Filed under: Anarchism, Anti-War, Food | Tags: 4th, cnn michael jackson, Emma Goldman, fourth of july, hamburger, hot dog, independence day, liberty, mushroom burger, patriotism
Now we aren’t going to tell you not to enjoy a nice hamburger or hot dog, or to spend some time watching shit blow up in the sky, but one of our favorite humans, Emma Goldman, has something to say about Patriotism. As always, share and enjoy!
WHAT is patriotism? Is it love of one’s birthplace, the place of childhood’s recollections and hopes, dreams and aspirations? Is it the place where, in childlike naivete, we would watch the fleeting clouds, and wonder why we, too, could not run so swiftly? The place where we would count the milliard glittering stars, terror-stricken lest each one “an eye should be,” piercing the very depths of our little souls? Is it the place where we would listen to the music of the birds, and long to have wings to fly, even as they, to distant lands? Or the place where we would sit at mother’s knee, enraptured by wonderful tales of great deeds and conquests? In short, is it love for the spot, every inch representing dear and precious recollections of a happy, joyous, and playful childhood?
If that were patriotism, few American men of today could be called upon to be patriotic, since the place of play has been turned into factory, mill, and mine, while deafening sounds of machinery have replaced the music of the birds. Nor can we longer hear the tales of great deeds, for the stories our mothers tell today are but those of sorrow, tears, and grief.
What, then, is patriotism? “Patriotism, sir, is the last resort of scoundrels,” said Dr. Johnson. Leo Tolstoy, the greatest anti-patriot of our times, defines patriotism as the principle that will justify the training of wholesale murderers; a trade that requires better equipment for the exercise of man-killing than the making of such necessities of life as shoes, clothing, and houses; a trade that guarantees better returns and greater glory than that of the average workingman.
Gustave Herv(c), another great anti-patriot, justly calls patriotism a superstition–one far more injurious, brutal, and inhumane than religion. The superstition of religion originated in man’s inability to explain natural phenomena. That is, when primitive man heard thunder or saw the lightning, he could not account for either, and therefore concluded that back of them must be a force greater than himself. Similarly he saw a supernatural force in the rain, and in the various other changes in nature. Patriotism, on the other hand, is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a network of lies and falsehoods; a superstition that robs man of his self-respect and dignity, and increases his arrogance and conceit.
Indeed, conceit, arrogance, and egotism are the essentials of patriotism. Let me illustrate. Patriotism assumes that our globe is divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate. Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular spot, consider themselves better, nobler, grander, more intelligent than the living beings inhabiting any other spot. It is, therefore, the duty of everyone living on that chosen spot to fight, kill, and die in the attempt to impose his superiority upon all the others.
Filed under: Capitalism, Environmental Activism, Food, Organizer Resources, Propaganda of the Seed | Tags: bookmooch, books, library, radical
Bookmooch is a not-for-profit book website where users can list books they own, but don’t want, and exchange them for books they do want. This can be a valuable resource for organizers, or people looking to get their hands on text that otherwise (for financial or political reasons) would be out of their reach.
For example, as you can see HERE, HERE, and HERE, there are plenty of radical texts available on this site for free. Not Wikisource free, where you have to read it off the computer or pay to print, but a real, honest bound book, simply for getting rid of a book you didn’t want anymore anyway.
Here is how it works: When you join BookMooch, you can list books you have available that you are willing to part with. If someone wants a book (and they will, I have only been a member for a few weeks and I already have sent/received eight books) you’ve listed, they request it through the website and provide you with their address. You then ship it (usually only $2-$3 within the U.S.) to them, and you receive one point. With that point you can browse the website, find something you want, and request it, continuing the cycle.
I know that sounds complicated, but trust me, it is very intuitive, and most importantly very easy. But this resource isn’t just for spreading radical literature. Even if you only list Michael Crichton books, and only request Rachel Ray cookbooks*, you are still fighting rabid consumerism, helping artists, and doing something better for the environment. How? Firstly you are focusing on using resources efficiently rather than blindly buying. Since you are giving an otherwise unwanted book an new life, you are keeping it out of the landfill, and you aren’t giving your money to the mega-conglomerate bookstores that are slowly driving neighborhood bookstores out of business.
So, you get a book for free (well, the cost of shipping), clean out room in your back room, and support alternatives to capitalism? Sounds like a good day to me!
*Actually this is a delicious recipe. Enjoy.
Filed under: Food, Organizer Resources, Propaganda of the Seed | Tags: blimpie, bruce springsteen, charlie wilson's war, co-op, dance, dinner party, end of america, freegan, fresh, graffitti, hotel rwanda, local, mischief brew, movie night, Music, occupation 101, one big torrent, organic, party, potluck, public enemy, radical, ron paul, rosario dawson, system of a down, the coup, this revolution
So you are reading “Down With The Anarchists!” and listening to John Cage‘s prepared piano works, but you suspect that you are the only anarchist you know. How sad, right? WRONG! There are a number of things you can do to remedy this false illusion, but one of the easiest, and possibly the most fun, is to throw a party!
The idea here is that people come to parties, because who doesn’t love a good time? So while you are throwing a party, why not add a little radical flavor? That way while you are socializing and having a good time, you will be addressing issues and in a small way making the world a better place.
Below are some ideas for how to make your party a little more important:
- Radical Music: Music is arguably the most important part of any get together, and a radical plaGraphitti Night:ylist is a very easy way to get revolution into the conversation. Bands like Public Enemy, Mischief Brew, and The Coup all make great party music with a great message. But you aren’t limited to radical artists. Mainstream musicians like Bruce Springsteen and System of a Down make music with a radical message, and can keep those with more pedestrian tastes satisfied.
- Movie Night: The film industry loves a good bit of soul, so their commercial exploitation is your gain! Big ticket movies like Hotel Rwanda and Charlie Wilson’s War are easy to find and readily accessible to even uneducated viewers. Others like This Revolution are less flash and glamor but make up for it with message and content. For the truly hardcore, why not bypass big media all together and just download a documentary from One Big Torrent. Occupation 101 and The End of America are both suggested by this author, but hey, with all this selection and no cost, surely you can find something you want to watch.
- Dinner Party: The simple fact is people like food. So how about a dinner party! Ideas here range from just hitting up your local co-op and whipping up some organic snacks for your friends to having a full out freegan potluck! What is a freegan potluck? Well the rules are simple: Everyone has to bring something, and no one can pay for anything. It could be as simple as home grown veggies or as rare as dumpster diving an entire hoagie platter behind Blimpie. If your food is bountiful enough you could even stage an improvised Food Not Bombs and share your luck with those who need it.
- Graffiti Night: If your friends are particularly mischievous, why not go out at night and make your town a little more beautiful? What you do here will be limited by your own resources and abilities, but inspiration abounds on the Internet so don’t give up just because you can’t think of anything at first.
These are all just meant to be stepping off points. You know your friends and you know what you like doing so tailor these points to better suit your circle.
Share and enjoy!
In electric blender container combine 3/4 cup milk (regular or soy), 1 ripe banana and 1/2 teaspoon sugar. Adjust amount of sugar to desired sweetness. Cover and blend till smooth. This is really tasty! Enjoy!
Filed under: Food | Tags: bowl, brown sugar, cheap snack, dry oat meal, kids, measuring cup, meat free, recipe, vegan recipie, vegitarian
You’ll need:
Brown sugar
Dry oat meal
Measuring Cup
Bowl
Put half a cup of dry oat meal in a bowl, mix in 1 or 2 tea spoons of brown sugar. (Putting in lots and lots of sugar does not make it taste good!)
Enjoy!
Filed under: Food | Tags: 6.7 million, africa, america, Anarchism, anarcho, anarchy, barrack obama, carrots, cheap vegetable garderner, climate change, CO2 emissions, consumption, date labels, dumpster diving, eco, emissions, enviroment, food not bombs, fre rice, fruit, fuck the, game show, george bush, global, global warming, god, god bless america, grapes, hillary clinton, holy father, hungry, infoshop, jesus, leftist, love america, love food hate waste, man made, mary, natural disaster, people, peoples informative, peta, poor, pope, poverty, ready steady skip, recipes, recipies, resipes, starving, statistics, uk, united states, usa, vegan, vegan recipies, vegetables, vegitarian, waste, wasted food, world
Ready Steady Skip is a dumpster diving game show! (A short film that shows food that is being wasted in dumpsters, while they could be feeding the hungry.)
“Skipping (dumpster diving) is only a part of how we live. It isn‘t a solution, but a small way to live within the problem.”
Ready Steady Skip
Feed the hungry! Join your local food not bombs, or start a local chapter.
Food Not Bombs
If you’re bored…
Free Rice
How to dumpster dive zine:
Dumpster Diving Zine PDF
American Apologies
Love Food Hate Waste
This summer I’m starting my own vegetable garden, going to grow it in grow boxes I made myself. There not hard to make, maybe try and dumpster dive wood if you don’t want to buy it. Although if you don’t know were the woods been, you might wanna wash it off. If you do make a grow box, or compost heap box. It needs drainage on the bottom; I recommend just drill small holes in the bottom of it. (I use a hand drill.) Also I’m starting a compost heap; I wonder what it will smell like after a few months. Consume less, live more. Research how to grow your own garden, and don’t forget recipes too!
One of my grow boxs, notice the drainage holes.
Helpfull site I found.
Facts from around the net:
-”How much food do we waste? 6.7 million tons of food is thrown away by households in the UK every year, or, to put it another way, around a third of all the food we buy end up being thrown away, and most of it could have been eaten.” Some of the waste is made up of things like peelings, cores and bones, but the majority is, or once was, perfectly good food.
-”According to America’s Second Harvest, over 41 billion pounds of food have been wasted this year.”
- According to the US Department of Agriculture, up to one-fifth of America’s food goes to waste each year, with an estimated 130 pounds of food per person ending up in landfills. The annual value of this lost food is estimated at around $31 billion, but the real story is that roughly 49 million people could have been fed by those lost resources. (For your persona jihad against wastage, see A Citizen’s Guide to Food Recovery)
-Official surveys indicate that every year more than 350 billion pounds (160
billion kg) of edible food is available for human consumption in the United
States. Of that total, nearly 100 billion pounds (45 billion kg) –
including fresh vegetables, fruits, milk, and grain products — are lost to
waste by retailers, restaurants, and consumers.
-”They only sell this food to the rich,” says Catherine pointing to the
upscale grocery store that put out the bags.
Inside the store, the manager is visibly upset with Catherine and other
young people who are stuffing their backpacks with fruits and vegetables
from the trash bags. ”They are picking up garbage,” says the manager. ”I
don’t know why they are doing this.”
”I have zero cash right now, and no place to stay,” Morlan told
Tierramérica. ”What do you expect me to do?”
-In one of the richest countries in the world
“According to the US Census Bureau, 35.9 million people live below the poverty line in America, including 12.9 million children.”
-”Official surveys indicate that every year more than 350 billion pounds of edible food is available for human consumption in the United States.”
-”How does this issue compare to other, seemingly, more urgent issues such as cutting down packaging, CO2 emissions and air travel?
Around 20% of our climate change emissions are related to the production, processing, transportation and storage of food, but we are throwing away a third of all the food we buy.
If we stopped wasting all this good food, we could have a huge impact on the environment, the equivalent of taking 1 in 5 cars off UK roads.
This could make a significant contribution to overall greenhouse gas emissions, and save us time and money.
As far as packaging is concerned, we actually throw away more food from our homes than packaging in the UK every year.”
-”According to the Bread for the World Institute 3.5 percent of U.S. households experience hunger. Some people in these households frequently skip meals or eat too little, sometimes going without food for a whole day. 9.6 million people, including 3 million children, live in these homes.”
Filed under: Food | Tags: bum, cake, crimethinc, crunch, diving, dumpster, dumpster diving, hobo, lemon, living on streets, rural living, tramp
Dived this little goody today, tastes great! Now why the hell would someone throw perfectly good food like this out?
