Protest Against Homeopathy

Here's an article lifted from the current issue of New Scientist, the popular British newsmagazine. Look at the money that is being wasted on this garbage. Even the National Health is getting sucked in.


AT 10.23 am on 30 January, more than 300 activists in the UK, Canada, Australia and the US will take part in a mass homeopathic "overdose". Skeptics will publicly swallow an entire bottle of homeopathic pills to demonstrate to the public that homeopathic remedies, the product of a scientifically unfounded 18th-century ritual, are simply sugar pills.

Many of the sceptics will swallow 84 pills of arsenicum album, a homeopathic remedy based on arsenic which is used to treat a range of symptoms, including food poisoning and insomnia.

The aim of the "10:23" campaign, led by the Merseyside Skeptics Society, based in Liverpool, UK, is to raise public awareness of just exactly what homeopathy is, and to put pressure on the UK's leading pharmacist, Boots, to remove the remedies from sale.

The campaign is called 10:23 in honour of the Avogadro constant (approximately 6 × 10²³, the number of atoms or molecules in one mole of a substance), of which more later.

That such a protest is even necessary in 2010 is remarkable, but somehow the homeopathic industry has not only survived into the 21st century, but prospered. In the UK alone more than £40 million is spent annually on homeopathic treatments, with £4 million of this being sucked from the National Health Service budget. Yet the basis for homeopathy defies the laws of physics, and high-quality clinical trials have never been able to demonstrate that it works beyond the placebo effect.

The discipline is based on three "laws"; the law of similars, the law of infinitesimals and the law of succession. The law of similars states that something which causes your symptoms will cure your symptoms, so that, for example, as caffeine keeps you awake, it can also be a cure for insomnia. Of course, that makes little sense, since drinking caffeine, well, keeps you awake.

Next is the law of infinitesimals, which claims that diluting a substance makes it more potent. Homeopaths start by diluting one volume of their remedy - arsenic oxide, in the case of arsenicum album - in 99 volumes of distilled water or alcohol to create a "centesimal". They then dilute one volume of the centesimal in 99 volumes of water or alcohol, and so on, up to 30 times. Application of Avogadro's constant tells you that a dose of such a "30C" recipe is vanishingly unlikely to contain even a single molecule of the active ingredient.

The third pillar of homeopathy is the law of succession. This states - and I'm not making this up - that by tapping the liquid in a special way during the dilution process, a memory of the active ingredient is somehow imprinted on it. This explains how water is able to carry a memory of arsenic oxide, but apparently not of the contents of your local sewer network.

The final preparation is generally dropped onto a sugar pill which the patient swallows.

Homeopaths claim that the application of these three laws results in a remedy that, even though it contains not a single molecule of the original ingredient, somehow carries an "energy signature" of it that nobody can measure or detect.

Unsurprisingly, when tested under rigorous scientific conditions, in randomised, controlled and double-blind trials, homeopathic remedies have consistently been shown to be no better than a placebo. Of course, the placebo effect is quite powerful, but it's a bit like justifying building a car without any wheels on the basis that you can still enjoy the comfy leather seats and play with the gear shift.

Last Comment revisited

There is supposed to be a Sufi legend about the difference between heaven and hell. A meal is prepared in hell where a dish of food is placed at the centre of a circle. The guests are seated around the circumference. Each guest takes a long spoon to eat. The spoons are too long to handle and the result is mayhem, food spilled on the floor and very hungry people. Next the same meal is prepared in heaven. There each guest uses his spoon to fed the person next to him/her. The result is a well fed group and general happiness. This story is contained within the following video from the one of the Grundeinkommen (basic income) sites in Switzerland. Audio is in German with subtitles in English.
http://dotsub.com/view/26520150-1acc-4fd0-9acd-169d95c9abe1

Talking the Not-So-New Age Blues

An epic freestyle poem by Antares

---

"What's truly funny is that something momentous is happening, and it's so real that the media can't see it. Here it is, the biggest story of all time, and it goes unreported. If you're continually focused on this and that media event, the latest celebrity scandal, the scattered wars of duality, the deceitful maneuverings of selfish politicians, and the shifting state of a false world economy, you just might miss the greater story. And this greater story is why we are here and what gives our lives meaning."
- Solara, How to Live Large on a Small Planet, 1996

---

Here are a few questions you could ask
(If you haven't already done so ages ago):
How old is the New Age?
Is it really NEW?
Huh? WHAT New Age?
Isn't it always "A New Age" every time a century turns?
How about a stiff shot of HISTORY (while it lasts)?
Because serious rumor in the mystery circles says
History ends when we break through the Veil of Time
And find ourselves (our True Selves, I mean)
Beyond Euclidean Space.


TWENTY TWELVE, the Daykeeper nods, consulting his cosmic
Calendar, the Mayan Tzolk'in. (Turn the world around and you'll
See Linear Time's expiry date: 21 DECEMBER 2012.)
And then what? GALACTIC SYNCHRONIZATION!
We reconnect to the core of the Milky Way,
Though what that means I cannot say.

"Excuse me, Sir, I am begging to differ," declares Mr Thambyvelloo,
"Actually our Tathu Year will be TWENTY FOURTY-THREE."
But Mr Gopala Das interjects: "Nonsense! MY calendar says 5113!"
"FOURTEEN THIRTY-THREE is how WE put it,"
smiles Professor Haji Abuhasbin.
"Nevertheless we conduct business by the International Calendar."
"In other words," Pope Gregory grins, "you mean 2012 A.D."

Doesn't matter WHEN, it's happening NOW!
Though it may not be happening to everybody
At the same time.
Or in the same way.
But as the Beatles say:
"Having been some days in preparation
A splendid time is guaranteed for all."

[A QUICK SCROLL DOWN THE SCREEN
TO SEE HOW LONG IT'S BEEN...]


A New Age might have been in sight
When Pharaoh Akhnaton ruled Egypt,
Thirty-three hundred and seventy-nine years ago
(If historians are correct) in 1370 B.C.
But alas it was not to be,
For the King was poisoned in his palace
By ruthless generals and greedy priests
Before his mission was complete.
Akhnaton's task was to prepare the world
For the arrival of Lord Sananda,
The Cosmic Christ foretold.


And so, fourteen centuries down the line,
Another attempt was made in another land
To restore Love as Law and the Path of Light
Upon this Earth: Palestine under Roman rule,
Where corruption and hypocrisy reigned supreme.
Some middle-class Jews were put to shame
When the Messiah came and castigated
The merchants in the temple.
"Oy vay, don't rock the boat!" they pleaded,
And as their pious petitions went unheeded,
They charged him with subversion and
Crucified him with unholy haste.
And once again all hope of a Golden Age
Was brutally laid waste
(Even if, as some aver, the Crucifiction was
Just a Catholic joke in very poor taste).


However, the Christ Seed had been planted
In the human gene pool - though it must have felt unwanted.

Rewind the tape of time five centuries or so
To ancient China, where "Old Boy" Lao-tze
(Archetypal wild sage of the mountains)
Successfully summed up reality in 81 verses
Called the Tao Te Ching.

While in Greece Pythagoras held the Beam
With his mathemagickal mystery school,
Using tools like the Golden Mean
And hypotenuse rules, even as he danced
To the Music of the Spheres.


In India Queen Maya bore a Prince:
Siddhartha was his name. Instead of fortune and fame
He sought enlightenment and freedom from the game
Of personal karma. As Buddha he taught us the dharma,
That this illusory world is just 4D melodrama.

Rather than beat an ignominious retreat
Sweet Socrates (that old pederast)
Took his hemlock neat (and his die was cast);
To his health we shall drink eternally.


All these heroic individuals have been named
As Keepers of the Sacred Flame
That came through the Sun
From beyond the stars: they were
Beacons of truth and harbingers
Of an approaching New Aeon.

Bold troubadours in post-Arthurian tales
Sang to us about the Quest for the Grail:
How the valiant Knights of the Table Round
Sought the greatest treasure to be found -
That pot of gold at the Rainbow's End -
The descent of the Dove
And the Rule of Love,
As enemies turn to friends.


The most fleeting glimpse was all we were shown
As we drew the sword of intelligence from the stone;
And then the vision of the Holy Grail
Vanished behind a misty veil
Of nightmarish mayhem and massacre.
Rival factions plunged the world into bloody war,
Screaming, "Dominion over others by fang and claw!"

Meanwhile in the Middle East the stage was set
For yet another crusade on this poor planet.
The portals of belief saw heavy traffic.
As images of love turned pornographic.
The Spanish Inquisition was thrown in purely for luck,
To ensure that the status quo didn't come unstuck.
"Nine Hells have arrived," Aztec priests cried,
"Exactly as Quetzalcoatl prophesied."

Came the Renaissance, a brilliant flash
Of inspiration, giving rise to a dream
Of a world reborn through Alchemy, Science and Art.
The Word now passed from ear to eye
As scriptures were read instead of heard.
The past age of spiritual darkness and doubt
Gave way to Copernicus, Bruno, and Galileo -
Who advocated logic, reason and laboratory testing
As the most reliable method of finding out
What Life on Earth was all about.


Angels and demons filled the atmosphere,
And spoke to Michel Nostradamus the famous seer.
They told him of the long dark night
Of humanity's soul in its headlong flight
Towards the final Apocalypse.

Mountebanks and sorcerers, mystery men and mages,
Took their turn upon the stage of history:
Cagliostro and Saint-Germain,
Eliphaz Levi, Messrs Kelly and Dee
Held sway in the courts of Europe,
Hinting of a New Jerusalem and the
Rebuilding of Solomon's Temple.

Christian Rosenkreutz published the Rosicrucian Manifesto,
Heralding the advent of Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality;
While in 1776 Adam Weishaupt of Ingolstadt
Founded the Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria -
Whose illustrious members, apparently,
Included the likes of George Washington, Tom Jefferson,
And Ben Franklin - progenitors of the American Dream
Of Novus Ordo Seclorum - a New World Order, no less:
A New World for a New Age -
Governed by a global Freemasonry!


Another page turns in the Book of Changes:
America the Dream goes to Hollywood,
Gets hijacked and featured in National Geographic,
Serialized in Reader's Digest;
And now the movie rights are owned by Walt Disney,
While the Bill of Rights waits at the Gates
of Heaven.

In Persia the Bab was born: and in May 1844 proclaimed
The imminent approach of the Imam Mahdi,
Ultimate prophet of God - but the Shah had him shot
For disrespect towards Worldly Authority.
Then his followers established the Baha'i movement,
Which advocates world government on a Unified Earth,
And a new age of Universal Justice.

Newton, Darwin, and Faraday were an ad agency for
Progress through Science: understand how the universe works
And a New Industrial Age begins.
It all started with a Big Bang and everything since
Has been winding down like a clockspring.


At the height of our collective infatuation
With Machines and Automation,
Blavatsky, Leadbeater, and Olcott - NOT your typical firm of
Chartered Accountants - went to India and Tibet where they met
Ascended Masters of the Trans-Himalayan Brotherhood,
And were assigned the task of introducing
Ancient wisdom to the modern world.
Proclaim the advent of a New Aeon, they were told,
And groom Jiddhu Krishnamurti for the role
Of planetary savior.


Their Theosophical Society was inaugurated
In 1875 and found an eager following in the West,
While in the East the Sun still rose
And shone upon the sleeping millions.

Secret Societies sprouted like mushrooms
In the moldy moral ground of Victorian times, and
Ritual magic enjoyed a fairly brisk trade.
Messages from the Spirit World
And all varieties of psychic phenomena
Caught the fancy of bored housewives and
Wayward intellectuals.


The Who's Who of arcane knowledge and esoteric lore
Included names like W.B. Yeats and Claude Debussy,
Victor Hugo and Conan Doyle, Bulwer-Lytton and Liddell Mathers,
Aleister Crowley, the Marquis de Sade, and many more.
"Practitioners of Evil, Satanists, Lucifer's Friends, and
The Antichrist" were epithets flung at some of these pioneers.
But the tide of evolution was rising fast:
It spawned the glamorous Order of the Golden Dawn
And magickal offshoots like the O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis) and
Argenteum Astrum (the Silver Star).


Some followed Rudolf Steiner into Anthroposophy,
And joined the tug-of-war between Ahura Mazda and Ahriman.
Others were captivated by G.I. Gurdjieff and his school
Of Modified Sufi Dance, but found themselves bewildered
By his Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson: a rambunctious and
Somewhat Rabelaisian dissection of the human experiment
Seen through the extraterrestrial eyes of a former
Colonial Administrator of Earth.


Adolf Hitler and Company had their ill-fated Third Reich:
Hoping to govern the world by high-tech voodoo and
A fanatic belief in Aryan supremacy.
But the Fourth Reich (propounded by Wilhelm,
Psychoanalyst and discoverer of Orgone energy
Who authored Function of the Orgasm)
Might have been a lot more fun
If Dr Reich hadn't been hounded out of Europe
By his erstwhile colleagues in the psychiatric profession,
And finally assassinated in a US prison by
What he called the HIGs - Hoodlums In Government.


(We're not talking ancient history here:
This happened in the 1950s!)

Anyhow Reich tried to alert the US Air Force
To the suspicious activity of UFOs - only to be subjected
To intense harassment by the FBI and the MIB
Who, for some reason, wanted to see Reich discredited or dead.
In retrospect, it appears that Reich was perceived
As a significant threat to Dwight D. Eisenhower's covert program
Of "scientific collaboration" with the Zeta Reticulan Greys -
A technically advanced but spiritually retarded race,
Desperately seeking a cure for terminal infertility
Before their species became extinct.


Which brings us to the era of Star Trek, Star Wars,
Close Encounters, ET, X-Files and Virtual Reality.
Also crystal gazing, holistic healing,
Wheeling and dealing gurus,
Group meditations, Earth activations,
Celestine Prophecies and TM levitation,
Swift mutations and transmutation...
Hey, are there any experts left with reputations?
When there are more Channels than TV sets,
You find more confusion than the United Nations.
What you believe is what you get;
Anything goes these days.. who knows?
Anything can happen yet!


"Oh, the Sirians will save us!" some Brethren shout.
"No, only Jesus Christ can!" the Born-Again spout.
Others laugh: "It's the Pleiadian Plan - a total rout!"
"Save our streams before there are no more trout!"
The angelic anglers scream.
So is the New Age just a dream
From which Old Age awakens
With a terrible hangover?

Wait and see, nothing will change -
That's what the so-called Realist thinks.
Life will always be unfair,
You gotta be quick and grab a chair
(Let the rest drop dead, it's their affair!)
Money, not love, makes the world go round -
Excuse me, can I convert my ringgit to pounds? -
Gotta ride that crazy merry-go-round
Till you're six feet underground.
Let me ask you: is there any proof at hand
That God can also be a Man?
You say every woman is the Goddess,
But all I care about is the size of her bodice.
And I wanna know just how many Harmonica Virgins
Blew their minds at Harmonic Convergence!


Don't talk to me about Tectonic Plates,
Electromagnetic Grids, Pole Shifts, Zionist Plots,
Precessioning Equinoxes, Photon Belts, and
Why your paternal grandma was a Celt.
Do you wanna know when I last cried?
It was the day my pet canary died.

Well, well, well, what have we here?
Keep your mind and heart open
And have no fear.
The worst that could happen is...
NOTHING.


What the New Age really means is a Quantum Leap -
From Global Village to Local Galaxy at the sound of a beep.
Better get ready or go back to sleep...
Carry on, Mr Accountant,
Count your sheep.

[June 1996]

First published in the Magick River blog 2 August 2009.

THE MEANING OF WHAT IS HAPPENING IN GREECE TODAY:

Well unfortunately it seems like it all comes down to individual initiative agains, and I'm totally willing to put my foot foward here. I don't know if this will fly, of if peoplehave lost all interest in this board, but here goes. The following is reposted from Molly's Blog, and it may or may not get replies here. As I say below, these are preliminay thoughts, doubtless to be modified by events.

.............................

INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-GREECE:
RANDOM THOUGHTS ON THE INSURRECTION IN GREECE:
Sooner or later you have to give your own opinion. Molly is "semi-familiar" with Greece, having visited the country a few years back, having a slight acquaintance with the language, and having followed events in that country for some years. I do not claim to be an "expert", and neither do I claim any precognition as to how events will play out in that country, with its complicated politics and with the inability of other countries to intervene at this time. All these caveats, however, don't say that one can't apply common sense to what is happening in Greece now, particularly insofar as it has "world importance" outside of the borders of Hellas- which indeed it does. Here are a few of my preliminary thoughts. Further developments may prove these right or wrong.
NEW FORMS OF REBELLION:
What is unique about the present rebellion in Greece, as compared to other previous uprisings in Europe, is the role of present technology in its development. After the original police murder the first protests were brought together within hours via such things as text messages. people gathered to protest without any organization that claimed to give out the call. This is, of course, very anarchistic, but what it does, in reality, is merely compress the "time frame" that has been evidenced in previous rebellions across the world. All previous revolutions have been the work of ordinary, non-aligned people rather than the work of conscious revolutionary organizations. Even the Russian Revolutions were, at first, a totally spontaneous uprising. The October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power depended on their alliances with other forces such as the Left SRs and the anarchists, and this "revolution" would be better described by the term "coup d'etat" rather than "revolution". The actual "revolution" that the Communists set about forthwith to destroy was being made in the factories, the regiments and the rural estates of Russia by the people themselves. The "signals" were carried more by foot than by any other method. Trains and telegraphs, of course, spread the rebellion faster than word of mouth could, but the speed was still much slower than it is today.

This has meaning which has to be taken account of. The immediate success of the Greek rebels has, perhaps, given them an illusion of effectiveness that isn't justified by subsequent events. The best illustration of this is the call for an international day of solidarity on the 20th of this month. this was given with a very short notice. The illusion was that if, protests could be organized in Greece within hours that they could be similarly spread internationally within a day. The call was responded to, but, outside of Germany and France, it gathered few numbers and those only from the anarchist activist "scene".

The whole point is that the apparent success of the rebellion in Greece is predicated on a technology that has its limitations. It allows immediacy, but it also fosters the illusion that considered thought is unnecessary, and allows the participants to imagine that their own situation is the same as others. These sort of illusions can be forgiven when radical politics is a matter of "game-playing". they are unforgivable in situations where real goals are at stake.
THE NEW AND THE OLD:
The rebellion in Greece is already passing into history, and it will be compared to other such events in European history in the past half century. How does it compare to such events as the French uprising of 1968, Solidarnosc in Poland in 1980-81 and the Romanian Revolution of 1989. In one sense it is best equivalent to the latter. The first two had positive programs ie an idea of what was to replace the old order. The latter, much more violent than the events in Greece today, was also an inchoate uprising with no clear goals, and, of course, it was taken advantage of by those who had such goals. Nowadays in Greece those who would want to use the rebellion as a stepping stone to power, the socialists and the communists, have, like in France in 1968 been appalled by what has been unleashed. They are presently doing their best to restrain the movement, and have pretty much abandoned their own power seeking goals. The sheer persistence of the movement has astonished them and also frightened them. it has escaped their control.

The closest equivalent in modern history to what is happening in Greece today is France in 1968. The differences are instructive. In Poland in 1980-81 the rebellion was a trade union one, by definition a rebellion of the average person, of the population as a whole. In France in 1968 the rebellion was triggered by students, as a caste separate from the general population. Yet, the working class joined in, inspired by the goal of "self-management". Today in Greece this goal has barely been articulated. No doubt the phrase has been debased in the past few decades. It is presently one of the ideological shibboleths of those who have absolutely no intention of ever implementing it in reality, of social democrats, of Trotskyists, of communists and even of the most vicious and dictatorial of all- the Maoists. All of them use it as a slogan, but none of them mean it. They all try and confuse the matter, as the present Caudillo in Venezuela does, by pretending that control by state bureaucrats is the same as that of control by the workers themselves in an enterprise. No...it is fucking not, and that is obvious !!!!

Yet, no matter how long the young people in Greece can "hold out" and continue with their protests they cannot succeed unless the general population joins in. Quite unfortunately the present movement in Greece is very much driven by disgust with the present government, and, unlike France in 1968, there are few indications of a positive idea of an alternative. This will condemn the movement to eventual defeat, no matter how heroic it may be. This is where the movement fails- its lack of a program.
THE NEED FOR ORGANIZATION:
As I have said "revolutionaries don't create revolutions". Such events are far beyond the control of sects and parties. They happen when a population is really and truly fed up with an intolerable situation. What "revolutionaries" (amongst whom Molly does not count as belonging) can do, however, is to provide a clear idea of "what to do" to the people during such times as the people themselves rebel. This is predicated on a long period of organization before such uprisings and clear and careful thought as to the perennial question of "what is to be done". It also depends on a clear and non-rhetorical idea of what is possible or not in a given situation and time. It also depends on recognition that you may get half-way there and be much further ahead than if you go for an end goal that is unachievable.

In Greece today there are organizations that have presented something of a "final goal" ie the anarchosyndicalist ESE and the Greek platformists. What they have failed to do is present anything like a way in which movements can be advanced towards such final goals and how temporary gains can be stabilized even if they fall short of the final goal. They have also, and this is no fault of their own, considered how rebellions of "triggers" such as the students can be generalized into the full gun of a revolution. This is hardly the task of small groups, such as anarchists outside of Spain are today. It is, however, something to think about for the future. Hopefully the present events in Greece will lead to a deepening of the anarchist understanding in that country and a growth of those anarchist organizations that can actually point to a realistic way forward. At the present time Greece is in the vanguard of the struggle for a libertarian society. What is needed is time, organization and clear thinking.

No doubt the political horizons of many participants in the protests in Greece today hardly go beyond putting handcuffs on Greece's admittedly brutal police or, at best, forcing the conservative government to be a little less brutal in its policies. Having seen the Greek riot squads marched up and down streets uselessly Molly has little respect for their "size" as compared to the average Canadian cop, but I'm sure that they make up what they lack in stature by sheer meanness if they can corner an isolated victim- but I also have to admit that they aren't great at maintaining formation when it really matters.I sit in wonder as one or two cops chase a group of rioters down a street. Stupid, stupid. stupid. It's a tribute to the ineffectiveness of the rioters that more don't get taken down. But these, of course, are sheerly military comments. Politics are what counts. In this our Greek comrades are both brilliant and deficient. Hopefully we can learn from them, and they will learn from what they are doing now. That is for the future.
More thoughts later as the situation develops.

RISE OH LAZARUS:

Larry Gambone, of the Porkupine Blog, has suggested over at Molly's Blog that we resurrect this forum to discuss the recent events in Greece. How come ? Well because the present situation in Greece happens to be the most important event in terms of the anarchist project in decades. It shows the immense creativity of a people in rebellion and also the limitations of a totally spontaneous rebellion. The events in Greece may be a forerunner of other rebellions in many other countries as the present economic crisis takes hold. many sources in the mass media are of precisely this opinion.

So..."what should be done ?". What can be done ? Is the anarchist project doomed to be the tool of more organized political forces during the coming crisis ? If not, what should we do ? What should we advocate ? Is it time to go for the golden horseshoe or should we aim for more limited goals ? What are our strengths and our weaknesses ? Hey, the questions are endless. What do you think ? Post your opinions here, either as comments or as new article.

Rise up oh Lazarus and speak once more !!!!

March for Sex Workers' Rights

An injury to one is an injury to all. We may not, through good or bad fortune, work the same trade as our sisters and brothers, but we share the same world, the same humanity, and face the same systems, which push violence and robbery in the name of morality and justice. There were about 100 of us marching in DC. I'm not sure how many marched elsewhere.

See the Sex Workers' Outreach Project and DC Indymedia here. I don't have any photos today, but hopefully other people can provide their photos and stories.

P.S. More from DC Indymedia here.

P.P.S. And more from DC Indymedia. Feel free to describe other events in the comments.

Grounds Above All

Charles Johnson, Roderick Long, and others have defended thick libertarianism, which embraces considerations above and beyond the non-aggression principle. Among other considerations, they discuss grounds thickness.

Charles Johnson describes grounds thickness in negative terms:

Some bundles might be consistent with the non-aggression principle, but might undermine or contradict the deeper reasons that justify libertarian principles in the first place. Here it would be claimed that the you could accept libertarianism without the thicker bundle consistently, but that you couldn’t do so reasonably, because rejecting the bundle means rejecting the grounds for your libertarianism. Call this “grounds thickness.”

I do not believe that Charles Johnson or Roderick Long go far enough. In Charles Johnson’s conception, libertarianism is the non-aggression principle, different grounds can justify the non-aggression principle, and other grounds can contradict or undermine the non-aggression principle.

I think we need to focus on anhierarchism at least as much as libertarianism. Anhierarchism is a set of grounds, including personal growth, personal expression, voluntary relationships and egalitarian relationships. All four of these depend on each other, so it is impossible to separate these into distinct, self-contained grounds. We may take the first two for granted, but it is clear that involuntary relationships are inegalitarian ones, and inegalitarian ones take away the voluntary choices of those who are excluded from society or subordinated to others in society.

As a personal note, I had been a left-Marxist before turning to syndicalism and mutualist anarchism. I had embraced unlibertarian means in order to achieve anhierarchist ends. Others, including some classical anarchists, have embraced libertarian means, on the whole, in order to achieve hierarchical ends. Proudhon favored anhierarchism among Frenchmen, but, as quoted by Jenny d’Herricourt, also the subordination -even subjection- of Frenchwomen to Frenchmen.

Why do I focus on anhierarchism instead of libertarianism?

First, there is a natural connection between anhierarchical ends and libertarian means. The separation is arbitrary and borders on self-deception. (I say this as someone who once embraced state-socialist means for anhierarchical ends - who once deceived herself.)

Second, our ends are stable. They are not unchangeable, but they tend to endure unchanged through changing circumstances, changing self-understandings, and changing worldviews. Our means are not. We may question ourselves and each other. Our means are far more amenable to rational discussion than our ends can ever be.

Discourse among people who share common ends can be fertile; discourse among people who have opposing ends is all but sterile. When the defenders of hierarchy claim to support libertarianism, the opponents of hierarchy are less likely to look into libertarianism and more likely to fall for state-socialist arguments. I know...

The Olympics are Finally Over

Here are a few reflections on the Beijing Olympics. Across the political spectrum many bloggers, mainstream commentators, and even late night television comedians have (to their great credit) been blunt in their condemnation of this farce. I hope there is a special circle within the Inferno for the International Olympic Committee. We've all heard the baloney about the how the games would help to improve China's record on civil liberties ... dream on. The Boston Globe put it this way:

"The Games have certainly had a lasting effect on one part of Chinese society - the 1.5 million men, women, and children expelled from their homes in Beijing to make room for the construction of Olympic facilities and urban beautification projects. To clear them out, the Geneva-based Center on Housing Rights and Evictions found, Chinese authorities resorted to "harassment, repression, imprisonment, and even violence." Demolitions and evictions frequently occurred without due process. Many dispossessed residents were not compensated; those who were usually received a fraction of the amount needed to make them whole."

"Beijing skies are so polluted that Chinese authorities are planning emergency measures for the Olympics. For example, protesters will now only be run over with hybrid tanks."
Jay Leno

The Olympics are over. At least we won't have to look at those ugly "cute" avatars that Google has attached to its search engine page. Little pictures of bunnies and ponies will not hide the fact the Beijing Olympics was a propaganda vehicle for a totalitarian government. Check About.com for more Beijing jokes. The games may be history but the dictatorship soldiers on. One local note: I have yet to see much in the way of criticism from Regina's local paper the "Leader Post" on the Beijing Olympics. Well what would you expect from a paper where a former editor and sports writer, years ago, remarked that "legality equals morality"?

"China has announced that during the Olympics, protesters will be allowed to assemble in designated protest areas. Yeah. Or, as they're commonly called in China, jails."
Conan O'Brien

Here is Amnesty International's summary of the so-called improvements in human rights in China. How about jailing an elderly woman who tried to make use of the official "protest" sites near Beijing or an activist like Ye Guozhu who was held in police custody during the Olympics after already completing a four-year prison sentence in connection with his attempts to draw public attention to alleged forced evictions in Beijing due to Olympics-related construction? Amnesty received reliable reports that police beat him with electroshock batons before his trial and he was subjected to further beatings in prison. AI's branch in Australia had this to say:

China, which has more Internet users than any other country, has the most extensive, technologically sophisticated and broad-reaching Internet filtering system in the world.

And the major overseas Internet companies operating in China – Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google - have, in one way or another, facilitated or colluded with the Government’s censorship practices.

Yahoo! has given authorities confidential information about its users; Microsoft admitted shutting down a blog because of a Government request; and Google has launched a censored Chinese version of its international search engine. (I've tried various "bounce" tests using the Chinese version of Google and this and other blogs to see if these can be reached from inside the "Great Firewall". It's an "on again, off again" experience. During the last two weeks there was some improvements though I don't expect this to last).

Policies ignored

All three companies have shown a disregard for some of their own policies. They made promises to themselves, their employees, their customers and their investors; it is questionable as to whether they are upholding these promises in China’s environment of huge profits and Government requests.

In defending their actions in China; Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google say they’re obliged to comply with local law. And they argue although it’s not an ideal situation, their presence in China has a positive influence. They say even if they weren’t operating in China there would still be censorship, and that censored information is better than no information.

Sanctioning censorship

But China has had the Internet for more than a decade, which means these companies can no longer be considered to be helping bring a new technology to China. Instead, they are trying to gain an increasing share of a rapidly growing market, with the knowledge that it will expand without or without them.

Effectively their actions are facilitating and sanctioning censorship rather than challenging it.

Read more about Yahoo!, the first major foreign Internet company to enter the Chinese market, Microsoft, which has the best access to the upper echelons of the Chinese Government, and Google, which set up the Chinese version of its search engine relatively recently.

Gruesome Murder on Canadian Greyhound

Yet another story from the peaceable kingdom. Most of the world knows about this one by now judging from the results on google. The allegations and theories are flowing fast and furious. The loony was a "schizophrenic" as if that tells us ANYTHING. Sort of like saying the "nut was a nut". One site claims that the sleazy hollywood movie, a remake of an old TV show called "Zorro" , shown on the bus caused the problem. Something about a villain keeping somebody's head in a jar. That one's probably no worse then some of them. Apparently the scumbag did have a history of paranoia like going off on bus trips to "buy land" even though he had no money. The only thing he said, after appearing in court for an arraignment, was to the judge "Please Kill Me". Well he'll probably get something worse than death in some "mental health" facility though I doubt this will be any consolation to Tim McLean's family and friends. Below the picture is an item I posted on my own blog.

>><<

The general level of violence in western Canada has always been higher than the national average but this story still seems unbelievable. Last Wednesday night near Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, on a greyhound bus, one of the passengers a 22 year old was murdered apparently for no reason. Tim McLean was on his way home to Winnipeg. He was listening to music and sleeping in his seat when he was stabbed to death and then decapitated by Vince Weignuang Li. Both originated from Edmonton. The mass media is peddling this story as the latest "hot" item and the sickening details are now available to anyone capable of using a search engine. There are now eighteen facebook groups set up for the victim. One of these has seventy-two thousand members. News agencies and comment trails are producing predictable results. The usual mainstream stuff includes ghoulish interviews with passengers along the lines of "how did it feel". Some normal people are calling for more policing of passengers, metal detectors on buses (maybe a good idea) while others make reasonable observations about the costs associated with an airport style "security state". This would be difficult ... travelling on the bus is an informal business. The "dog" stops at many small towns, most without a bus depot ... sometimes it's just a gasoline station or a wider spot along a highway. Passengers tend to be working class people, students and the young. The relative low cost of bus travel makes this the only affordable means for many of these people. The bus drivers union wants greater security but admits the costs associated with this would be resisted by the companies. Using cameras on buses has been suggested but, as in the case with England where video surveillance is at Orwellian levels, there is really no proof this would be helpful. A few people have suggested putting guards on buses. It used to be common practice to have conductors on urban transit buses. Simply having someone walking around the bus, selling tickets, making sure that passengers were on safely, etc was considered a normal procedure in the past! When I travelled in the UK in the nineteen sixties the common sense view was still that the driver did nothing other than control the bus!! The conductor signalled when to stop/start and otherwise looked after things. The expense of a "permanent" passenger, possibly armed, on interurban schedules shouldn't be that much. And just the suspicion that there is some "big guy" at the back of the bus with a nine millimetre under his coat might be a restraining factor on the nutbars who seem to be attracted to this vulnerable form of transport. The cops wouldn't like this very much since they want to maintain their monopoly on "deadly force". What was interesting was the relative common sense displayed by passengers, the driver and a passing truck driver who stopped to help. Passengers ran off the bus and despite their fear were able to help the two professional drivers keep the loony-tune locked inside the bus until the police showed up. The murderer tried to take off with the bus but the driver managed to disable the engine (mounted in the rear fortunately). Quick thinking.

>><<

Tributes Coming in for Construction Worker ... Dead at Fifteen Years

This story doesn't have much direct bearing on our current "topic" of discussion ... the general failure of C of A. But tales from everyday life might help us to see more clearly what is wrong with this world and perhaps " speak peace unto" those who claim a desire to improve things. Anyway it's hard to forget something as awful as the construction site accident that killed Andrew James at Stony Mountain, Manitoba, Canada. This is a small community north of the provincial capital of Manitoba which is known throughout the Great White North for its single industry ... a jail! James was buried under a truckload of asphalt which came down from a truck where the load wasn't secured correctly to restrict the flow. The teenager had just turned fifteen a week before the accident. Manitoba labour laws forbid anyone under sixteen working on construction sites. Most industrial accidents involve younger workers who lack the skill to avoid injury. I've known younger labourers who have been in some near misses. As one of them told me this is the reason older workers seem to be kind of slackass at times ... you know "the four city workers watching one guy shoveling" story. Back in the sixties my first job involved working for the city of Regina waterworks department. On payday afternoons our foreman and crew of two used to spend the afternoon in the Romanian club redistributing our ill gotten gains for the greater glory of Molsons and Carlings breweries. BUT we were still one of the most productive crews on the payroll! Let's hear it for self-management/autogestion! Anyway there's at least a hundred listings under Google on this evil story. Here's one more from the Globe and Mail.


STONY MOUNTAIN, Man. — Tributes began flowing Saturday for a 15-year-old boy killed when he was buried under searing-hot asphalt on a job site the day before.

About 125 people had joined a tribute page dedicated to Andrew James on Facebook, a social networking website.

“I love you baby brother. I will see you again one day,” wrote his sister, Sabrina Ellison.

“He cared for everyone and was always there to lend a hand for anyone,” wrote Brittany Sulyma.

Other people wrote of the teen's strong work ethic and his ability to make people laugh. The page mentioned how James “loved the outdoors, especially camping with his papa.”

“You touched many lives, worked hard, and were a friend to many,” wrote his aunt, Kim Ellison. “We love you Andrew, and will miss you.”

James, who was too young to work on construction jobs under Manitoba labour laws, was part of a paving crew working on a parking lot in the Winnipeg bedroom community of Stony Mountain.

“I believe [the truck] dumped off way too much asphalt unexpectedly,” said Stony Mountain fire Chief Wallace Drysdale.

“I was one of the first members on scene and we just saw the hair sticking out of this individual. It was extremely hot asphalt. Our crews, when we were digging out, had to shuttle different members in and out in about four- or five-minute intervals because our feet were burning.”

WHY ANARCHIST PROJECTS FAIL/PART 2-THE GENERATIONAL QUESTION:

The following is part 2 of 'Why Anarchist Projects Fail', copied from Molly's Blog. One hopes that it will not elicit defensive reactions from childish American Maoists as part 1 did.But who knows. Silly people such as that are not the real target that I intend to insult. They have condemned themselves to irrelevance already by their choice of cult, and I am much more interested in getting under the skin of people who are a "real threat" to the development of a realistic anarchism. So onwards..
........................

ANARCHIST THEORY;
WHY ANARCHIST PROJECTS FAIL PART 2/THE GENERATIONAL PROBLEM:
The medieval woodcut on the left by Cornelis Anthonisz depicts the 10 stages of life, from infancy to death. On the left a baby lies in a bed. On the right a man sits with his legs dangling over the grave. Each stage of life is accompanied by a representative animal. The symbolism is thought provoking, and we should examine the question of "generations" in the anarchist movement today in relation to "why anarchist projects fail". This is the second instalment in the series of "why anarchist projects fail".
...........................
To begin with there are very few countries in the world where there is a living continuity of generations in terms of anarchism. We are hardly in the situation of pre-Civil War Spain where families such as the Urales family passed their anarchism on from generation to generation. The conditions of modern totalitarianism, either fascist or communist, basically exterminated such families. In my own family I had a grand-uncle who fought with Nestor Makhno, but he was killed by the Nazis in his "refuge" of Germany after fleeing the Soviets(his family language of a mixture of French/German/Russian persuaded him that Germany was a good place to go to-silly guy). My mother became an anarchist in her old age after both studying Russian and reading Kropotkin. But still...my basic upbringing was left social democrat, as per the politics of my Irish father.This sort of upbringing made it actually quite easy to transit to the type of gradualist anarchism I hold to today.

Only France and Italy preserve the real continuity of anarchist generations, unaffected by mass extermination. When I visited Spain and the offices of the CNT in Barcelona there was a collection of quite elderly men in the "meeting room" in one section. The editor of Solidaridad Obrero was somewhat younger than me, and we tried to communicate through our mutually bad French. What I noticed was an absence of "middle-aged people" on the premises. The headquarters of the CGT in Barcelona was a little bit better, with a better mix of generations- but not by much. The youth of the staff was quite obvious. Well, and good. What does this mean, especially in the situation of most of the world where anarchists are overwhelmingly young, as in Canada.

Anarchism is in the throes of a revival, and it is to be expected that most of its adherents will be quite young. This has both its good points and its bad points. Let's travel through them.
..................................
THE SPRINGTIME OF ANARCHY:
People generally come to anarchism when they are quite young. This may be as little as 13 years. It may be as late as graduate school. The complaint that the vast majority of people who adopt anarchism as a younger age are not anarchist in a few years is actually quite ancient. Emma Goldman commented on it almost a century ago, and she waved it away (as she waved away so many things in her life-yes, Molly has never liked Goldman) with the snappy one-liner that "we have had the best of them". Insofar as this goes it is true, but it obscures many things.

When people first come to anarchism they usually infused with "the light of conversion". Their enthusiasm is boundless, but so are their expectations. They far too often imagine that all they have to do is present "the idea" , and huge numbers of people will flock to the banner. When this, inevitably, doesn't happen they are left with stark choices. One of them is to adopt a rational long-term view of the anarchist project. A small minority-the best- take up this option. They may adopt any number of long term strategies. One of the most popular today is the "platformist" option. Another is to simply wipe the whole commitment off their memory and go on to different things. This is the option of the vast majority of ex-anarchists. Their choice may indeed be rational, especially if they have seen the worst of the anarchist movement close up. A third, the worst option, is to take their emotional frustration as a guide to action and enter into what Molly calls "kindergarten terrorism" under the false assumption that more militant actions will impel the "masses" that initially rejected them to join them. A pretty silly delusion actually, as the vast majority of such wanna-be terrorists usually pick ideological positions that are rock solid guaranteed top be rejected by the ordinary person.

Whether it be the end of civilization or neo-Maoist nostalgia in terms of crime "in the name of" racial minorities the end result is the same. The ordinary person sees them as one more "urban nuisance", and applauds the police actions against them with the same emotions that they applaud city actions against other pests such as mosquitoes. The comparison is quite apt as the actions of such groups are on the level of "increased insect populations", not the "great threat to the rulers" that they imagine.

It is hardly surprising that "student anarchists" will rethink their ideological position after a few years. Their life situation is, of course, inherently unstable. For the majority it lasts 4 years, and then they go on to what is sadly called "reality". In developed countries the majority of young people attend some sort of "institution of higher learning", whether it be university or a technical college. It is there where they first meet anarchism, but it is an anarchism that is specific to their circumstances. It is rootless and ahistorical, lacking any long term perspective. It imagines great things can be accomplished in a tiny bit of time. Some will go on from this apprenticeship into the opportunities offered by the "established left" after their graduation. Insofar as they "remain anarchists" they will eternally compromise their original ideals.

Sometimes they will lie about such compromise and claim that they haven't changed their opinions at all. This tactic, traditionally associated with (ex)Trotskyists, depends upon the modern illusion that anarchism is no different from fashionable leftism. If Molly were to give a "corrective" to this I would suggest that every would-be "anarchist" adopt at least ONE position that is at variance with the leftist subculture and defend it vigorously. The actual content doesn't matter. The reaction of the leftists will be the education that is needed. Adopting such a position would provide a bridge to maintaining anarchist opinions in the world that faces a person "after graduation", if for no other reason that it would provide training in "being contrary".
THE HIGH NOON OF ANARCHISM:
As I said above there are very few "middle-aged" people active in anarchism in most countries today. This may be understandable as people enter their reproductive and career-building stage of life. Nobody who hasn't had children can appreciate the great, humongous time-sucking commitment that this requires. To be quite frank it is entirely understandable-and admirable in Molly's view- that the preservation of one's genetic heritage should take precedence over any political ideology, anarchism included. The alternative is a cancerous growth of belief that would lead to immense suffering, as the disastrous career of murderous Marxism has proven in the last century.

Still, it is sad that so few of our younger recruits manage to carry their anarchism on into their further life- beyond that they decide to extend their adolescence into middle age (cheered on by a tiny minority of evil people ensconced in the anarchist movement who encourage such actions for profit-you know the type). THIS is a failing that a mature anarchism will eventually correct. Whether it be by the gradual building of anarchosyndicalist unions that offer people an opportunity to carry their anarchism forward into the real world- something that is being done as we speak. Whether it be by the formulation of long term plans such as the platformists are trying to do today. Whether it be by the gradual growth of other anarchist alternatives that aim for long term growth. All these things come together, and they are considerations that anarchists should think about if they are not enraptured with the illusion of "revolution" or, worse, simply sticking their finger up the nose of ordinary people as certain primitivist and "post-leftist" sectarians do.
THE AUTUMN OF ANARCHY:
We all eventually reach this point, and many who first came to anarchism in the late 60s/early 70s, have done so already. Such is Molly's sad situation. As such she gets to observe such atrocities as "presumed elders" of the anarchist movement who have been alive less than the time that she has been active advocating the continuation of silly, self destructive tactics that, incidentally, will rebound to the financial benefit of the advocates. The advantage of age is to be able to cynically recognize crooks because one has seen their like dozens of times before. The disadvantage is that we get stuck in the thought patterns of our youth. Memory is not thought. It may be an advantage to recognize patterns that were great and gross failures before, and the same "justifications" that are offered for them today which are the same as those offered years ago. The example of "kindergarten terrorism" was mentioned before.

What is sad is that there is little "opportunity" offered for older people in anarchism today. Most older anarchists, when retirement finally comes about, immerse themselves in the struggles of ordinary people that have little connection to anarchism. In some ways this is a great thing, as they carry the struggle into exactly where it should be, amongst people that younger anarchists are often too snotty to approach. The gradual growth of anarchism means that there will be an increasing number of such people who will spread the anarchist idea in a much more efficient way than flashy demonstrations can. But it is still sad that there is so little interchange between this older generation-who now exist in greater numbers than they did when I first became an anarchist-and the younger people who come to anarchism imagining that it was invented with punk rock.

So what does this mean in terms of "why anarchist projects fail" ? The limitations of projects initiated by younger people whose life situations are inherently unstable should be obvious. To make them survive the "graduation" of their founders requires exquisite planning that often-usually- is not possible. The limitations of anarchism in "middle-age" are also obvious, and they will only be overcome by gradual growth, something that younger people don't see as necessary. As to older anarchists one may say that they should very much carry on as they do now, but perhaps they should make a greater effort to reach out to (and if necessary argue with) younger anarchists who are in need of their experience.
Labels: anarchism, anarchist theory, why anarchist projects fail