on what knowledge needs to be presented. And this is supposed to teach children, as Dan Schullo puts it, to “learn perseverance, to set goals, and practice competition”? But these learning points lead to, as author Arthur Evans put it so well, “Modern schools and universities push students into habits of depersonalized learning, alienation from nature and sexuality, obedience to hierarchy, fear of authority, self-objectification, and chilling competiveness. These character traits are the essence of the twisted personality-type of modern industrialism. They are precisely the character traits needed to maintain a social system that is utterly out of touch with nature, sexuality, and real human needs.”
As it stands now I would put my money on the students knowing what is important for them to learn, not the state, not the administration, not the teachers. Learning starts from the bottom up.
And here is Annie's letter.
Reality
This letter is in response to the “Educational Reform” and “Stereotyping” letters in the last issue. Bradley Talbert wrote in his letter “…there are many students who enjoy going to school…we are proud of the education we receive”. All students receiving an education should feel the same way; unfortunately most do not.
I am a 1996 graduate of Spooner High School. I was a good student too and even believed that I enjoyed going there. In truth, I hated being up before 6:00am every day and not having time to do the things that mattered to me. I hated being rushed through my life. Recently I came across a real life opportunity to use geometry only to find that I couldn’t remember it even though I had received an A in the class. Like most things I learned in school it was all committed to short-term memory only to be kept until test time was over. It is in this that I find most of my disappointment with the current school system. With the amount of time spent there I should remember SO much. Instead, the deeper lessons learned had nothing to do with education. But we, as students, were not allowed to understand the banality of this because to do so would have uncovered the lie that is so ingrained in this educational system. The lie is that the school system is set up the way it is to give us better education. It is not. Its purpose is to keep young adults away from meaningful, decent paying jobs as long as possible. Before WWI it was common for young people to end their schooling around 8th grade. Some did continue, but not a lot. What do you suppose would happen now if millions of young people joined the workforce after 8th grade? The jobless rate would go through the roof. With the limited number of jobs available now, who do you suppose would be working? How many gainfully employed adults would be willing to give up their jobs to these young people? Not too many. So then, the educational system’s job is to keep young people out of the workforce as long as possible, not necessarily to give them a better education. It doesn’t always appear this way though. In fact the system goes through quite a lot to make it appear that they are trying to help these young adults become better educated so they have a chance to get better jobs. The promised is that once out of high school and college we will receive high paying jobs because we have a degree! But out on our own we find that even a degree doesn’t always help. Too many people, who have degrees, work below their qualifications. The degree didn’t help. Why?! In reality, adults who have worked their entire lives to get where they are aren’t going to give up their higher positions to high school and college graduates. Neither would they appreciate the younger graduate ascending to the higher positions without having to “climb the ladder”. Therefore no matter how well educated these young people are “supposed to be” they will still have to start at the bottom.
We cannot blame the teachers for this; we must blame the system. The teachers would love to awaken young minds but the system, from within which they must work, frustrates that desire by insisting that all minds must be opened on a certain schedule, by the same techniques, and all at the same time. The students learn that the curriculum takes precedence over their own learning desires. Some learn this quickly and adapt, some learn this slowly and painfully.
The solution is that we must all recognize this. Once we do we can change it, because it will only continue for as long as we perpetuate it. This does not mean that there should be no education, only that there are different ways to teach. Understanding that there is more to learning than tests, memorization and authority. All children desire to learn; it is the system that destroys the desire.
The thinking behind our letters was strongly influenced by My Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn and Walking on Water, by Derrick Jensen.
Ishmael Unschooling Northwest Wisconsin Education
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Responses to my Letter to the Editor
My letter to the editor last week provoked two responses. I wonder if anyone who hates school and percieves the schooling system for what it is will write in? I hope so.
Here are the two responses. And if anyone who reads this wants to respond and publish it in my local newspaper I will send your letter to the editor.
Stereotyping
This letter is written in regards to an article in the Reader Opinion last week titled “Time is Precious.”
I am a sophomore currently enrolled in Spooner High School. When I read this article, it made me sick to think that this is the way certain members in our community support students and school in general.
I disagree with the idea that we students do not want to be in school.
I think that there are many students who enjoy going to school. Our school may not be the best, but we are proud of the education we receive. We are working toward careers that we will be happy doing for a lifetime.
I do not think that it is right to stereotype us saying we are bored with education.
Maybe when you were in high school you should have taken advantage of what was offered instead of spending your time wishing that you were not there. I can name many other students who are enjoying learning and looking forward to a career that they will thoroughly enjoy.
Cutting budgets does not help a school. It makes the feeling of dislike towards a school only grow stronger. Of course there are going to be students who do not want to be there, but there is also a great number of students who like being there.
Letters like yours make us, as students, feel like we are not appreciated in the community. When the hard work we do is not appreciated, what kind of result do you expect from us?
We need more people who are here to help us, not look down on what we are doing.
Bradley Talbert
Trego
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Education reform
I find it very easy to agree with Curt Hubatch’s thoughts [Reader Opinion, “Time is Precious,” March 2]. He wants to enlighten us by pointing out that our society has unmotivated workers and students. It is easy to be a guru like author Daniel Quinn in his book Ishmael when your goal is to point out the problem with society or the institutions within society. The difficult task is to provide solutions.
As one of the teachers in Spooner High School, I often wonder why we beat our heads against the wall trying to convince kids that education will somehow benefit them in their future. The public education provides opportunities to learn perseverance, to set goals, and practice competition – all things that we needed to establish an entrepreneurial spirit that makes the United States a great place to live.
Utopia is a dream all humans have had since early humans were knocking rocks together, but thank goodness they kept knocking those rocks together because the result is they survived and made it.
Yes, our public schools have problems, but the education system is a product of societal needs and wants. If society values monetary wealth (as Hubatch alluded to in his letter – $5 million in the bank) then society sets up rules and guidelines to follow in order to achieve that.
Aside from winning the lottery, how is the goal of achieving a comfortable bank account possible without education? With school funding constantly being cut, perhaps society is making the educational reform that Hubatch alluded to.
Reforming education is not the solution to the problem of having unhappy citizens; reforming society is the solution that will eventually lead to the reform of education.
I look forward to Hubatch’s next letter to the editor where he enlightens us with solutions to the problem.
In the mean time, I will continue working on the front line with my fellow teachers in helping students deal with the society they live in and find their place within it
Dan Schullo
Spooner
Ishmael Unschooling Northwest Wisconsin Education
Here are the two responses. And if anyone who reads this wants to respond and publish it in my local newspaper I will send your letter to the editor.
Stereotyping
This letter is written in regards to an article in the Reader Opinion last week titled “Time is Precious.”
I am a sophomore currently enrolled in Spooner High School. When I read this article, it made me sick to think that this is the way certain members in our community support students and school in general.
I disagree with the idea that we students do not want to be in school.
I think that there are many students who enjoy going to school. Our school may not be the best, but we are proud of the education we receive. We are working toward careers that we will be happy doing for a lifetime.
I do not think that it is right to stereotype us saying we are bored with education.
Maybe when you were in high school you should have taken advantage of what was offered instead of spending your time wishing that you were not there. I can name many other students who are enjoying learning and looking forward to a career that they will thoroughly enjoy.
Cutting budgets does not help a school. It makes the feeling of dislike towards a school only grow stronger. Of course there are going to be students who do not want to be there, but there is also a great number of students who like being there.
Letters like yours make us, as students, feel like we are not appreciated in the community. When the hard work we do is not appreciated, what kind of result do you expect from us?
We need more people who are here to help us, not look down on what we are doing.
Bradley Talbert
Trego
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Education reform
I find it very easy to agree with Curt Hubatch’s thoughts [Reader Opinion, “Time is Precious,” March 2]. He wants to enlighten us by pointing out that our society has unmotivated workers and students. It is easy to be a guru like author Daniel Quinn in his book Ishmael when your goal is to point out the problem with society or the institutions within society. The difficult task is to provide solutions.
As one of the teachers in Spooner High School, I often wonder why we beat our heads against the wall trying to convince kids that education will somehow benefit them in their future. The public education provides opportunities to learn perseverance, to set goals, and practice competition – all things that we needed to establish an entrepreneurial spirit that makes the United States a great place to live.
Utopia is a dream all humans have had since early humans were knocking rocks together, but thank goodness they kept knocking those rocks together because the result is they survived and made it.
Yes, our public schools have problems, but the education system is a product of societal needs and wants. If society values monetary wealth (as Hubatch alluded to in his letter – $5 million in the bank) then society sets up rules and guidelines to follow in order to achieve that.
Aside from winning the lottery, how is the goal of achieving a comfortable bank account possible without education? With school funding constantly being cut, perhaps society is making the educational reform that Hubatch alluded to.
Reforming education is not the solution to the problem of having unhappy citizens; reforming society is the solution that will eventually lead to the reform of education.
I look forward to Hubatch’s next letter to the editor where he enlightens us with solutions to the problem.
In the mean time, I will continue working on the front line with my fellow teachers in helping students deal with the society they live in and find their place within it
Dan Schullo
Spooner
Ishmael Unschooling Northwest Wisconsin Education
Monday, February 27, 2006
Time is Precious
I debated whether or not I should've sent the below letter off to the editor of our local newspaper. I was afraid that it sounded to radical, or to impractical. I mean come on, kids have to go to school, right? Could you imagine what the world would be like without schools? Children don't really know whats best for them. We do!
Well, I got beyond those thoughts and sent it off anyway. I thought about some of the great writing I've come across questioning and criticizing our systems of schooling. I looked back on my own experience of 13 years of schooling. I hated it. I would've rather been outside. And I've read a lot of good authors that've had similar things to say. Like: Jon Taylor Gatto, Daniel Quinn, Derrick Jensen and Carl Rogers. It's nice to know that I'm not the only person that hated my schooling experience.
Here is the letter I sent:
Time is Precious
This letter is in part response to last weeks article titled, “Spooner Schools must cut-again.” Deep down inside I was glad to see the district has to cut its budget again. The less money that people have to pay for a system that doesn’t benefit the well-being of each and every child the better. And I want to be clear that I’m not criticizing the employees of the system but the system itself.
I bet if we asked all of the students who attend Spooner Schools if they wanted to be there an overwhelming majority of them would say NO. This is sad but true. And that is one the primary reasons the system exists; to condition our children into spending the precious time they’ve been gifted as human beings into doing things they don’t want to do. After all, we only have so much time before we die. And we’re forcing our children to spend their time watching the clock (The best piece of technology in the classroom) wishing away the hours of their life waiting for the bell to ring. Wishing away your time is like cutting off the fingers on your hand, once gone you never get either of them back.
And this conditioning very effectively carries over into our adult lives. Try asking people on the job if they really want to be there. Again, I bet the majority would say no. Essentially, we live in a culture where the majority of its members spend the majority of their time wishing they were doing what they wanted to do. This is a crime. Judging by the high rates of depression, suicide, alcoholism, rape, child abuse and violence, spending our time this way just isn’t healthy. I might add the rates of all these aren’t declining.
If you’ve read this far ask yourself, how would you spend the majority of your time if you had 5 million dollars in the bank? Are you living out the dreams you had as a child? Or do you find yourself wishing the hours of your life away? These are all important questions to ask ourselves as our children spend most of their waking hours within the confines of a block building learning what they’re SUPPOSE to learn instead of what they want to learn.
“We begin with the children. It is imperative to catch them in time. Without the most thorough and rapid brainwashing their dirty minds would see through our dirty tricks. Children are not yet fools, but yet we shall turn them into imbeciles like ourselves, with high I.Q.s if possible.” Dr. R.D Laing
Ishmael Education Unschooling Northern Wisconsin
Well, I got beyond those thoughts and sent it off anyway. I thought about some of the great writing I've come across questioning and criticizing our systems of schooling. I looked back on my own experience of 13 years of schooling. I hated it. I would've rather been outside. And I've read a lot of good authors that've had similar things to say. Like: Jon Taylor Gatto, Daniel Quinn, Derrick Jensen and Carl Rogers. It's nice to know that I'm not the only person that hated my schooling experience.
Here is the letter I sent:
Time is Precious
This letter is in part response to last weeks article titled, “Spooner Schools must cut-again.” Deep down inside I was glad to see the district has to cut its budget again. The less money that people have to pay for a system that doesn’t benefit the well-being of each and every child the better. And I want to be clear that I’m not criticizing the employees of the system but the system itself.
I bet if we asked all of the students who attend Spooner Schools if they wanted to be there an overwhelming majority of them would say NO. This is sad but true. And that is one the primary reasons the system exists; to condition our children into spending the precious time they’ve been gifted as human beings into doing things they don’t want to do. After all, we only have so much time before we die. And we’re forcing our children to spend their time watching the clock (The best piece of technology in the classroom) wishing away the hours of their life waiting for the bell to ring. Wishing away your time is like cutting off the fingers on your hand, once gone you never get either of them back.
And this conditioning very effectively carries over into our adult lives. Try asking people on the job if they really want to be there. Again, I bet the majority would say no. Essentially, we live in a culture where the majority of its members spend the majority of their time wishing they were doing what they wanted to do. This is a crime. Judging by the high rates of depression, suicide, alcoholism, rape, child abuse and violence, spending our time this way just isn’t healthy. I might add the rates of all these aren’t declining.
If you’ve read this far ask yourself, how would you spend the majority of your time if you had 5 million dollars in the bank? Are you living out the dreams you had as a child? Or do you find yourself wishing the hours of your life away? These are all important questions to ask ourselves as our children spend most of their waking hours within the confines of a block building learning what they’re SUPPOSE to learn instead of what they want to learn.
“We begin with the children. It is imperative to catch them in time. Without the most thorough and rapid brainwashing their dirty minds would see through our dirty tricks. Children are not yet fools, but yet we shall turn them into imbeciles like ourselves, with high I.Q.s if possible.” Dr. R.D Laing
Ishmael Education Unschooling Northern Wisconsin
Friday, February 17, 2006
Out to Find a Tracking Stick.
It's almost noon here in northwest Wisconsin and it is Five degrees below zero. It doesn't look like it is going to get much above zero today. The sky is clear blue and there is a strong wind blowing out of the northwest. Despite the frigid temperatures, I did make it out to my sit spot to say my Thanksgiving Address and do some wandering in my study area. I had intended to visit my sit spot no matter what, but what really fired me up to get out there this morning was this great story by Josh Fecteau about his encounter with a Fischer near his study area. Josh's story just goes to show that you just never know what gift will present itself while your out poking around in the woods.
This morning, I was in search of a sapling to make a tracking stick. So, I strapped on my snowshoes, grabbed my hatchet, bundled up and headed for a clump of elm trees that were blown over just to the northeast of my study area. I'd say it took me about a half-n-hour to get over to the clump, when it normally only takes five to ten minutes at normal walk. One of the reasons why it took a little longer than intended was that I found an impression in the snow. The impression, to me, looked like a bird with its wings out stretched had landed there then flew away. And lying in the middle of the impression was a gray colored breast feather and some scat. There were no other tracks around this impression. Nearby there was two dead trees with the tops blown out of them. Perhaps the creature that made this impression and left the feather was perched in one of them? Maybe it was after a creature underneath the snow? A vole? Shrew? Mouse? You can see why it took me a little longer to get over to the elm trees.
I never did find the sapling to make my tracking stick. And I still haven't figured out what made the "flying saucer" impression in the snow. But I hope to someday to solve mystery.
#
I just finished Case Files of the Tracker, by Tom Brown Jr. I've read a lot of Tom's work and really like it. His work is one of the reasons why I'm taking the Kamana Program. I was actually first introduced to the tracker by my Chemistry teacher as a junior in high school. Wow! That was fifteen years ago! How I wish I would have headed out to the Tracker School when I was in my late teens or early twenties. Oh well, hind sight is 20/20.
Anyway, I highly recommend picking up Case Files. There is a lot to learn in that book.
#
I posted this quote over at IshCon. I really like it.
"One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast…a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards." Ed Abbey
Animal tracking Wisconsin Naturalist Northern Wisconsin
This morning, I was in search of a sapling to make a tracking stick. So, I strapped on my snowshoes, grabbed my hatchet, bundled up and headed for a clump of elm trees that were blown over just to the northeast of my study area. I'd say it took me about a half-n-hour to get over to the clump, when it normally only takes five to ten minutes at normal walk. One of the reasons why it took a little longer than intended was that I found an impression in the snow. The impression, to me, looked like a bird with its wings out stretched had landed there then flew away. And lying in the middle of the impression was a gray colored breast feather and some scat. There were no other tracks around this impression. Nearby there was two dead trees with the tops blown out of them. Perhaps the creature that made this impression and left the feather was perched in one of them? Maybe it was after a creature underneath the snow? A vole? Shrew? Mouse? You can see why it took me a little longer to get over to the elm trees.
I never did find the sapling to make my tracking stick. And I still haven't figured out what made the "flying saucer" impression in the snow. But I hope to someday to solve mystery.
#
I just finished Case Files of the Tracker, by Tom Brown Jr. I've read a lot of Tom's work and really like it. His work is one of the reasons why I'm taking the Kamana Program. I was actually first introduced to the tracker by my Chemistry teacher as a junior in high school. Wow! That was fifteen years ago! How I wish I would have headed out to the Tracker School when I was in my late teens or early twenties. Oh well, hind sight is 20/20.
Anyway, I highly recommend picking up Case Files. There is a lot to learn in that book.
#
I posted this quote over at IshCon. I really like it.
"One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast…a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards." Ed Abbey
Animal tracking Wisconsin Naturalist Northern Wisconsin
Thursday, February 16, 2006
New Links
I just added four new links. If your interested in tracking and the outdoors, or you've read the literary works of Daniel Quinn and Derrick Jensen you may find them of interest.
1. The College of Mythic Cartography- Alot of great writing from the perspective of a tracker and Ishmael reader.
2. Mother Anarchy- Great writing about motherhood, anarchy, primitive living skills, and other related stuff here.
3. Dirttime.org - If you're interested in getting to know your nonhuman neighbors this is a great place to check out. Great writing too!
4. Josh Fecteau's blog - If you like the outdoors, and want social justice check this blog out. Josh writes about some of his experiences tracking and poking around out in the natural world. Good storytelling and photographs here!
1. The College of Mythic Cartography- Alot of great writing from the perspective of a tracker and Ishmael reader.
2. Mother Anarchy- Great writing about motherhood, anarchy, primitive living skills, and other related stuff here.
3. Dirttime.org - If you're interested in getting to know your nonhuman neighbors this is a great place to check out. Great writing too!
4. Josh Fecteau's blog - If you like the outdoors, and want social justice check this blog out. Josh writes about some of his experiences tracking and poking around out in the natural world. Good storytelling and photographs here!
Saturday, February 11, 2006
It's capitalism or a habitable planet - you can't have both
John Kurmann just sent me this article by email. I've always wondered how so many writers and thinkers can talk about economic growth with out talking about the extinction of the human race. I mean, industrial civilization is causing the greatest mass extinction that we know of. And I think this Question and Answer by Daniel Quinn shows what the consequences will be if we continue causing this mass extinction.
Economy Ishmael Environment Capitalism
Economy Ishmael Environment Capitalism
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Impeaching George W. Bush
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Some Democrats Talking about Impeachment
Today, I checked into Northland Liberal. Although I don't consider myself a Democrat it is refreshing to see they're atleast talking about Impeaching George W. Bush for authorizing The National Security Agency to spy on American citizens. Here is the Story.
Politics Impeachment Bush
Politics Impeachment Bush
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Hope and Hugo Chavez
Lately, I've been thinking about a quote by the Alan Watts that someone posted over at IshCon. Here is the quote: "... modern civilization is in almost every respect a vicious circle. It is insatiably hungry because its way of life condemns it to perpetual frustration. ... the future is still not here, and cannot become part of experienced reality until it is present. Since what we know of the future is made up of purely abstract and logical elements -- inferences, guesses, deductions -- it cannot be eaten, felt, smelled, seen, heard, or otherwise enjoyed. To pursue it is to pursue a constantly retreating phantom, and the faster you chase it, the faster it runs agead. This is why all the affairs of civilization are rushed, why hardly anyone enjoys what they have, and is forever seeking more and more. Happiness, then, will consist not of solid and substantial realities, but of such abstract and superficial things as promises, hopes, and assurances." Alan Watts, in The Wisdom of Insecurity, 1951
I've heard many people say they are happy because they have hope. But isn't hope as Watt's says some "abstract and superficial thing" we cling to get through our days? How can you be happy with something that is abstract and not real?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This morning, on Democracy Now, I heard something interesting. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has offered cheap oil to various poor communities through out the United States. And this comes as no surprise, but only two members of the United States Congress thought it was a good idea. One of them was Congressman Jose Cerrano from New York. He also voted for the immediate withdrawal of U.S troops out of Iraq. This is an interesting story, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
I think I'm going to call Dave Obey (My Congressman) and ask him why he isn't supporting the offer by Hugo Chavez.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oil Politics Psychology Civilization
I've heard many people say they are happy because they have hope. But isn't hope as Watt's says some "abstract and superficial thing" we cling to get through our days? How can you be happy with something that is abstract and not real?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This morning, on Democracy Now, I heard something interesting. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has offered cheap oil to various poor communities through out the United States. And this comes as no surprise, but only two members of the United States Congress thought it was a good idea. One of them was Congressman Jose Cerrano from New York. He also voted for the immediate withdrawal of U.S troops out of Iraq. This is an interesting story, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
I think I'm going to call Dave Obey (My Congressman) and ask him why he isn't supporting the offer by Hugo Chavez.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oil Politics Psychology Civilization
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Tales of Adam
11/23/05 Today, is Thanksgiving Day. There are only four days left of the Wisconsin deer hunting season. I just finished up Tales of Adam by Daniel Quinn. This is another masterpiece by DQ. I really like the fact that I got the chance to read ToA during deer hunting season.
I wrote a review of it for Amazon.com. I don't know if I'm going to post it yet. Here it is:
More Important than the Bible
After reading the final pages of Tales of Adam, one word comes to mind, and that is: wisdom. This book may be small, but it is packed full of important teachings. Teachings I wish would’ve come across a lot earlier in life, teachings that make sense, teachings that have stood the test of time, teachings that need to be learned by the members of the most destructive and suicidal culture ever to exist, teachings that are there for all of life to follow, not just man. Teachings that make me feel like I have purpose, teachings that make me feel like I belong.
This book, I feel, is as important as the rest of Daniel Quinn’s work. I feel fortunate to have read Tales of Adam. It has made me a better person.
books Religion Hunting Wisconsin Sustainability
I wrote a review of it for Amazon.com. I don't know if I'm going to post it yet. Here it is:
More Important than the Bible
After reading the final pages of Tales of Adam, one word comes to mind, and that is: wisdom. This book may be small, but it is packed full of important teachings. Teachings I wish would’ve come across a lot earlier in life, teachings that make sense, teachings that have stood the test of time, teachings that need to be learned by the members of the most destructive and suicidal culture ever to exist, teachings that are there for all of life to follow, not just man. Teachings that make me feel like I have purpose, teachings that make me feel like I belong.
This book, I feel, is as important as the rest of Daniel Quinn’s work. I feel fortunate to have read Tales of Adam. It has made me a better person.
books Religion Hunting Wisconsin Sustainability
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
The Snow is Falling!
It's about 8:30 PM here in Northern Wisconsin. I just stepped outside and noticed the ground was white with snow. That'd be the first snowfall for this winter season, and many more to go!
I've spent the last two hours on-line reading articles on subjects ranging anywhere from cancer, peak oil, to learning how to bond with the land. The three articles I read by Micheal Ventura are a good read. They mostly discuss what we are going to be facing in the future as far as Peak Oil is concerned.
The article about cancer was titled: Why We Can't Prevent Cancer in Rachel's Democracy and Health News. It was sobering, to say the least. Defintely, check it out if you care about your body.
The article by Jeanette Armstrong titled: I Stand With You Against the Disorder was about learning how to face crisis as a community. It was wise, and therefore a breath of fresh air for me. It was posted over at IshCon. Jeanette comes from a very wise cultural upbringing. I was first introduced to her words through Derrick Jensen's "A Language Older Than Words."
I think it is time to step away from the screen to go out and enjoy the snowfall!!!
Health Peak Environment Sustainability Books Wisconsin
I've spent the last two hours on-line reading articles on subjects ranging anywhere from cancer, peak oil, to learning how to bond with the land. The three articles I read by Micheal Ventura are a good read. They mostly discuss what we are going to be facing in the future as far as Peak Oil is concerned.
The article about cancer was titled: Why We Can't Prevent Cancer in Rachel's Democracy and Health News. It was sobering, to say the least. Defintely, check it out if you care about your body.
The article by Jeanette Armstrong titled: I Stand With You Against the Disorder was about learning how to face crisis as a community. It was wise, and therefore a breath of fresh air for me. It was posted over at IshCon. Jeanette comes from a very wise cultural upbringing. I was first introduced to her words through Derrick Jensen's "A Language Older Than Words."
I think it is time to step away from the screen to go out and enjoy the snowfall!!!
Health Peak Environment Sustainability Books Wisconsin
Monday, November 14, 2005
Peak Oil on My Mind
This morning, I’ve got Peak Oil on my mind. My thoughts have been inspired from an email a friend of mine sent me regarding a paper that was presented at a Reception with Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, and the California Leaders Round Table Dialogue on Peak Oil, Climate Change and Business Action by Richard Heinberg. After I read the article, a few statements from it come to mind. The first one points out how much we depend on fossil fuels to do our work.
He than goes on to say.
Like Heinberg alludes to in the above statement, it can’t be argued that eventually the global production of oil is going to peak. It’s a finite resource, so it only stands to reason. The next question is are we going to be prepared for this when it happens (if it hasn’t happened already). One of the measures Heinberg is suggesting for us to take is that we need to reduce our dependence on this stuff ASAP. Another thing he suggests is a global Oil Depletion Protocol.
We’ll see if this global Oil Depletion Protocol will become policy for most nations. As of right now, I would guess the United States would be the last to adopt this as policy. But, we’ll see what happens.
Peak Oil Politics United
“Only 150 years ago, 85% of all work being accomplished in the US economy was done by muscle power-most of that by animal muscle, about a quarter of it by human muscle. Today, that percentage is effectively zero; virtually all of the physical work supporting our economy is done by fuel-fed machines. What caused this transformation? Quite simply, it was oil's comparative cheapness and versatility. Perhaps you have had the experience of running out of gas and having to push your car a few feet to get it off the road. That's hard work. Now imagine pushing your car 20 or 30 miles. That is the service performed for us by a single gallon of gasoline, for which we currently pay $2.65. That gallon of fuel is the energy equivalent of roughly six weeks of hard human labor.
”It was inevitable that we would become addicted to this stuff, once we had developed a few tools for using it and for extracting it. Today petroleum provides 97 percent of our transportation fuel, and is also a feedstock for chemicals and plastics.
”It is no exaggeration to say that we live in a world that runs on oil.” Richard Heinberg
He than goes on to say.
“However, oil is a finite resource. Therefore the peaking and decline of world oil production are inevitable events-and on that there is scarcely any debate; only the timing is uncertain. Forecast dates for the peak range from this year to 2035.” Heinberg
Like Heinberg alludes to in the above statement, it can’t be argued that eventually the global production of oil is going to peak. It’s a finite resource, so it only stands to reason. The next question is are we going to be prepared for this when it happens (if it hasn’t happened already). One of the measures Heinberg is suggesting for us to take is that we need to reduce our dependence on this stuff ASAP. Another thing he suggests is a global Oil Depletion Protocol.
“A global Oil Depletion Protocol would reduce price volatility and competition for remaining supplies, while encouraging nations to move quickly to wean themselves from petroleum. In essence, the Protocol would be an agreement whereby producing nations would plan to produce less oil with each passing year (and that will not be so difficult, because few are still capable of maintaining their current rates in any case); and importing nations would agree to import less each year. That may seem a bitter pill to swallow.
”However, without a Protocol-essentially a system for global oil rationing-we will see extremely volatile prices that will undermine the economies of all nations, and all industries and businesses.
”We will also see increasing international competition for oil likely leading to conflict; and if a general oil war were to break out, everyone would lose. Given the alternatives, the Protocol clearly seems preferable.
”National governments, local municipalities, corporations, and private individuals will all need to contribute to the effort to wean ourselves from oil, and effort that must quickly expand to include a reduction in dependence on other fossil fuels as well. All of this will constitute an immense challenge for our species in the coming century. We will meet that challenge successfully only if we begin immediately.” R. Heinberg
We’ll see if this global Oil Depletion Protocol will become policy for most nations. As of right now, I would guess the United States would be the last to adopt this as policy. But, we’ll see what happens.
Peak Oil Politics United
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Republicans Concerned about Peak Oil
From what I got out of this article, it looks to me like the political right in this country is starting to become a little concerned about Peak Oil. They're actually talking about increasing the number of hybrid electric vehicles sold in America.
When talking about increasing the number of hybrid electric vehicles, I can't help but think about what Jason Godesky wrote in his "Thesis#16:Technology cannot stop collapse" over at Anthropik. It has to do with Jevons Paradox."William Stanley Jevons is a seminal figure in economics.
It seems a civilizational collapse is inevitable, and for all we know civilization is collapsing. It is in our best interest, I think, to start preparing for the inevitable collapse instead of trying to prolong the life of civilization by improving our technologies. I think, SOME of the answers may be found here.
Books Politics Religous Civilization Collapse Peak
"Leading the energy security front is a coalition called Set America Free. Led by the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, Set America Free's members include former Republican presidential candidate and "family values" activist Gary Bauer; powerful neoconservative security hawks Frank Gaffney, Daniel Pipes and former CIA director Jim Woolsey; and National Resources Defense Council's (NRDC) Deron Lovaas along with the Apollo Alliance's Bracken Hendricks.
"In an open letter signed by its members, Set America Free calls for an end to oil dependency for security purposes and makes the centerpiece of its blueprint a call to improve fuel economy rates for automobiles, diversify auto fuels and increase the number of hybrid electric vehicles sold in America."
When talking about increasing the number of hybrid electric vehicles, I can't help but think about what Jason Godesky wrote in his "Thesis#16:Technology cannot stop collapse" over at Anthropik. It has to do with Jevons Paradox."William Stanley Jevons is a seminal figure in economics.
He helped formulate the very theory of marginal returns which, as we saw in thesis #14, governs complexity in general, and technological innovation specifically. In his 1865 book, The Coal Question, Jevons noted that the consumption of coal in England soared after James Watt introduced his steam engine. Steam engines had been used as toys as far back as ancient Greece, and Thomas Newcomen's earlier design was suitable for industrial use. Watt's invention merely made more efficient use of coal, compared to Newcomen's. This made the engine more economical, and so, touched off the Industrial Revolution--and in so doing, created the very same modern, unprecedented attitudes towards technology and invention that are now presented as hope against collapse. In the book, Jevons formulated a principle now known as "Jevons Paradox." It is not a paradox in the logical sense, but it is certainly counterintuitive. Jevons Paradox states that any technology which allows for the more efficient use of a given resource will result in greater use of that resource, not less. By increasing the efficiency of a resource's use, the marginal utility of that resource is increased more than enough to compensate for the fall. This is why innovations in computer technology have made for longer working hours, as employers expect that an employee with a technology that cuts his work in half can do three times more work. This is why more fuel-efficient vehicles have resulted in longer commutes, and the suburban sprawl that creates an automotive-centric culture, with overall higher petroleum use.
Most of the technologies offered as solutions to collapse expect Jevons Paradox not to hold. They recognize the crisis we face with deplenishing resources, but hope to solve that problem by making the use of that technology more efficient. Jevons Paradox illustrates precisely what the unintended consequence of such a technology will be--in these cases, precisely the opposite of the intended effect. Any technology that aims to save our resources by making more efficient use of them can only result in depleting those resources even more quickly.
The best hope technology can offer for staving off collapse is to tap a new energy subsidy, just as the Industrial Revolution tapped our current fossil fuel subsidy. For instance, the energy we currently use in petroleum could be matched by covering 1% of the United States' land area in photovoltaic cells. However, the hope that human population will simply "level off" due to modernization is in vain (see thesis #4); human population is a function of food supply, and population will always rise to the energy level available. The shift to photovoltaics, like the shift to fossil fuels, is merely an invitation to continued growth--another "win" in the "Food Race." If our energy needs can be met by covering just 1% of the United States with photovoltaic cells, why not cover 2% and double our energy? Of course, then our population will double, and we'll need to expand again.
Such technological advances can postpone collapse, but they cannot stop it. However, there is also a cost associated with such postponements: each one makes collapse, when it eventually does happen, exponentially more destructive."
It seems a civilizational collapse is inevitable, and for all we know civilization is collapsing. It is in our best interest, I think, to start preparing for the inevitable collapse instead of trying to prolong the life of civilization by improving our technologies. I think, SOME of the answers may be found here.
Books Politics Religous Civilization Collapse Peak
Pondering Slavery
It’s Saturday morning; I’m reading A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut, again. There is a passage in their that has got me thinking about Derrick Jensen, relationships, slavery and civilization. The passage reads:
My knee jerk reaction after reading this was one of surprise. Slave owners become suicidal and suffer from depression? Aren’t we all taught in this culture that we must try to get rich and have a lot of people working for us? Isn’t this what the immortal Henry Ford did? And how about Bill Gates? I Bet you there is a few of us who wouldn’t mind being as well off as Bill Gates is, or as Henry F. once was? But what about the relationships, these cultural demigods we're supposed to envy, share?
When it comes to a voice of sanity regarding relationships, I have to turn to Derrick Jensen. In Walking On Water: Reading, Writing, and Revolution he wrote:
“A human being is not simply an ego structure in a sack of skin. Human beings, and this is true for all beings, are the relationships they share. My health—emotional, physical, moral—is inextricably intertwined with the quality of these relationships, whether I acknowledge the relationships or not. If the relationships are impoverished, or if I systematically eradicate those beings with whom I pretend I do not have relationships, I am so much smaller, so much weaker. These statements are as true physically as they are emotionally and spiritually.”
It’s no wonder the suicide rate per capita among white slave owners was higher than that of the slaves they perceived as owning.
This leads me to ask myself, “how do I benefit from slavery?” Of course we all know that slavery didn’t disappear after the Civil War between the North and the South of the United States. Don’t we? What about this thing we call wage slavery? You know, where you go to work for Six Dollars an Hour while the CEO of the corporation your working for makes about 400 times more than you. Funny thing, I didn’t start to understand what wage slavery was until I was in my mid-twenties. I blame part of this on my schooling, but that’s a whole other story.
So…I’m civilized. Which means I depend on civilization to survive. This has got me thinking about how much I depend on slavery to maintain my personal standard of living. This leads me to pg. 59 of Jensen’s “The Culture of Make Believe.” He quotes Fredrich Engels as saying “It was slavery that first made possible the division labour between agriculture and industry on a considerable scale, and along with this, the flower of the ancient world, Hellenism. Without slavery, no Greek state, no Greek art and science; without slavery, no Roman Empire. But without Hellenism and the Roman Empire as the base, also no modern Europe. We should never forget that our whole economic, political and intellectual development has as its presupposition a state of things in which slavery was as necessary as it is universally recognized.”
I bet you anyone reading this has something they can look at right now that was made using slave labor. My sweatshirt is made in Myanmar. I wonder how much the workers that made this were paid? I ask myself why wasn’t it made in the United States? Is it cheaper for the owners of RESERVOIR clothing to have it made in Myanmar? Jensen goes on to say “ ‘Servitude’ Harper noted, ‘ is the condition of civilization.’ It seems pretty clear, then, that if you want civilization, you’ve got to have slavery, or at least servitude. To undo slavery—if this argument holds—would be to undo the civilization we—at least those of us who might be considered slaveholders—all enjoy.”
But do they enjoy it? Do most of us (who are civilized) enjoy the benefits of servitude and slavery? I think I read somewhere that the suicide rate among teenagers in the United States has increased almost 400% in the last fifty years. Wouldn’t life be better if there was no such thing as slavery? Wouldn’t life be better if there was no such thing as civilization? Why aren’t we talking about this more…? Books civilization Slavery Jobs Mental Schooling
“The wonderful writer Albert Murray, who is a jazz historian and a friend of mine among other things, told me that during the era of slavery in this country --an atrocity from which we can never fully recover—the suicide rate per capita among slave owners was much higher than the suicide rage among slaves.
“Murray says he thinks this was because slaves had a way of dealing with depression, which their white owners did not: They could shoo away Old Man Suicide by playing and singing the Blues.”
My knee jerk reaction after reading this was one of surprise. Slave owners become suicidal and suffer from depression? Aren’t we all taught in this culture that we must try to get rich and have a lot of people working for us? Isn’t this what the immortal Henry Ford did? And how about Bill Gates? I Bet you there is a few of us who wouldn’t mind being as well off as Bill Gates is, or as Henry F. once was? But what about the relationships, these cultural demigods we're supposed to envy, share?
When it comes to a voice of sanity regarding relationships, I have to turn to Derrick Jensen. In Walking On Water: Reading, Writing, and Revolution he wrote:
“A human being is not simply an ego structure in a sack of skin. Human beings, and this is true for all beings, are the relationships they share. My health—emotional, physical, moral—is inextricably intertwined with the quality of these relationships, whether I acknowledge the relationships or not. If the relationships are impoverished, or if I systematically eradicate those beings with whom I pretend I do not have relationships, I am so much smaller, so much weaker. These statements are as true physically as they are emotionally and spiritually.”
It’s no wonder the suicide rate per capita among white slave owners was higher than that of the slaves they perceived as owning.
This leads me to ask myself, “how do I benefit from slavery?” Of course we all know that slavery didn’t disappear after the Civil War between the North and the South of the United States. Don’t we? What about this thing we call wage slavery? You know, where you go to work for Six Dollars an Hour while the CEO of the corporation your working for makes about 400 times more than you. Funny thing, I didn’t start to understand what wage slavery was until I was in my mid-twenties. I blame part of this on my schooling, but that’s a whole other story.
So…I’m civilized. Which means I depend on civilization to survive. This has got me thinking about how much I depend on slavery to maintain my personal standard of living. This leads me to pg. 59 of Jensen’s “The Culture of Make Believe.” He quotes Fredrich Engels as saying “It was slavery that first made possible the division labour between agriculture and industry on a considerable scale, and along with this, the flower of the ancient world, Hellenism. Without slavery, no Greek state, no Greek art and science; without slavery, no Roman Empire. But without Hellenism and the Roman Empire as the base, also no modern Europe. We should never forget that our whole economic, political and intellectual development has as its presupposition a state of things in which slavery was as necessary as it is universally recognized.”
I bet you anyone reading this has something they can look at right now that was made using slave labor. My sweatshirt is made in Myanmar. I wonder how much the workers that made this were paid? I ask myself why wasn’t it made in the United States? Is it cheaper for the owners of RESERVOIR clothing to have it made in Myanmar? Jensen goes on to say “ ‘Servitude’ Harper noted, ‘ is the condition of civilization.’ It seems pretty clear, then, that if you want civilization, you’ve got to have slavery, or at least servitude. To undo slavery—if this argument holds—would be to undo the civilization we—at least those of us who might be considered slaveholders—all enjoy.”
But do they enjoy it? Do most of us (who are civilized) enjoy the benefits of servitude and slavery? I think I read somewhere that the suicide rate among teenagers in the United States has increased almost 400% in the last fifty years. Wouldn’t life be better if there was no such thing as slavery? Wouldn’t life be better if there was no such thing as civilization? Why aren’t we talking about this more…? Books civilization Slavery Jobs Mental Schooling
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Addicts in Denial
November 10. After starting a fire to warm up the house this morning, I had the luxury to sit down for a few minutes and read a few chapters out of Kurt Vonnegut’s new book "A Man Without a Country".
This passage by Vonnegut rings true when it comes to discussing fossil fuels and the end of civilization:
There it is. I mean come on, like the United States Government is really trying to spread peace to the Middle East. They want the oil underneath the Iraqi’s soil. How did that saying go? “How did our oil get underneath your soil?” And we all know how much our lives are going to drastically change when we can’t afford this stuff anymore. We are addicted to fossil fuels, there is just no two ways about it.
Talking about our addiction to fossil fuels. This thing called, “Jevons Paradox” is startling. I first learned about it in reading a post titled “Thesis#16: Technology cannot stop collapse" over at Anthropik.
Here is what Jason Godesky had to say about “Jevons Paradox”:
This really makes sense to me. Essentially, what I get from this is, that when we are able to improve a technology to the point where it makes more efficient use of a resource we will use that resource up faster. So Hybrid cars sound like the way to go (I wish I could afford one) if we want to use less oil, but according to Jevon the oil will be used up even quicker.
We really need to get "Beyond Civilization" as soon as possible.
collapse peak Technology Cars Addiction Civilization Jevons Books
This passage by Vonnegut rings true when it comes to discussing fossil fuels and the end of civilization:
“When you got here, even when I got here, the industrialized world was already hopelessly hooked on fossil fuels, and very soon now there won’t be any left. Cold Turkey.
“Can I tell you the truth? I mean this isn’t the TV news is it? Here’s what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial. And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on.”
There it is. I mean come on, like the United States Government is really trying to spread peace to the Middle East. They want the oil underneath the Iraqi’s soil. How did that saying go? “How did our oil get underneath your soil?” And we all know how much our lives are going to drastically change when we can’t afford this stuff anymore. We are addicted to fossil fuels, there is just no two ways about it.
Talking about our addiction to fossil fuels. This thing called, “Jevons Paradox” is startling. I first learned about it in reading a post titled “Thesis#16: Technology cannot stop collapse" over at Anthropik.
Here is what Jason Godesky had to say about “Jevons Paradox”:
“William Stanley Jevons is a seminal figure in economics. He helped formulate the very theory of marginal returns which, as we saw in thesis #14, governs complexity in general, and technological innovation specifically. In his 1865 book, The Coal Question, Jevons noted that the consumption of coal in England soared after James Watt introduced his steam engine. Steam engines had been used as toys as far back as ancient Greece, and Thomas Newcomen's earlier design was suitable for industrial use. Watt's invention merely made more efficient use of coal, compared to Newcomen's. This made the engine more economical, and so, touched off the Industrial Revolution--and in so doing, created the very same modern, unprecedented attitudes towards technology and invention that are now presented as hope against collapse. In the book, Jevons formulated a principle now known as "Jevons Paradox." It is not a paradox in the logical sense, but it is certainly counterintuitive. Jevons Paradox states that any technology which allows for the more efficient use of a given resource will result in greater use of that resource, not less. By increasing the efficiency of a resource's use, the marginal utility of that resource is increased more than enough to compensate for the fall. This is why innovations in computer technology have made for longer working hours, as employers expect that an employee with a technology that cuts his work in half can do three times more work. This is why more fuel-efficient vehicles have resulted in longer commutes, and the suburban sprawl that creates an automotive-centric culture, with overall higher petroleum use.
“Most of the technologies offered as solutions to collapse expect Jevons Paradox not to hold. They recognize the crisis we face with deplenishing resources, but hope to solve that problem by making the use of that technology more efficient. Jevons Paradox illustrates precisely what the unintended consequence of such a technology will be--in these cases, precisely the opposite of the intended effect. Any technology that aims to save our resources by making more efficient use of them can only result in depleting those resources even more quickly.”
This really makes sense to me. Essentially, what I get from this is, that when we are able to improve a technology to the point where it makes more efficient use of a resource we will use that resource up faster. So Hybrid cars sound like the way to go (I wish I could afford one) if we want to use less oil, but according to Jevon the oil will be used up even quicker.
We really need to get "Beyond Civilization" as soon as possible.
collapse peak Technology Cars Addiction Civilization Jevons Books
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
The Fruits of our Labor
Back in 1999, after discussing where we go after we die, a friend of mine suggested that I read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. In a matter of days I finished. That was pretty good considering that up until that point in my life I could count the number of books I’ve read on one hand. It didn’t take long after that and I devoured everything Quinn had written. From that point on I went from a person with little or no interest in books to someone that would be content reading 4 to 5 hours a day. Quite literally the library could be my second place of residence.
One of the books I ran across on my reading journey was a book about the cordwood building method: The Sauna by Rob Roy. After reading that I knew I had to get out of debt. Since my only debt at that time was a mortgage I had taken out to build my conventional stick frame house, I knew the next step I would have to take would be to sell it. My plan than was to use the equity I had built up to pay for the land and materials for another house building venture. And cordwood seemed like the way to go. Plus, I had spent a lot of time in the woods as a logger, so I knew a little bit about the woods.
A few years later, I managed to sell the house and 20 acres. I then went with my plan of using the equity to pay for the land that I would eventually build the cordwood building on. Luckily, there was 32 acres for sale within a few miles from the house I had just sold. It was priced reasonable, so I bought it. Now it was time to experiment with cordwood.
After reading various people’s experiences with the cordwood building method, we (by this time I had met Annie) figured that a practice building would be the way to start out. Again, Rob Roy’s Sauna book was useful. The 10’ x14’8” rectilinear post and beam sauna design he illustrates and writes about seemed do-able.
And, as you can see from the pictures, approximately five years after I opened up The Sauna book, we’ve got a good start on our on-going process of building with cordwood. We plan on starting our 41ft. diameter cordwood round house next spring.
If you’re interested in connecting up with other experienced cordwood builders, I highly recommend checking out Daycreek. Everyone there has been extremely helpful to us during this process. And another invaluable resource regarding cordwood is Rob Roy’s website.
Alternative construction Projects Home Cordwood
Masonry
wood Wisconsin design Books
One of the books I ran across on my reading journey was a book about the cordwood building method: The Sauna by Rob Roy. After reading that I knew I had to get out of debt. Since my only debt at that time was a mortgage I had taken out to build my conventional stick frame house, I knew the next step I would have to take would be to sell it. My plan than was to use the equity I had built up to pay for the land and materials for another house building venture. And cordwood seemed like the way to go. Plus, I had spent a lot of time in the woods as a logger, so I knew a little bit about the woods.
A few years later, I managed to sell the house and 20 acres. I then went with my plan of using the equity to pay for the land that I would eventually build the cordwood building on. Luckily, there was 32 acres for sale within a few miles from the house I had just sold. It was priced reasonable, so I bought it. Now it was time to experiment with cordwood.
After reading various people’s experiences with the cordwood building method, we (by this time I had met Annie) figured that a practice building would be the way to start out. Again, Rob Roy’s Sauna book was useful. The 10’ x14’8” rectilinear post and beam sauna design he illustrates and writes about seemed do-able.
And, as you can see from the pictures, approximately five years after I opened up The Sauna book, we’ve got a good start on our on-going process of building with cordwood. We plan on starting our 41ft. diameter cordwood round house next spring.
If you’re interested in connecting up with other experienced cordwood builders, I highly recommend checking out Daycreek. Everyone there has been extremely helpful to us during this process. And another invaluable resource regarding cordwood is Rob Roy’s website.
Alternative construction Projects Home Cordwood
Masonry
wood Wisconsin design Books
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Imprisoning the Sun God
Yesterday, out of no plan of my own, I ended up in the soft chair at my local library reading the The Man Who Grew Young by Daniel Quinn. I’ve read it before. In fact, I use to own it. But as with any good book that you loan out, it seems like you usually have a hard time getting it back.
Less than 24 hours later, I can truly say it was a pleasure to read TMWGY, again. As messed up as everything is in the world, for a few moments TMWGY gives you this feeling that everything is going to be all right.
What I’ve been thinking about since finishing TMWGY was an exchange between Adam (The books main character) and Merlin (A wizard that Adam runs into on his journey through Europe) about Stonehenge.
I should remind the reader that time is no longer moving forward (as we think of it to be) in TMWGY, its now moving backwards.
Now I’m rubbing my chin. I don’t know much about Stonehenge. I’ve only seen images of it on television, and in books, as I was growing up. But Quinn is trying to point out something that seems blatantly obvious. Is he saying that since they learned how to follow the patterns of the sun by using the structure of Stonehenge they imprisoned themselves to this structure? And if they suddenly became free from their enslavement,what other options are there?
And something else that has ran across my mind since reading this. What about the generations of workers who broke their backs to build this thing? Did they think they were imprisoning the sun god? They almost had to think that this is what people just “did”. I’m sure they didn’t give it any more thought than we do when we get up in the morning to go off to do our jobs. And most people who go off to jobs they hate have to be thinking to themselves there has to be a better way. We're the people that built Stonehenge thinking this too?
The Man Who Grew Young has definitely got me thinking.
Books God Life Faith History Fiction Stonehenge Astronomy Europe
Less than 24 hours later, I can truly say it was a pleasure to read TMWGY, again. As messed up as everything is in the world, for a few moments TMWGY gives you this feeling that everything is going to be all right.
What I’ve been thinking about since finishing TMWGY was an exchange between Adam (The books main character) and Merlin (A wizard that Adam runs into on his journey through Europe) about Stonehenge.
I should remind the reader that time is no longer moving forward (as we think of it to be) in TMWGY, its now moving backwards.
As they are walking to the river, Adam asks. “Why do you think they dismantled Stonehenge?”
Merlin answers. “It was time to release the prisoner.”
“I don’t know what that means”
“Do you know what a henge is?”
“I don’t know…something like a hinge”
Merlin responds. “Close, but no cigar. It’s like the word Girt. Do you know what an expression like stone-girt might mean?”
“Stone-girt…something like ‘held in by stone?’”
“That’s right. Stonehenge means ‘stone-hung.’”
“Stone-hung? I don’t get it.” Adams confused.
Not many people did in your ancient times. They thought it had something to do with hanging stones. Did you see any hanging stones there?”
Adam responds. “No, I didn’t”
A few moments later Merlin asks. “ So, what do you suppose was hung by stone at Stonehenge?”
“ I have no idea.”
“Yes, you do. And when I tell you, you’ll say, ‘Oh, that’s very obvious.”
“Try me.”
A god was hung on the stones of Stonehenge.”
Looking perplexed, Adam responds with, “Huh!”
“Two hundred generations of people labored to dismantle Stonehenge, dragging thirty-ton stones to quarries dozens of miles away. Why?”
“Didn’t they use it as a calendar to regulate the planting of crops?”
That was the God’s work. He was imprisoned to perform that service.” Merlin replies.
Adams baffled. “ I don’t get it.”
Pacing his cell, the god showed them exactly when to plant year after year.”
“What god was it?”
Merlin is agitated now. “Oh use a little imagination, for gods sake! Look…
Merlin and Adam lean over a drawing of Stonehenge that Merlin etched in to the dirt with his walking stick. Pointing at the drawing, Merlin calmly goes on. “This was the stronghold. You see. The Bastille. The Bluestone Circle, another century of work…the Sarsen Circle, a century of work all by itself…and this line here, this marked midsummer sunset.
“But that’s just the beginning. There was the midwinter sunset, the solstices, the equinoxes…all the days, all the moments.
“Does this give you any idea about the prisoner?”
“I’m not sure. The sun?” Adam asks.
“Of course! At Stonehenge, the sun was like a slave with one foot nailed to the floor. It was compelled to circle Stonehenge every year, in and out, decade after decade, century after century.”
“But that doesn’t explain why they got rid of it.”
“They got rid of it because they were sick of it! Every prison creates two sets of captives—inmates and warders, who are as firmly shackled to the prison as the inmates.
“The sun was their captive, but they were its captive as well, and they got tired of it.”
Rubbing his chin with a contemplative look on his face, Adam stares at the drawing etched in the dirt.
Now I’m rubbing my chin. I don’t know much about Stonehenge. I’ve only seen images of it on television, and in books, as I was growing up. But Quinn is trying to point out something that seems blatantly obvious. Is he saying that since they learned how to follow the patterns of the sun by using the structure of Stonehenge they imprisoned themselves to this structure? And if they suddenly became free from their enslavement,what other options are there?
And something else that has ran across my mind since reading this. What about the generations of workers who broke their backs to build this thing? Did they think they were imprisoning the sun god? They almost had to think that this is what people just “did”. I’m sure they didn’t give it any more thought than we do when we get up in the morning to go off to do our jobs. And most people who go off to jobs they hate have to be thinking to themselves there has to be a better way. We're the people that built Stonehenge thinking this too?
The Man Who Grew Young has definitely got me thinking.
Books God Life Faith History Fiction Stonehenge Astronomy Europe
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Putting Food on the Table
Since I've first read Ishmael , and the rest of Daniel Quinn's work, this quote from Beyond Civilization has stuck in my mind:
"Making food a commodity to be owned was one of the great innovations of our culture. No other culture in history has ever put food under lock and key--and putting it there is the cornerstone of our economy, for if the food wasn't under lock and key, who would work?"
He than goes on to say...
"People don't plant crops because it's less work, they plant crops because they want to settle down and live in one place. An area that is only foraged doesn't yield enough human food to sustain a permanant settlement. To build a village, you must grow crops--and this is what most aboriginal villagers grow: some crops. They don't grow all their food. They don't need to.
"Once you begin turning all the land around you into cropland, you begin to generate enormous food surpluses, which have to be protected from the elements and from other creatures--including other people. Ultimately they have to be locked up. Though it surely isn't recognized at the time, locking up the food spells the end of tribalism and beginning of the hierarchal life we call civilization.
"As soon as the storehouse appears, someone must step forward to guard it, and this custodian needs assistants, who depend on him entirely, since they no longer earn a living as farmers. In a single stroke, a figure of power appears on the scene to control the community's wealth, surrounded by a cadre of loyal vassals, ready to evolve into a ruling class of royals and nobles.
"This doesn't happen among part-time farmers or among hunter-gatherers (who have no surpluses to lock up). It happens only among people who derive their entire living from agriculture--people like the Maya, the Olmec, the Hohokam, and so on."
I bet if I asked most people if they like their job most would say no. In fact, I wouldn't be afraid to say that over 90% would say no. But then if I tried to explain to them why they have to work from what I just quoted out of Quinn's Beyond Civilization they would probably think I'm speaking a different language. I mean that's what most people go to work for is to put the "locked up" food on the table, right? Why aren't more people who hate there jobs trying to unlock the food? Are these the right questions to ask?...Hmmmn
1.Civilization
2. Agriculture
3. Jobs
4. Labor
"Making food a commodity to be owned was one of the great innovations of our culture. No other culture in history has ever put food under lock and key--and putting it there is the cornerstone of our economy, for if the food wasn't under lock and key, who would work?"
He than goes on to say...
"People don't plant crops because it's less work, they plant crops because they want to settle down and live in one place. An area that is only foraged doesn't yield enough human food to sustain a permanant settlement. To build a village, you must grow crops--and this is what most aboriginal villagers grow: some crops. They don't grow all their food. They don't need to.
"Once you begin turning all the land around you into cropland, you begin to generate enormous food surpluses, which have to be protected from the elements and from other creatures--including other people. Ultimately they have to be locked up. Though it surely isn't recognized at the time, locking up the food spells the end of tribalism and beginning of the hierarchal life we call civilization.
"As soon as the storehouse appears, someone must step forward to guard it, and this custodian needs assistants, who depend on him entirely, since they no longer earn a living as farmers. In a single stroke, a figure of power appears on the scene to control the community's wealth, surrounded by a cadre of loyal vassals, ready to evolve into a ruling class of royals and nobles.
"This doesn't happen among part-time farmers or among hunter-gatherers (who have no surpluses to lock up). It happens only among people who derive their entire living from agriculture--people like the Maya, the Olmec, the Hohokam, and so on."
I bet if I asked most people if they like their job most would say no. In fact, I wouldn't be afraid to say that over 90% would say no. But then if I tried to explain to them why they have to work from what I just quoted out of Quinn's Beyond Civilization they would probably think I'm speaking a different language. I mean that's what most people go to work for is to put the "locked up" food on the table, right? Why aren't more people who hate there jobs trying to unlock the food? Are these the right questions to ask?...Hmmmn
1.Civilization
2. Agriculture
3. Jobs
4. Labor
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