The Resistance

[BO]

Thought we might need a thread for news of civil disobedience, resistance and beyond. 

My 12 yo son told me the other day that the baby boomers were responsible for the world going to shit. I told him he was right. There were a few of us who held to our youthful ideals, but truth is..the vast majority of the boomer generation turned out to be scumbags. 

But what caught my attention was the fact that my twelve year old was echoing a new sentiment. Nope, he doesn't blame me--not yet anyway. But, it is interesting that he's already looking for someone to blame. His eyes are beginning to see through the bullshit. He gets it. 

Here's to those that fight back...

[pan]

We love to eat there and watch their new big-screen TV while having dinner.

Ah yes, the fine dining experience at Bob Evans restaurants......

[Mouse]

Kindra Arnesen
from Venice Louisiana, at the Gulf Emergency Summit on 19th June.


http://www.gulfemergencysummit.org/

[BO]

Thanks Mouse. Good to see that amount of rage from someone affected by the Gulf disaster. Hope to see more of it.

[waldopaper]

Here is an email to the extended fam etc. as we are all scrabbling for diminishing bucks in the old-economy:
_____________

Our Space Fort Wayne |

http://ourspacefw.com/

well... here's an idea... i'm just throwin shit out here... for us terminally un/underemployed folk. this would be the "planning site" for ecolegy http://dcoledesign.blogspot.com/ ... $35 a month we can scrum together for a while. also check out possible media connection http://www.advancedmediaintegration.com/index.html
close to where we are... i believe... that could be linked to Tom's studio http://www.tempelrecording.com/ to get conceptual pieces together until the physical shit starts to fall into place.

by "physical shit," i envision biw type shelters http://blowininthewind.net/ in place at Prairie Goat... which would be used as the epicenter of a permaculture food experiment... the idea being maximum food-type production in minimum space... and that's where Easterday's knowledge could go to work. Just a thought toward the "alternative economy" which is beginning to arise as the Greater Depression sinks in.

Now me, I don't give a fuck if i ever get a "job" again... and even if i wanted to and "networked" my ass off... who's going to "hire" an ugly little 62-year-old dude with "health issues" and an MA in "English?" Fucking nobody, that's who. So let's get real. While my gut instinct is to just crawl off into a remote space and die quietly like a good kitty... that may be a bit premature... and definitely "unproductive."

We also have a gaggle of young folk who are "unemploy/ed/able" There aren't going to be any "jobs" or "careers" in the old-economy sense... even for them. Let's get real. The old-economy of huge cars/ houses is doomed... but it probably won't vanish overnight. We're talking decades... and HARD decades. So these are Powerout Houses... put one behind your McMansion as a place to go when the energy infrastructure begins to get spotty. (just one application/ idea). Remember how crazy it got when parts of the grid went out for a few days? How about weeks? Months?

What is going to/ is happen(ing) is a paradigm shift. From what to what... most folk don't even understand the "from" part... because that's where we have been for at least three generations. To understand anything prior to that, you really have to go back to about 1830-80... and most people can't/ won't. That was a 50 year transition. So at the end of this one, the kids will be old and we will be gone. Think of this as a yeast starter for the grandkids.

There also is/will be a great social-political shift, about which I no longer give a shit. Why? Because- believe me- after 10+ (unsuccessful) years of trying to get young people to even THINK about it... you may as well bay at the fucking moon. So when it comes to the "to" part... we are on our own. I DO believe it is part of our obligation as old folk to at least provide some suggestions based on experience to the young folk... but that's just my own little personal Sisyphus stone. This is about using what meager left-over bucks we got to seed-start something new.

So here is just one starter/suggestion: 1) throw a cyber/carbon-world listening post out there and use the information as part of the OODA loop to... 2) develop the carbon-world perimeters to physically illustrate... 3) things we will need to get through a 50-year paradigm shift. Maybe we can use some of it to "make some munny." Whatever.

This (email) is what I did this morning instead of painting/ pulling weeds.

wp
___________________________

Resistance is feudal. We are stuck in the mashed-potato bowl of "fine dining at Bob Evans" folk. No escape. May as well dig in. Brother Dave is a brilliant architect... and now he's a census-taker. I used to be a fairly decent writer... until me brain started to deteriorate and apathy set in. Many of us have spotty little gigs in the "education" infrastructure... but the plugs are being pulled on that... little by little. I copped and copied some intel at one of the Unis... left on the printer... about the classes that will be canceled in the Fall. The "get an education while you're un/ underemployed and you'll get a better job" myth has run its course. The big Uni has a surge in the traditional cohort that should last a short time... as fewer people can afford to send their kids away for the "campus experience."

The once-secure k-12 "public" schools here are chopping jobs like mad... and we still got "mr. privatization" governor comb-over drivin the state bus. the local politic is a clusterfuck as usual... especially since soodie got caught... but it hasn't seemed to dampen the god-guns-gays paradigm... i imagine the church bizness is getting tight as well... but don't know. The economic malaise is spreading out like the eco-malaise from the gulf. I suspect the local krakkkers won't react intil (as usual) it affects them directly and personally... and i specs they gonna react wid a quickness and a dumbness... and don't know (or care) wot that's gonna be.

I no longer give much thought to "getting through this" because I won't. I sorta care about the kids doing so... but they seem to be adopting their own de-facto "coping skills." Whether they are effective or not aint really none o my concern. I just want to spend the time I got left doing something interesting. That ranges between 20 hours and 20 years... and (i have been led to believe) depends a lot on pharma. I sure do eat a lotta fukkin pills these days. As far as resistance goes... "you can't stop what's coming." I'm pretty sure that's going to be the breakdown of the auto/ big-box infrastructure. The reaction to that is anybody's guess.

But locally... I think eating Bob Evans glop in front of a big-screen TV playing FUX nooz does not portend well.

[BO]

Well, I for one have a hard-on. I love it. Teaching folks how to drop out.

Give me two little 400 sq ft self-sustaining abodes--one for me and one for the wife and I'll be a happy man.

Love to see your suggestions on where to build an encampment. Things are bound to get dicey around population centers. How about Vancouver Island, BC.? Or are you thinking potato farm in Indiana?

Regards to brother Dave. Who's Kim W.? Another WalderPaper Genius?

[pan]

Kucinich: ‘We are losing our nation to lies about the necessity of war’

Aaaaah Kucinich......almost right.....but you should make that the past tense......IKE knew it with his retirement speech.

Bageant coined it: totalitarian democracy
America's totalitarian democracy and the politics of plunder, or, life is a titty tuck and a Dodge truck

[waldopaper]

I believe the only thing that is stopping a shooting-civil war is that each "side" has no way of identifying the other. Regions won't do it (like the last one)... we are all mixed together. And we aren't wearing uniforms (yet). But peep this loony fuck Chuck Grassley... and what's priceless... whether you're pro or anti Kagan... is the flat-out WTF look on her face... like- how can you possibly answer such a nutbag "question."


But wait... it gets better... "Grassley may also face a primary challenge, with some conservatives saying he has drifted "too far to the left." WTF? I mean, what the fucking fuck??? To the left of what... fucking Ramasses II? These people aren't "conservatives." They are hominids who learned to drive cars. I'm not sure we could mate with one (yeccch) and produce viable offspring. They seem to be a different species. Yes, human... but not in the "evolved" sense.

"...certain individual... certain individual... rights... among them... you know... what it says." Yes, I do douschenozzle. But apparently YOU don't. "Unaelienable." The word is, "unaelienable." Not "individual." Kagan wears the expression I have felt so many times when I wanted to say, "...just what the fuck are you saying, fucktard? Do you have any fucking IDEA what you're talking about? No... you DO NOT." Then they start whining about "...having a reasonable dialogue." Well, no, turd-brain. I can TRY to have a "reasonable dialogue" with my dog... or a brick... or the tires on my car. The problem is, they usually don't say anything. Neither do you.

How can we HOPE to live with these fuckwits?

[BO]

The more apt question might be, why haven't the peeps used their second amendment rights to get rid of us? In fact isn't it the constitutional duty of the American peeps to shoot us in the ass?

The fact that these government clowns are all blinded by the same King george style hubris is the ultimate irony. Should be open season on all their asses--starting with senators.

Just two dogs sniffing assholes is all I see.

Here in Montana, you could shoot just about anything on two legs and hit a worthy target. But that's another story....

[BO]

Does this count as a resistance topic? (resisting education)

Thought the teachers here might find this interesting:

Student Anti-Intellectualism and the Dumbing Down of the University

[pan]

Ah yes....the joys of teaching the Entitlement Generation.

Students oftentimes complain about the difficulty of my and Ms. Medusa's classes because "this was supposed to be my fun course" or "I have to read and write more in this Dance class than in my English class".

In a Theatre and Dance Department meeting colleagues were worrying about the hit recruitment was going to take because the minimum ACT score for entry into this institution of higher learning is going to be raised from a 12 to a 15. With scores in that low level wonder if the child will be able to feed itself and tie their own shoes.

[waldopaper]

sooper article, BO... thanks for posting it! I have a few nits to pick on it... but maybe later. The thing is... I completely understand the "anti-intellectual" students. Well, maybe not... but I certainly do empathize. "Intellectual?" What the fuck... does anybody still believe this is a "meritocracy?" What... you "succeed" based on your talent and ability? You know that's bullshit... I know that's bullshit... and THEY (the students) have been taught that "meritocracy" is bullshit their entire lives. Your "success" depends on your credit rating and what you look like. Nobody gives a shit what color your "parachute" is.

The stoods pay an obscene amount of money to get their "degree." What-- they're supposed to pay out the ass to "work?" Get real. "Consumerism." You betcha. And I have been putting off my come-to-Jesus meeting with the Deenie because I still have an urge to choke the shit out of Deano... with undies in a twist over "alarming statements" on my "evaluations." Not exactly accurate. About half (SAY they) think I'm the greatest teacher since Socrates. The other half... well... "I didn't learn anything about English... it was all about (the TOPIC)" Well... yes. Many of my "colleagues" in the "English Department" have been taught that the "topic" is interchangeable. It doesn't matter if they are writing about quantum mechanics or smoking on campus. Thesis statements. Transitional phrases. Sentence structure. Rhetorical argumentation. What crap. The fruitbats who are supposed to be "teaching writing" never learned how to READ.

Well... I wrestled with a bunch of techniques to game the "evaluation" metrics. Then, tonight on the way home, the obvious solution hit me like a laser beam. You give me a good "evaluation." I give you an "A" There. Problem solved. For both of us. Yep- we're just "going through the motions" ... waiting for the cat to die. Because it isn't about "education" or any of that shit. It's about gaming the metrics for the process managers managing the metrics on the managing process of management. Somewhere somebody has to actually dig a hole... or turn a screw... design something... or build something. No problem. We "outsource" that shit to somewhere where the miners work almost for nothin. They know a fucking desert when they see one. My children will go just as soon as they grow.

Well, there aint nothin here now to hold them.

[pan]

Perceive Teaching Effectiveness (aka Student Evaluation) forms are the most useless waste of time and paper ever conceived. Those who are being evaluating are evaluating their evaluator.

"Hard" teachers are routinely given low scores. One semester my ballet class came in with a whole bunch of negative comments - I guess I had gone off on a Marxist/feminist analysis on what those classical ballet plots are really about.....it doesn't really help the score to make it clear that their fantasies of sugar plum fairies are helping to ensure their continued objectification.

The trick, of course, is to give the evaluations after you have given a feel good class.

The Dean Low Voice, at a previous Uni, had picked out one comment from one evaluation amongst hundreds of very positive evaluations to focus upon in his written response to my four year review. It became very clear to me that Student Evaluations are only important to the Administration if they want to use them to bolster their "case" concerning a faculty member.

As Kissinger said, the politic of academia are so vicious precisely because there is so little at stake.