May 13, 2019

The Green Flame : Episode 1 Excerpt, Saba Malik on Self-Defense and War


This excerpt from the first episode of "The Green Flame Podcast" is a snippet of our interview with Saba Malik. In this conversation, Saba speaks of her travels in the Hunza Valley region of Pakistan, and of communities engaging in self-defense and long-term ecological sustainability.

Listen here

November 13, 2018

You Are Powerful, We Are Dangerous



By an anonymous DGR supporter

“Know thy self, know thy enemy.
A thousand battles, a thousand victories.”
-Sun Tzu in the Art of War

To defeat capitalist oppression, we must first challenge our negative thinking.  Believe in your strength, bravery and compassion and it will enable you to create lasting peace, health and prosperity for all  Know that by exercising your power you can defend us against an enemy that has divided us as a movement for change and weakened our resolve through media manipulations and operant conditioning.  United together we are unstoppable and threaten the status quo.  The ruling elite rightfully fears us.  We are dangerous.

Reject Trivial Culture
1) Realize that freedom in the in the 21st century is more than the base options chosen for us that keep us enslaved through addiction (i.e. drugs, alcohol, conspicuous consumption, video entertainment, social media, gambling etc.).  Understand that valuable time is stolen from us when we follow advertisements and chase the next best thing, person or sensation.  Refuse to become lost in a trivial culture, in a sea of amusements, while prison doors slam shut behind us.

Belong, Share, Band Together, Fight
2) Know that joy comes from belonging to a community and sharing with others, not from isolating oneself and hoarding resources as we are brainwashed to believe.  Free your mind and experience a revolution in values. It’s the first step needed to combat CIA directed psychological operations (PSYOPS) - the unconventional warfare used against us to override our survival instinct that calls for us to band together and fight.

The words of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. remain as pertinent in 2018 as they did in 1967: 

“We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

“A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: this is not just.” 

“This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind”.

Advertise, Educate, Infiltrate, Expand
3) For the sustainability of all life on earth we must fight united against the ruling elite on a number of fronts concurrently to enable an anti-imperialist movement to take root and an egalitarian global society to develop.  Tactically we must expand our ranks both within and beyond the capitalist socioeconomic framework.  No enduring revolution has succeeded without support from some elements of the military and petty bourgeoisie , and without raising the consciousness of the proletariat.  As such, our movement must advertise, educate and infiltrate on a massive scale to: 

Defend the Environment
4) End environmental rape.  Green is the color of the direct action revolutionary vanguard party in the twenty-first century.  While the poor are disproportionately affected by natural disasters and those engendered by climate change, as well as illness from pollution, pesticides and genetically modified food, all life is negatively affected.

End the Global Police State
5) Dismantle the global police state domestically by closing prisons, repealing the Patriot Act, and defunding the Intelligence Community.  Internationally it can be done through defunding the military, and by ending US interference in the affairs of autonomous countries: be they through covert methods (i.e. soft coups, legal harassment, nefarious NGOs and fake human rights organizations, social media lies, embargoes, blockades etc.); or through open warfare (i.e. troop and mercenary deployments, drone strikes, assassinations, menacing military maneuvers, bombing campaigns, and use of biological, chemical and nano weaponry etc.).

Consider that for fiscal year 2019, the US Senate passed the $674 billion Defense budget by a vote of 85-10; and Congress passed the $81 billion Intelligence budget by a vote of 363-54.  Clearly, most democrats and republicans support war and repression.  Within this context, and across a spectrum of issues, when our politicians cease to represent us, and our government is held captive by an oligarchy that seeks war and destruction for profit, then the political system must be abolished as represented in the Declaration of Independence.

 "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

Keep in mind that the Intelligence budget is far greater then what’s reported as it is supplemented with secretive black ops funding from CIA directed drug and weapon trade that bypass governmental oversight, as exposed in the Iran/Contra scandal.  And, In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital nonprofit, creates tremendous wealth for the companies and individuals it favors. 

Dismantle the industrial economy
6) The brutal industrial economy has failed miserably.  Its inherent contradictions have merely served to: concentrate great wealth into the hands of the ruling elite; poison our atmosphere; create wars; famine; exploit our labor; torture and imprison us; and divide us by race, gender and religion.

Identify the Ruling Elite & Expose Their Crimes
7) To accomplish a systematic and focused take down of imperialism, we must create a most wanted list of the ruling elite by using the surveillance states intrusive technology to our advantage.  Connect a name to a face, to an address, to a phone number and to a crime.   Start by making most wanted posters of the top 50 most politically active elite and list beneath their photos their crimes against humanity, both domestic and international.  All the required information is available on-line.

Develop the list by creating a search algorithm that includes bankers, industrialists, retailers, media moguls and members of silicon valley that are billionaires.  Cross check their political activity, stock holdings in the defense industry, and companies funded or connected to the CIA venture capital nonprofit In-Q-Tel.  Identify the ruling elite that provided financial and technological backing to Nazi Germany, were instrumental in the recruitment and relocation of 1,660 Nazis (Operation Paperclip), and funded unethical and murderous medical experimentation involving eugenics, mind and population control (MK-ULTRA, ARTICHOKE etc.), under their directed think tanks, nonprofit organizations, medical institutions and universities.  Within these numerous categories, the names Rockefeller, Morgan, Ford, DuPont, Carnegie, Harriman, Koch and Mellon often rise to the top.

Empower Everyone to Contribute to the Struggle
8) Empower everyone to do something, on some level, to support our struggle against the ruling elite, especially educators.  Protestors, photo journalists and writers point your finger in the face of the perpetrators of environmental, national and global violence, and graphically show: what a US bombing run looks like to those who live in Syria; what torture looks like to Sandinistas in Nicaragua; what plastic, petrol, pipelines and radiation does to our oceans, to our wildlife and to humanity.  Artists create culture via t-shirts, posters etc. that graphically explain our cause.  Hackers develop websites and software that track and expose the elites every movement to destroy their privacy and undermine their effectiveness.

Coopt the Expendable Tools of the Ruling Elite
9) Remember politicians, soldiers, police officers, small business owners, and white nationalists etc. follow orders and are considered expendable tools by the ruling elite.  In their arrogance, they fail to realize how little their lives matter until it’s to late for them.  They are misled through greed, fear of scarcity, blackmail, misplaced loyalty and/or a fake sense of importance. We must change their consciousness and expand our network through their alliance.  We need comrades on the inside to succeed.

Raise Consciousness
10) The Black Panther Party was able to raise consciousness in the black community and positively influence the hardened minds of street gang members though its children’s food program and social outreach.   Using this as a model, white radicals must awaken “redneck” and “hillbilly” Americans despite an aversion to their racial and gender politics.  While it’s essential we combat the Alt-Right and Nazi party anytime they attempt to rally, it is also critically important that we infiltrate their communities and positively influence their children to disrupt their indoctrination into a world of fear and hatred.

Malcolm X and Fred Hampton refer to community development thru consciousness raising as “work” because it’s not as glamorous or exciting as combat.  We need to swell our ranks and limit theirs if we are to see long-term permanent progress.

End the Surveillance State
11) Know that if the ruling elite did not fear our collective action it would not have empowered the Intelligence Community to spy on us, discredit us, infiltrate us, harass us and ultimately kill us as it had done with the Black Panther Party, Women’s Liberation Movement, Occupy Wall Street, and now with the Black Lives Matter and numerous direct action environmental and animal rights groups under COINTELPRO.  A three page index of FBI investigations against civil rights leaders is listed on its website.  If the ruling elite did not fear our thinking it would not use PSYOPS against our minds. It would not deflect the anger and despair of the uninformed to wrongly believe that immigrants, people of color, women and liberals are the cause of their personal suffering.  It would not defund our schools and universities and make the cost of education prohibitive.  It would not change school curriculum to foster automaton workers, and discourage critical thought and analysis.

Translate News Media
12) Understand that the mainstream and alternate news media has failed us.  It’s been bought and coopted.  As such, we need to be our own news translators.  Anytime we hear the US supports a foreign government, translate it to the US supports a subservient puppet dictatorship that allows US corporate theft.  Anytime we hear the US considers a foreign government “authoritarian” and “undemocratic” and seeks regime change to “help its people”, translate it to the foreign government is autonomous and has independent leadership that protects their natural resources and labor from US corporate plunder.

Ruling Elite Unconcerned with Human Rights
13) Know the interests of the US are the interests of the ruling elite and their corporations, and not our interests.  Believing that they care about humanity on foreign soil any more than they care about humanity on domestic soil is absurd.  If you’re unsure, just ask our 2.3 million prisoners.  The United States has the largest prison population in the world, and the highest per-capita incarceration rate.  Or, just ask our 400 school children that are victims of gun violence since 2012.  Or just ask our 2 million people suffering from cancer from polluted drinking water, soil, food and air.  Or just ask our 41 thousand immigrants in detention centers.  Or, just ask our 321,000 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year.  Or just ask 100,000 of our children that are sold into human trafficking each year.

Lastly, just ask the families of our martyred leaders, Malcolm X, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Fred Hampton, etc. about the meaning of democracy and freedom of speech in the United States of America’s police state.

Organize as Green Humanity, Avoid Identity Politics
14) While we intuitively understand that knowledge is power and that in unity there is strength, with PSYOPS they continually divide us and mislead us into forming special interest groups focused on identity politics.  Don’t let them.  Most importantly organize as one power block, as Green humanity.  Dismantling imperialism in the name of humanity protects our environment and natural resources both nationally and internationally, and provides space to resolve racial, gender and religious inequality. Uniting with the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) nations preserves mother earth, our homeland and ensures our personal freedom.  Turning our back on foreign policy in an attempt to prioritize domestic policy or the inverse will never work.

As in gardening, pernicious weeds must be uprooted to be destroyed or they will continually crowd out all sustenance.  The weed in our garden is the ruling elite.  They stand behind the institutions and lackeys that oppress humanity. 

In the words of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. “A time comes when silence is betrayal.  That time has come for us.”
Speak out; be loud!


July 25, 2018

Discipline


By Jennifer Murnan and Max Wilbert


“We are the ones who have to say – in words, in actions, in social policy, in law – no men do not own women.  In order to say that, we need political discipline.   We need to take seriously the consequences of sexual abuse to us, to women.  We need to understand what sexual abuse has done to us – why are we so damned hard to organize?  We need to comprehend that sexual abuse has broken us into a million pieces and we carry those pieces bumping and crashing inside; we're broken rock inside chaos; afraid and unsure when not cold and numb.  We're heroes at endurance; but so far cowards at resistance.”

 — Andrea Dworkin, from  Life and Death, Unapologetic Writings on the Continuing War Against Women



Discipline:
Thousands of blows
Strict control to enforce behavior
Every punitive act directed at attaining
domination over and subjugation of
physical punishing
Patriarchy

Child:
Listen
Sit straight, don’t talk with your friends, don’t laugh
Don’t have fun
Don’t break the rules
Don’t step out of line

Adult:
Stay in your lane
Mass media, video games, porn
TV, magazines, apps
Tap here for entertainment, fun, sex
Go to work
Then take your opiates

Activist:
Click here to save the planet
Easy solutions and reformism
Vote with your dollar
Cast your ballot
Positivity
Everything will be ok

Discipline:
Thousands of choices
Self control and orderly conduct in constant
service of maintaining relationships
every decision an act of submission to the
greater good of the community of life
Selfless, nurturing
Gynocentric

Revolutionary:
Real talk, no bullshit
Take off the rose-colored glasses
See the empire for what it is
Righteous anger is worthy, but driven by love
Self-control, self-mastery
No compromising on values, can't be bought off
Militant-minded
For life

Social Discipline:
Return  Remember Reclaim
Women Centered Communities
Renew Reinstate the circle that cannot be allowed
under patriarchy

Political Discipline:
Kingfisher Hunting
Keep your head no matter which way the wind blows
Keep your eyes focused on the goal, real tangible your life depends on the success of the hunt
Keep that head perfectly still, completely removed from the vicissitudes of the wind
Let the body anchor and sway,
Feet grasping grass rooted to earth
Body intimately connecting and Head rock steady


“We are the ones who have to say – in words, in actions, in social policy, in law – no men do not own women.  In order to say that, we need political discipline. “

This is an abuse free zone, and we will enforce it.
We are hunting civilization and we will end it.

March 29, 2018

Film Review: "Sami Blood"

by Kurt Seaberg

I just watched this incredible film the other night with my niece Anna. Achingly beautiful and profoundly sad at the same time, the most potent scenes of Sami Blood are like a haunting piece of music, with little or no dialogue. Yet they stick with me like a powerful dream. I've rarely experienced a movie that depicts the overt and subtle effects of racism, colonialism and internalized oppression in such a visceral manner.

What can you say about a system that compels one to reject their own heritage, their own language, their own family, their own identity? And yet the land itself seems to call her back.

My father, like the Sami girl in the film, was ripped from his idyllic childhood by unfortunate circumstances, a childhood where he spent his summers living in a tent. After his parents died he went to live with Swedish immigrants who "civilized" him, taught him to play the piano, enrolled him in art school. It wasn’t a boarding school but it had a similar mission.

He recalled that as a child he was “measured by doctors" who told him the shape of his head was "Lappish." I don’t believe he felt shame. If anything it made him curious, fascinated by a unique culture he felt a personal link to. But like so many children of immigrants from Europe he was thrown into the great melting pot where the lucky ones become “white."

And like so many Americans of his generation he bought into the racial theories--once considered “scientific”--that continue to divide human beings into categories of "superior" and "inferior.” Once these categories are regarded as “factual," it’s only a small step before euthanasia becomes a political program deemed necessary to weed out “undesirables”--the impure, the unfit and the genetically weak--a program that promises to “improve” the human race: genetically modified, scrubbed of the past, torn from the earth, disconnected from nature, uniform, colorless, white…

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March 5, 2018

What Really Happened at PIELC 2018


Over the first weekend in March, members and allies of Deep Green Resistance (DGR) attended, presented, and tabled at PIELC (Public Interest Environmental Law Conference) in Eugene, OR, as we have for as long as our organization has existed. PIELC (formerly ELAW) has long been a place where disparate perspectives from within the environmental movement—including those of lawyers, radicals, grassroots activists, liberals, and nonprofits—gather to learn from, engage with, and challenge each other.

In general, DGR activists appreciate the opportunity to engage in respectful dialogue, including with individuals who might disagree with our approach to halting the destruction of the planet and misogynist culture.

For several years, however, a small group of individuals has harassed DGR activists at PIELC, ostensibly because they disagree with our radical feminist position. Rather than engage in a productive discussion about patriarchy and its driving forces, these individuals choose to spread rumors and outright lies about DGR, both via social media and in person during the conference.

We’ve written several articles that address this ongoing defamation. You can read them here, here, and here.

So what happened this year?

This year was no exception. In the weeks before PIELC 2018, a small group of individuals engaged in anti-DGR rhetoric and actions via social media and other public forums. During PIELC, these same individuals attempted to disrupt our designated tabling space by stealing our materials, holding derogatory signs in front of us and our table, and using incendiary slurs to describe us to passersby.

First, we asked these individuals to respect our materials, our right to table, and our personal space. When they refused to move and began to escalate, we requested support from PIELC organizers—both for our physical safety and to support our right to engage with the public at our informational table. Event organizers responded quickly and professionally.

Did you call the cops?

No. DGR activists notified event organizers about the disruption. As far as we know, they contacted campus security, who then made the decision to call the police.

What did the police do?

The police told the individuals that they had no right to block access to our table (or any table).  Police then gave the individuals the choice to move to their own space, or to face trespassing charges.

Eventually, the individuals moved to the side of DGR’s table and continued to hold signs and disparage DGR to passersby for the remainder of the day.

What happened at the library?

On March 4th, Derrick Jensen (one of the co-founders of DGR) held a public talk at the Eugene Public Library. His talk, which was about the destruction of the planet and the patriarchal violation imperative, was met with such vocal and threatening hostility that Derrick was forced to hire security from a private local security firm.

Throughout Derrick’s talk, a cohort of disruptive individuals shouted at and disparaged the speaker, rushed the stage, released “fart bombs,” coughed loudly, and ultimately made so much noise that they violated the library’s free speech policy. In response to these escalating, juvenile violations of Derrick’s right to speak and the audience’s right to hear his talk, library security called the police. The police then removed several disruptive individuals, who violated library policy, refused to leave when asked, and therefore were trespassing.

To reiterate, DGR did not call the police. We held a public event in a previously reserved public venue with its own free speech policies. Individuals who chose to violate those policies, even after multiple warnings from security and then police, are responsible for the consequences of their own actions.

Video coverage of the event is available at the following link: https://www.facebook.com/deepgreenresistance/videos/1741147465944349/.

Why is DGR accused of transphobia?

Deep Green Resistance has been accused of transphobia not because of transphobic policies or actions, but because we maintain a feminist critique of gender.

DGR does not condone dehumanization or violence against anyone, including people who describe themselves as transgender. Universal human rights are universal. DGR has a strong code of conduct against violence and abuse. Anyone who violates that code is no longer a member.

Disagreeing with someone, however, is not a form of violence. And we have a big disagreement.

As radical feminists, we are critical of gender itself. We are not gender reformists–we are gender abolitionists. We see nothing in the creation of gender to celebrate or embrace. Patriarchy is a corrupt and brutal arrangement of power, and we want to see it dismantled so that the category of gender no longer exists.

As radical feminists, we also believe that women have the right to define their boundaries and decide who is allowed in their spaces. We believe all oppressed groups have that right.

Interested to learn more? You can read a more comprehensive response to this question, here.

February 12, 2018

Poetry: Positive Feedback & Tree Waltz

by Linh Nguyen

Positive Feedback

ever wonder why we destroy something so beautiful?

that river where our blood runs
beating in measured harmonies
to life surrounding, singing in glory

that forest of trails where we once walked joy escaping through quaking leaves,
each footstep lighting stories,
inspiring movies, music, and poetry

that ocean of our origin, waters of wisdom
of foam-swept jewels and deep blue treasures,
adorn with coral reefs and ancestral anemones,

dancing in sea-life

that laughter and bright-eyes spark,
windows to our souls, shadows to our selves,
images of our "God"

all, that gives answers to who we are
stunted by solipsism, gored through greed
hushed by bombs and bullets, silenced,

stolen and buried in graveyards
of steel, plastic, concrete, chemicals, walls,
dividing, growing, burning, feeding, revealing...


ever wonder why we destroy something so beautiful?

Tree Waltz

every tree rises within us,
their branches reach for our breath
growing within each heartbeat
calling forth the song
in each inspiration,
lungs filling to form
what cannot be seen,
but felt, here
in the wave that moves us
dissolving in exhalation
into a dance forming within a pause
and flowering in-between

finding shape in curving branches
how they hold what has fallen
awakening our skin to snow
our sternum to strangers

as resonance rises through our roots
and drums the dead to life
buds open in the listening
to wisdom hardened in heartwood
whispering through aging rings
secrets proffer in tactile invitation
the bliss of fractal unison

is it in the silence or the
language of her that moves us?
hands to air, to snow
to embody the music of the unseen
to hold in prayer
the forgotten songs of
which we waltz to

when war of words stain the cell
and pompous pixels pain the heart
peace arrives in a waltz
with trees

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February 6, 2018

Livin’ the Screen Life: #productsmakemehappy

  John Savage / Local Futures

Important official legal disclaimer: This is a short work of fiction. Any resemblances to real people, people you may know, people you think you may know, etc., is entirely deliberate.

When I’m at work I’m staring at a screen. When I’m not at work I’m staring at screens. Checking social media. Scrolling through updates. Scrolling through friends. Scrolling through products. Scrolling through #instagram. Scrolling through #amazon. The customer is always right. Make sure that what you’re selling is something that people want to buy.

On the subway we’re surrounded by people that we don’t know and never will. Our heads are tilted down, eyes connected to smartphones and pod devices. Playing free games. Bright lights and colorful shapes. Swipe swipe swipe. Group texts. #netflix. Fantasy football updates. #snapchats. The anxiety of being human. New Yorkers avoid looking at or talking to one another. Once in a while there will be a crazy person on the train and all of us normal passengers can smile at each other and sigh. At least we’re not crazy.

If you close your eyes the movement of the subway feels organic, as if the trains and underground tunnels are alive. The subway tunnels are the arteries and veins of the city, the passageways of the busy hive. A buzz of worker bees on our way. Where are we going?

I don’t want be a part of the hive. But I’m a human being. I need other human beings.

Something is broken in me. I hate myself. I don’t feel a sense of belonging or connection in any aspect of my life. friendships, family, romance, work. Ennui and alienation are my reality. A city of 8 million people. A hive of loneliness.

My life is no tragedy. There are no readily apparent causes for the dissatisfaction I feel. I wasn’t abused. My parents love me. I went to college. I had all the benefits of a middle class upbringing. I’m a white male in a society that has persecuted anyone and everyone who isn’t.

There was a terrorist attack and the nation was in shock. A maniac with a gun shot up a shopping mall. The president offered his condolences. We had an all-staff call at work to discuss how we felt. It’s important for us to remember that terrorists are evil. When terrible things happen on our TV screens it’s important to show solidarity.

We’ve never had an all-staff call at work to discuss our solidarity with the homeless people that we walk by each day between the subway station and our office. The woman who stands by the subway entrance shaking her cup of change every day. The couple that sleep in sleeping bags each night under the awning of the bodega. There was no all-staff call to discuss our solidarity with our co-workers who were laid off last week.

I eat mostly fast food. Fast. Food. Chinese delivery. #mcdonalds. #kraft macaroni & cheese. #dominos. Microwave dinners. High sodium. High Fructose Corn Syrup. MSG. Intense flavors. Addictive flavors.

Binge. Binge-watch. Binge-watch television. The revolution will be televised. The revolution will be tweeted.

#ThisIsUs #Freshofftheboat #Blackish #Blacklivesmatter #Change #Makeamericagreatagain #Strongertogether #Target

Browsing the internet, searching for a date. Swiping through thousands of profiles. The deep human need for connection. “Love to travel”. “Looking for a partner in crime”. “Enjoys witty banter”. Attempting to send thoughtful messages that will stand out. Being ignored. Rejected. Every once in a while a rare response. Variable rewards. You’ll never win if you don’t play the game. True love is just a swipe away. Dopamine. Slot machines. Addiction.

Sometimes I wonder if people have genuine friendships anymore. Sometimes I think back to the times when I had friends. My friends from college. I think I was always a little bit sad underneath it all. But friends are a good medicine.

We had a lot of fun back in college. This was back before our jobs dragged us to all different corners of the country. Nowadays we talk about the #nfl or #GoT through group texts. Sometimes we wish each other happy birthday. Usually we forget.

Breaking news. Check your smart phone. Turn on your television. President Trump did this. President Trump did that. Terrorist attack. Hurricane. Polar Ice Caps melting. Destruction. Human beings are terrible to each other. Stay informed. Stay alert. Information equals wisdom. Check #bbc, #cnn, #msnbc. Get updates and notifications. Twitter and social media keep us informed. Smart phones are smart.

Drugs make me feel better. Temporarily. Porn works too. Weed. A little coke. A little molly. Drugs and porn don’t really make me happy, but they at least make me not sad for a while. A quick bump to take the pain away.

Everyone is an addict. Addiction is good for the economy. Some addictions are respectable. Some not so much. work, shopping, smart phones, #facebook, television, fossil fuels, #marvel super-hero movies, #mcdonalds, #instagram, pornography, #dominos, coffee, alcohol, #snapchat, cocaine, #oxycontin, heroin. The economy is doing well.

I talked to my sister a few weeks ago, she lives in Colorado. She used to live in Arizona, and before that North Carolina. I miss my sister. Like most young people she goes wherever she or her boyfriend can find work. She told me about her job, about how all her co-workers seem so fake. No one really seems to care about what they’re doing. It’s more important to make it seem like you care than it is to actually care.

The other day I saw a picture she posted with her co-workers “So happy to work with these great people and this awesome company #workfriends”.

The global economy is great. Even as it rips apart the connections that we need for our emotional health, it comes up with ever more products and services and gadgets for us to substitute for those connections and soothe our loneliness. One day we will all be staring at screens all the time and we’ll never have to interact with humans in the real world ever again. Life will be good.

I know some people who find meaning in their work. They work long hours. They go out drinking with co-workers. Mostly they work in advertising or tech or finance. These industries are important because they help our economy grow. Growing the economy is important. We may live on a finite planet, but we’re committed to an economy that can grow forever.

An economy is not the only type of organic system that can commit to a cycle of endless growth. Sometimes it happens with cells in the human body for instance. This is called cancer.

Most of my time at work I sit at my desk pretending to work hard. Wondering what the other cubicle bees are doing with their time as they pretend to be working hard. Sometimes I do spreadsheets that people tell me are useful. #microsoft excel. #salesforce. Being able to measure and quantify all aspects of life is a valuable skill.

Once in a while I’ll grab lunch at the bodega or at #mcdonalds and I’ll notice how the employees there work so much harder than I do. Most of them are bi-lingual. They probably work harder in an hour than I do in a day.

I sit at a desk in front of a computer, so my job is really important.

Smart phone. Smart TV. Smart car. Smart house. We are smart.

When I get out of work I walk to the subway with all the other worker bees leaving their jobs. The sidewalks are buzzing with people heading this way and that. It’s important to walk fast to wherever it is you’re going. It’s important to go where you’re going and for everyone else to go where they’re going. Thinking about where you’re going is time wasted when you could be getting to where you’re going. Be careful if you smile at other people, they may see it as a threat.

At rush hour there is always a man on the corner near the subway with a sign that says “Jesus Loves You.” His eyes are intense. He doesn’t seem to be in a rush to get anywhere.

I love to learn. I love to read. I mostly hated school. Some of the most intelligent, interesting, and creative people I knew were dropouts.

School was useful for teaching us that life is about measurement and performance and specialization and commodification. Your peers are your competition. Things like empathy and imagination and cooperation are hard to measure. They’re non-linear. School doesn’t like them.

Prison population is something we can measure. There are 2.3 million Americans in Prison. There are more black men in prison today than there were enslaved at the time the Civil War began. America is the home of the Free and the Brave.

There was a pretty young woman at the register at the bookstore. She told me that she was a huge fan of the Nabokov stories I was buying. Said she loved the way he plays with language and meaning. She reached to give me a bag for the book and I told her I didn’t really need one. She apologized and smiled and said that she must have asked me about a bag already. I told her that she hadn’t. She blushed. I asked her her name. I asked her for her number.

Later I sent her a message. Maybe I could take her out for a drink sometime. Smiley face emoji. I never got a response. Connecting with people is hard.

Social media. Social. Media. We are social. We connect with our screens. Social media connects us to what is important. Likes, upvotes, retweets, friend requests, updates, notifications. That friendly buzzzzzz from your smart phone. It feels good to be social. Dopamine. Remember Your brand matters. Everyone is watching.

Technology makes the world better. Technology solves problems, especially problems created by other technology. If new technologies create problems, the solution is to develop newer technologies to solve those problems. Technology and progress are the same thing. Technology helps the economy grow. When technology makes human beings obsolete, that is progress.

Sometimes it seems that we relate to our machines better than we relate to each other.

One in sixty-eight children in America is diagnosed with autism. Autism is characterized by impaired social interaction, impaired verbal and non-verbal communication, and restricted and repetitive behavior.

I feel like my job isn’t actually about doing anything. Success is really about making it look like what you do is important. Lying to yourself to tell yourself that what you do is important.

Teamwork and cooperation are actively discouraged at work. No one knows what anyone else does, but supposedly what everyone does is important. Stare into your computer screen. Do we live in a world where success is about manipulating our fellow human beings? #winning

One day after work I saw an old woman on the subway with a young girl sleeping at her side. The woman was sewing a scarf. Sometimes people are good to each other. Sometimes the small things in life can be incredibly beautiful. Once in a while happiness will come when I’m not searching for it.

I wish I had a girlfriend. Someone I could talk to without feeling like I’m lying to myself.

People around me are growing up. Getting married. Having kids. Settling into life. My conscience is at war with my culture.

One day I took a train out of the city. I took some molly. I was hoping to escape the traps of language. I needed nature. I needed art. I was looking for something that wasn’t for sale.

Our culture destroys connection. Alienation is endemic to the system. Nobody knows anybody, nobody knows themselves. We blame and ridicule anyone who reflects the pain and fear hidden within ourselves those who are suffering the most the poor, the homeless, the drug addicts, the crazy, the uneducated. Anyone with a political ideology different from our own. Organic human interaction doesn’t exist, all that matters is your ability to sell and your ability to consume. Smile for #instagram, smile for #facebook. Image is everything. Human beings are commodities. We stare into screens, selling ourselves to each other. We desperately hang on for a sense of meaning and purpose to a culture which is destroying the ecosystems that we depend on for life. A culture which transforms our deep emotional need for meaning and connection into a deep emotional need for products.

In 2015 there were 33,000 deaths in America from heroin and prescription opioids. These drugs are pain killers. Pain. Killers. What pain are we trying to kill?

Some of the best people I know are chronic drug users, some of them functional, some of them not so much. What does it mean to be a human being?

Once I got so lonely that I was no longer myself. I was the hive. The people moving to and fro, the traffic, the ambulances, the delivery boys on their bicycles, the junkies, the couples hand in hand on the sidewalks, the children and dogs playing in the park, the street festivals, the subway cars rumbling through their tunnels. It was all me.

The sounds of the city are music. Everything is frequency. A constant buzzing.

Rather than acknowledging and sharing our pain and fear, using vulnerability to connect, we project onto each other. We revert to tribalism. Tribalism and hatred increase when our communities are our screens. Morality and empathy function differently in this environment. There is only the tribe and the Other. The safe space and the enemy. Stronger Together. I’m With Her. Make America Great Again. #BlackLivesMatter #BlueLivesMatter. Advertising is our culture. #hashtag your tribe.

I miss my sister. I miss my whole family. Including my extended family that I don’t really know. Sometimes I think that humans aren’t really supposed to behave like bees in a hive and that we are actually designed to live close to our families and our friends and work close to where we live. Maybe work and life and culture and happiness aren’t supposed to be separate things. “Commute” is a silly word. There’s a hope somewhere deep down that we actually need each other… that people are worth it.

As a straight, college educated, white male, I sometimes feel that I’m not allowed to be upset about the world we live in, I’m not allowed to be hurt by it. I need to #checkmyprivilege. Maybe I just need more drugs.

It’s important for us to be living in a state of constant consumption. After all, what are we if we’re not consumers? What does it mean to be a human being?

Sex sells. Sex is a good product. Orgasms can be counted. How many people have you fucked? I don’t know how to have a genuinely vulnerable emotional connection with another human being. What happens after the orgasm? Connecting with someone who you hope to have an intimate and beautiful relationship with is about selling yourself. Always remember: You Are A PRODUCT.

Make sure you have a great profile pic. Remember, self-expression is about crafting an image that other people will like. These are your #friends. This is advertising, people don’t want to know the real you. Make sure you look sexy at all times. Ugliness doesn’t sell. Swipe your way to happiness. Hearts. Likes. Thumbs Up. Everyone’s there. An entire city. The entire world. A busy hive.

Drugs are Good drugs when society says they’re Good drugs. Good drugs are legal, Bad drugs are illegal.

Good people Hate president Trump. It’s important to have socially acceptable outlets for channeling negative emotions when living in an oppressive culture. Ridiculing and making fun of Trump and his supporters is something we can all do together and share in the fun.

Is it possible that Trump supporters might be human beings too? Is it possible that hatred is just fear and pain turned outward?

How’s your social media presence? What does it mean to have “presence”? Where am I when I have #presence? Presence; noun; the state or fact of being present; current existence or occurrence.

Science and technology allow us to track and influence the behavior of massive numbers of human beings. The patterns of the hive. How does the swarm function?

Humans can be tracked by consumption habits and behavior predicted and influenced using algorithms. The more data there is the more accurate the predictions. Eventually feedback loops from past behavior can be used to influence future behavior. What we consume tells us who we are and who we will be. #hashtag it. Humans are just numbers after all. Numbers that can be measured, counted, commodified.

Tech and big data are amazing. It’s really great the way the tech industry helps our economy. Why judge people by the content of their character when there are statistics and algorithms? More products to help the economy grow. What does it mean to be a human being?

After the Civil War, the former slaves were free to make their way in this home of the Free and the Brave. In Florida and other parts of the south, during the reconstruction period, it was common for freed slaves to be thrown in jail for no other reason than the fact that they didn’t have work. Once there, they were forced into chain gangs to build railroads and other infrastructure projects. Many died due to terrible conditions and over-work. Railroads were important because they brought industry and technology and economic growth. Economic progress makes the world better.

Every once in a while the screens get turned off. I get the rare chance to talk with friends or co-workers away from the screens and outside of the office environment and I have the impression that they are genuinely interested in having a positive impact in the world and in their community. Why do I feel so alienated at work, and in life? Why are we so disconnected in a world of constant connection? It has something to do with the system, the wider culture. Culture is powerful.

Worker bees working, the rhythms of the hive.

A beautiful fall day in Central Park. An oasis amidst the concrete. The wind blows through the trees, leaves shimmering in the sun. Fractals. The individual elements reflect structural patterns of the whole.

A beehive is an amazing thing. We can’t understand the hive by looking at the behavior of an individual bee, yet the combined behavior of the bees create a new phenomenon that is more than the sum of its parts the hive. Swarming is like a cultural phenomenon of the hive. It is a pattern of the hive reflected in the bees.

The heroin addict reflects our culture of addiction. The cancer patient reflects our pathological attachment to endless growth. The autistic child reflects a society in which we have lost the ability to empathize, lost the ability to feel. We relate more to machines than to each other and to the earth. A black man murdered in the street reflects a culture in which human life is just a number. Humans are products. A salesman for president is a reflection of us. It shows us who we are.

The art of the deal. President. Salesman. Don’t forget that you’re for sale. Everyone’s watching.

The personalities that thrive in the modern world are those that embody the traits of psychopathy. Rapid turnover in interpersonal relationships. Lack of any real need for a sense of community or place. Focus on the superficial and image-based forms of communication as opposed to depth and nuance. Lack of empathy. Commoditized, fragmented, specialized and depersonalized interactions with others and with the planet. We are all engulfed in this culture. There aren’t any good guys or bad guys. Causality is non-linear. We’re all guilty. We are a society in which the ability to consume is our highest virtue and being poor is a moral failure. Poor people hate themselves and each other for being poor and worship rich people for being rich. Rich people hate themselves just as much as poor people, if not more so. Can you ever consume enough to create an identity? What does it mean to be a human being? Technology, screens and financial capital. Fossil fuels. Endless War. Drone Strikes. 150 to 200 of the species that make up the biosphere of planet earth go extinct every single day. 2,220,300 people incarcerated in the United States of America. Home of the Free and the Brave.

I don’t have a single person that I feel I can talk to about things that matter to me. I don’t have a single relationship where I feel I can be comfortable being myself, where I feel understood. Attempts that I make to connect are met with rejection. I fail over and over and over again. The relationships I do have are superficial. Why am I so broken? Sometimes I think that I might have something positive to offer.

Does the bee comprehend the nature of the hive? There are 7.442 billion human beings on planet earth. The individual human brain does not work with those kinds of numbers. We can’t relate to 7,442,000,000. 7,442,000,000 are not faces that we know. 7,442,000,000 is not connected to place. The way we make sense of 7,442,000,000… is as a product. A product to be exploited and used for all that it’s worth and then discarded along with the rest of the natural world. Success in our culture, in the industrial juggernaut that we call our economy, comes from the ability to manipulate the largest number of human beings, from figuring out and implementing the most efficient ways of turning human beings and the planet into a #commodity.

#hashtag #hastag #hashtag #meme #meme #meme #imageiseverything #cultureisadvertisement #artisproduct #loveisproduct

Shorten your thoughts so your mind doesn’t wander

into the darkness beyond tomorrow.

#iamreallyhappy

#productsmakemehappy

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