Concerned Citizen

To add to da Vinci's wisdom here— and to simply “do anything” is not enough either... We need to discriminate between priorities of action; given the combined severity and urgency of problems we face and fact that time and energy is always in short supply. We also have to be clear on "why" we're doing things, and the true intent behind our actions.  A lot of activism becomes just about “feeling better” and “being social”, or to serve some aspect of identity as an "activist" that’s "doing something/anything”. It becomes more about meeting our psychological needs, than about genuinely, intellectually and strategically wanting to solve the problems of society. Alternatively, we also can't cerebrally live in “theoretical land” forever either, with our proposed visionary models we think society should adopt, perfecting where every nut and bolt will go in an idealized system. We have to be pragmatic too, in facing the here and now cultural and institutio

When Palestinians cry “Where is the World?” they’re met with the dark reality that there is no sane, functioning collective “system” in place on Earth. The world is a "war system" which devalues everything in terms of profitability, run by financially captured superpowers who answer to no one. Historically people will look back and say WHAT WERE YOU DOING during that historic genocide and those last decades of an inhabitable Earth?  What’s required is that we put aside our differences to organize on a large enough scale to change the system. We need to recapture power of political decision making processes from the hands of private corporations and political lobbies, so we can change the core functions of the system, so WE can make the rules, and redesign society based on scientific principles and cooperation to meet human need. 

Everything has been commodified under Market Society, devaluing all we hold dear. People have become so denatured in their behavior because we don’t “value” anything. Everything is bought and paid for... nothing is inherently sacred or important... we are losing all true, tangible value. For millennia labor has been intimately linked to reward/survival... but with the onset of free markets, hyper privatization and financialization over the past century, there exists now few constraints as to what is commodified in the pursuit of survival & profit  — t he planet's  natural resources, our health & medicine, our educational institutions,  war armaments, our " ideas" as intellectual property in the form of copyright protections and patents, our most personal intimate "human emotions" have become targets of media outrage, shock, and sensationalism for views and clicks... the free expression of our art & music undergrounds are destined, eventual exploits f

Small gestures of kindness are a form of daily activism. Just showing concern for a fellow human can them. If everyone practiced this daily, the world would come together. If we ever get to the next higher form of society, they will look back on the "social media arc" of human history and say "small gestures of kindness and smiles are meaningful"... "remember when hate was magnified algorithmically, and we scoffed and sneered at each other on the street; full of mistrust and fear"... in many ways the "fake it til you make it" is real... in other words, what you practice becoming, you will become. When we’re young, and everything is black and white, it’s easy to think all the "good vibes" stuff is just nonsense and that people just are or aren’t "good"... But we need to realize that "good" is what we practice, not a thing we are. And, if a creepy uncomfortable smile is all you got, it’s better than nothing ;) *W

At the core of Israel’s vicious and ongoing Genocide of the Palestinian people —is Religion. It fits perfectly with Biblical prophecies... that Jews are to reclaim “their” land, and ethnically cleanse the area of "enemies of Israel" before Endtimes. Christian/Zionist extremists are actively welcoming in "Armageddon", World War III scenarios, with "nations against nations", "famine", and total mayhem on Earth as the situation in the middle east teeters on the brink of wider world conflict, in order to self-fulfill their insane religious prophecies of Rapture and Jesus’s return. Many of our U.S. politicians are in fact devout evangelical Christians who back Israel's every move in this regard, all in the name of God. For to s upport Israel is to obtain "God’s blessing", as "God blesses the world through Israel".  This is all one big “religion is f**kng up everything” scenario… Proof that religion is not benign and neutral as

March is Women's History month. It's a reminder that fundamental changes can and HAVE been made to society throughout history, when we come together and organize to do so. Our systems are not immutable laws of the cosmos, they are made by us, and we can unmake them, reshape them. Activists like to say that changing the system isn’t possible, that attempting change within a broken system is futile… but what happens after successful protests, LAW gets made...and that is the enduring part. Conversely, progress is by no means “inevitable”, it must be fought for. And achievements gained are always susceptible to erosion without our active engagement, as demonstrated by recent undoings of reproductive rights in the US. Radical change begins and ends with “talking” and the exchange of ideas… another action commonly dismissed as futile and “doing nothing”. But, words are powerful, they are the very means to "meaning", they give shape to ideas, which come to shape the world w

Israel has committed a 95% civilian death rate (compared to Hama's 45% on Oct 7th), enforced a total siege on resources and aid, has perpetually bombed civilian infrastructure, schools/universities, hospitals, entire fleets of ambulances, government buildings, UN shelters, farmlands, cemeteries... displacing 2 million people left to just starve and dehydrate to death — This is a Textbook case of Genocide... the worst thing since the Nazis. If one remains unconvinced of this brazen genocide, then no possible set of facts would convince them. Have we learned nothing since the last World Wars. We came through the Nuremberg Tribunals, we had the Geneva conventions, we established international law, the United Nations, to protect against exactly this level of insanity so that it never, ever happened again. The whole UN structure needs to be reorganized/replaced, clearly, just like the League of Nations was. Rule of law is the last remaining glue holding our failing civilization together

Life is not just some duality with death, about mere biological drives of reproduction, living, dying, consuming, generating waste... No, human society is about thriving and evolving, it's about seeing how far we can progress, how much flourishing we can create, how many mysteries and frontiers of reality we can discover. Even if "surviving” was our highest aspiration as a society, current systems aren't even meeting that very basic goal; but rather are negligent and complicit in world deprivations.  Economists just say, "there's scarcity", "we have to compete to survive”, "selfishness is a virtue which serves the common good", "we have infinite wants", and declare these laws of nature. But these are ideals and views reflective of earlier periods and different technical and sociological circumstances entirely. They reflect the people of that time's own unique response to evolve out of systems of centralized rule in the form of Feu

As human beings we have a diversity of perspectives and philosophical approaches to life's many challenges, paradoxes, and age old questions.  But in "activism", as activists seeking change in the world, we must realize that not every action, idea, or philosophical approach is equal to another in relevance or importance, simply because they share a similar goal/intent for change. There are better or worse courses of actions to take with regard to being "effective" and making intended impact... There are objectively more reasonable actions to take than others, based on an ideas logical coherence, on its likelihood to success, based on how our systems function, and how major change has been made historically. Now, a diversity of ideas in our social movements is healthy and welcomed. Various approaches and tactics always overlap in the end and compliment one another. It's only to our advantage to adopt an "everything at once" approach to social change

Progress is fundamentally about the communication and sharing of ideas. And if communication is about the finding of mutual agreement, with the intent to then work together towards those common ends, then a focus on finding common ground in our discourse and activism is essential. The more we can share a common world view in this complex, opaque society, the quicker we can affect the radical change needed. As much as we can envision some new, advanced paradigm of economy beyond the dystopia of today, and  want to automatically leap to it, and start "living it" now, in whatever immediate, off-grid, "out-system" ways;  we cannot rush over necessary Cultural Awareness & Structural Change needed in order to get there. And we cannot anyway entirely ignore or escape the machine of Capitalism, nor should we, for it runs, owns, and is existentially destroying the planet. We must confront reality and existing systems as they are and regain control of society. There are

Too often people become victims and victimizers by their own subjective social perceptions, unconsciously causing undue antagonism and discord for themselves and others. Even the most impartial and honest minds can become emotionally triggered under certain circumstances by careless misperceptions of each other. We get triggered and react to things prematurely, instead of realizing we may lack complete information about a given circumstance. Shaping a better world in our complex social environments demands we suspend our "subjective perceptions" a bit, when we know we lack key information about intent, context, circumstance, etc. The world isn’t as cruel and indifferent as our emotional triggers would have us think, when we simply bear the moment and inquire a little deeper, if at all possible. With this approach we  can expand our range of understanding and benevolence in the world.

In a time where new hybrid movements seem to flash up every single day; where special interest causes abound due to the many different, yet connected problems we face; consolidating ourselves and maintaining cohesion in the activist community is critical. Given that society is a deep, complex synergy of social, biological, economic, environmental, and technical factors; engaging platforms that are holistically thinking facilitates more complete and relevant understandings. The problems out there share a common systemic source, and have common systemic solutions. Ideas and concepts are realized in their full implications within the context of others. There’s a natural synergy of understanding when things are brought together, conceptually. While ideas must continue to evolve with fresh new approaches, too much reinventing the wheel and launching new initiatives of off-shoots and groups can spread us too thin, and fragment otherwise unified efforts.  The even greater damage is the er