Comments on: To Give Our Brightest Deepest Truth http://www.liberatefreedom.com/archive/2006/10/15/freedom-%e2%80%94-to-give-our-brightest-deepest-truth/ Enshrining Our Voices For Global Freedom. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 06:30:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: Jeremy http://www.liberatefreedom.com/archive/2006/10/15/freedom-%e2%80%94-to-give-our-brightest-deepest-truth/#comment-2102 Fri, 13 Apr 2007 15:35:50 +0000 http://www.liberatefreedom.com/archive/2006/10/15/freedom-%e2%80%94-to-give-our-brightest-deepest-truth/#comment-2102 I'm extremely interested in a number of themes in this article (which by the way, looks awefully similar to the chapter i read last night in Endgame II ;)). A dear friend of mine sent me this link last year, in part because she could see me filling my life up with useless things so i could actualize my freedom to consume. Regretfully, I haven't really read it until today. In retrospect, my consuming was totally an attempt to mask my feelings of confinement at a job i hate, and where i do not contribute positively to the world. Thank god I'm selling all of my shit! In the past I was (in)active in left wing social justice groups, and what you say about freedom and responsibility rings particularly true. There was an airy fairy utopian conception of freedom that would make my stomach churn. Sure, on an intellectual level, many understood that the current system was extremely problematic, but it always bothered me that I doubted any of them would pitch a hand and help me move. it seems trivial, but while at a protest in Quebec City, when shit went down, it was pretty much every person for themselves and i got my assed kicked because i couldn't rely on them. What keeps me optimistic though, is that i know my buddies (who work at factories and build useless shit that we don't need) would have helped me out. They wouldn't have bailed on me. They also hate their jobs and understand the problems of the wage economy on a level that most intellectuals never will. They work and get treated like shit everyday. They also help out their families and friends everyday. When shit goes down, they're there. Far too much emphasis is spent abstracting and intellectualizing about what freedom is and isn't. As far as I'm concerned, freedom and responsiblity combined is just a fancy way of saying i live in a truely healthy community. It's why native conceptions of responsiblity are so friggin cool. There is an understanding that all of these problems with the world are really the same problem - we're not free, and we're not acting responsibly. we have the right to be free and the responsibility to protect our human, animal and plant friends. Folks like my buddies are really good at following rules. Me too. we need to start demanding that the rules we live by explicitly state things like: stop being so fucking wasteful, don't throw your crap on the land. be nice to people. it's really simple, and it's folks like my buddies who will make or break any social change - they don't want to control shit, they just want to go fishing and hang out. I would trade all of the intellectuals in the world for these guys - i'm sure they'll blow a dam when they realize it's fucking with the fish. Thanks for the article, sorry for the long post I’m extremely interested in a number of themes in this article (which by the way, looks awefully similar to the chapter i read last night in Endgame II ;) ).

A dear friend of mine sent me this link last year, in part because she could see me filling my life up with useless things so i could actualize my freedom to consume. Regretfully, I haven’t really read it until today. In retrospect, my consuming was totally an attempt to mask my feelings of confinement at a job i hate, and where i do not contribute positively to the world. Thank god I’m selling all of my shit!

In the past I was (in)active in left wing social justice groups, and what you say about freedom and responsibility rings particularly true. There was an airy fairy utopian conception of freedom that would make my stomach churn. Sure, on an intellectual level, many understood that the current system was extremely problematic, but it always bothered me that I doubted any of them would pitch a hand and help me move. it seems trivial, but while at a protest in Quebec City, when shit went down, it was pretty much every person for themselves and i got my assed kicked because i couldn’t rely on them.

What keeps me optimistic though, is that i know my buddies (who work at factories and build useless shit that we don’t need) would have helped me out. They wouldn’t have bailed on me. They also hate their jobs and understand the problems of the wage economy on a level that most intellectuals never will.

They work and get treated like shit everyday. They also help out their families and friends everyday. When shit goes down, they’re there.

Far too much emphasis is spent abstracting and intellectualizing about what freedom is and isn’t. As far as I’m concerned, freedom and responsiblity combined is just a fancy way of saying i live in a truely healthy community. It’s why native conceptions of responsiblity are so friggin cool. There is an understanding that all of these problems with the world are really the same problem - we’re not free, and we’re not acting responsibly. we have the right to be free and the responsibility to protect our human, animal and plant friends.

Folks like my buddies are really good at following rules. Me too. we need to start demanding that the rules we live by explicitly state things like: stop being so fucking wasteful, don’t throw your crap on the land. be nice to people. it’s really simple, and it’s folks like my buddies who will make or break any social change - they don’t want to control shit, they just want to go fishing and hang out. I would trade all of the intellectuals in the world for these guys - i’m sure they’ll blow a dam when they realize it’s fucking with the fish.

Thanks for the article, sorry for the long post

]]> by: Mike Robinson http://www.liberatefreedom.com/archive/2006/10/15/freedom-%e2%80%94-to-give-our-brightest-deepest-truth/#comment-170 Tue, 31 Oct 2006 18:30:41 +0000 http://www.liberatefreedom.com/archive/2006/10/15/freedom-%e2%80%94-to-give-our-brightest-deepest-truth/#comment-170 Derrick Jensen speaks my language, but not the language of the oppressor. I wonder if the 2 paradigms can understand one another? The Stern report recently issued by one of the world's leading economist, for the first time suggests the same conclusions about global degradation. Maybe this "translation" of reality will penetrate the constrained and ethnocentric worldviews of those who would perpetrate the current dysfunctional system. Liberation is entwined with response ability, and if I have a voice, I must use it. On their doorsteps, not my own. M Derrick Jensen speaks my language, but not the language of the oppressor. I wonder if the 2 paradigms can understand one another? The Stern report recently issued by one of the world’s leading economist, for the first time suggests the same conclusions about global degradation. Maybe this “translation” of reality will penetrate the constrained and ethnocentric worldviews of those who would perpetrate the current dysfunctional system.

Liberation is entwined with response ability, and if I have a voice, I must use it. On their doorsteps, not my own.

M

]]> by: Nunya http://www.liberatefreedom.com/archive/2006/10/15/freedom-%e2%80%94-to-give-our-brightest-deepest-truth/#comment-39 Thu, 19 Oct 2006 09:50:57 +0000 http://www.liberatefreedom.com/archive/2006/10/15/freedom-%e2%80%94-to-give-our-brightest-deepest-truth/#comment-39 The continual plundering of the earth's resources by governments and their corporate masters could not be accomplished if it were not for corporate media outlets who conceal these eco-crimes in the first place. Who are the real enemies besides the obvious ones? ...those who control our "other" environment, the airwaves, print, and various commercial media outlets. The continual plundering of the earth’s resources by governments and their corporate masters could not be accomplished if it were not for corporate media outlets who conceal these eco-crimes in the first place. Who are the real enemies besides the obvious ones? …those who control our “other” environment, the airwaves, print, and various commercial media outlets.

]]> by: auntiegrav http://www.liberatefreedom.com/archive/2006/10/15/freedom-%e2%80%94-to-give-our-brightest-deepest-truth/#comment-36 Wed, 18 Oct 2006 14:42:28 +0000 http://www.liberatefreedom.com/archive/2006/10/15/freedom-%e2%80%94-to-give-our-brightest-deepest-truth/#comment-36 Thanks Derrick, I've tried to put this into words before when talking to people, but it never comes out well. What is the Net Creativity of the human species? The ecosystem? The planet? When we think in terms of being Creators instead of Consumers, the whole talk makes sense. To Arthur, consider that the end result of the tree capitalizing on the nitrogen fixers is a Net Creative one. Responsible capitalism is really just Sustainability (without the current self-deceptions of "sustainable development"). The word 'sustainability' is deceiving, because it implies there is an equal-sum quantity, but Nature only keeps things that result in a positive Net Creativity since there has to be a little bit of insurance against the unpredictable. We have to put back more than we take, or we go extinct. As long as we are sliding down the extinction path, there is no freedom. Thanks Derrick, I’ve tried to put this into words before when talking to people, but it never comes out well.
What is the Net Creativity of the human species? The ecosystem? The planet? When we think in terms of being Creators instead of Consumers, the whole talk makes sense. To Arthur, consider that the end result of the tree capitalizing on the nitrogen fixers is a Net Creative one. Responsible capitalism is really just Sustainability (without the current self-deceptions of “sustainable development”). The word ’sustainability’ is deceiving, because it implies there is an equal-sum quantity, but Nature only keeps things that result in a positive Net Creativity since there has to be a little bit of insurance against the unpredictable. We have to put back more than we take, or we go extinct. As long as we are sliding down the extinction path, there is no freedom.

]]> by: Arthur Henke http://www.liberatefreedom.com/archive/2006/10/15/freedom-%e2%80%94-to-give-our-brightest-deepest-truth/#comment-35 Wed, 18 Oct 2006 06:36:55 +0000 http://www.liberatefreedom.com/archive/2006/10/15/freedom-%e2%80%94-to-give-our-brightest-deepest-truth/#comment-35 WHOOOOAAA!!! "Restrained, responsible capitalism mirrors balanced nature; just look at a tree in a forest as it capitalizes on light and nitrogen fixers." I'm very eager to tear this apart if it's trying to say what I think it is saying. However I don't want to be disrespectful. Could you please elaborate? WHOOOOAAA!!!

“Restrained, responsible capitalism mirrors balanced nature; just look at a tree in a forest as it capitalizes on light and nitrogen fixers.”

I’m very eager to tear this apart if it’s trying to say what I think it is saying. However I don’t want to be disrespectful. Could you please elaborate?

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