On power and violence

This was a book summary we found on http://www.fsmitha.com/review/arendt.html and we believe it is a good starting point on the discussion of how social organization leads to power, from coexistence with other powers will come conflict, and how can conflict be managed so power is not lost at the stage where coexistence of powers is impossible.  Also under what conditions can there be no conflicting powers and therefore avoidance of conflict and violence.  Could comments here start an open and public discussion?  In political circles this subject is systematically overseen and avoided.

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On Violence

Author: Hannah Arendt

A Harvest Book, 1970

In Arendt's own words:

The end of human action, as distinct from the end products of fabrication, can never be reliably predicted.  The means used to achieve political goals are more often than not of greater relevance to the future world than the intended goals.
There are, indeed, few things that are more frightening than the steadily increasing prestige of scientifically minded brain trusters in the councils of government during the last decades [the 1950s and '60s] ... they reckon with the consequences of certain hypothetically assumed constellations without, however, being able to test their hypotheses against actual occurrences.

Mining, the destruction of land by neo-colonialists

AGAINST THE IMPERIALISM AND NEOCOLONIALISM OF MINING COMPANIES, THE CURRENT BATTLE OF THE PEOPLES

A New Store for Zapatista Women’s Cooperative

** Organization is required to win, NGO’s from several countries point out in Puebla
** Emissaries from Mexico, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador expose abuses of transnationals

By: Rosa Rojas

Tlamanca, Puebla, March 15, 2014

The struggle against extractive mining “it’s not only for our life, but also an anti-imperialist struggle and against neo-colonialism that is imposed on the peoples with the servile attitude of the neoliberal governments and the agreements on free trade and on protection for foreign investment,” according to what was made clear here today after the exposure of particular cases of problems with mining companies that communities from different states of the country confront, as well as those in Panama, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

What about music as a form of collective entertainment

Music, the art that has survived capitalism and springs up from every part of the earth and every moment that humans have occupied, continues to express societies, classes, nations, genders, metaphysical beliefs, problems, emotions, happiness and pain.  It should not be left on the hands of experts, industries, interests, or government to dictate, to suppress or promote.  As a tool, as most arts, crafts, and techniques, should be redistributed to all those below as users and not passive consumers.  Everyone can learn music, sing, play an instrument.  To do it well takes practice first and a little bit of talent, which we are not convinced of what it really is.

Music has also played a role in popular movements.  There has never been any significant social change without some music associated with the movement that caused it, while music for the sake of producing more music has not lived as long, as the music of social history.  We found a good introduction to a music genre that survived some real sever oppression to follow basic steps of emancipation and struggle to freedom.  The struggle, the living conditions of the past, the pain and suffering of those who sang their way on the narrow path towards liberation, is embedded in their songs.

We Borrowed this From the Music Room


This Primer is dedicated to promoting Rhythm and Blues, but it's clear to anyone with a passing interest in the music that it really doesn't stick to any clear definition of the genre.

John Lee Hooker

As a Primer, it's an attempt to illustrate the music, the labels and the artists of a particular style but it cannot lay claim to be a theoretical, academic or scholarly treatise. This is primarily because I am ill-equipped to do it well and there are others who are far better qualified to deliver a definitive history of the form.

So what you'll find below is an emotional and historically flawed account of the music that the Primer promotes, designed to provide a background and context for what you'll find in the real world..

Mushrooms, how much we don't know

If the study of mushrooms is a science in itself it may be the youngest science yet.  There is such a vast amount to study around mushrooms that indeed we (humans) may be just barely scratching the surface of this science.  As there is very little knowledge around the subject in-house we thought it would be a good excuse to utilize this opportunity to share this learning experience with others who may find an interest.  The process of learning something collectively without the assistance of experts is slightly different and it may be even more objective when a wide spectrum of information as a library is available.  When information does not exist the process becomes science in its true basis.

As we generally avoid encyclopedic interest in learning (learning for leisure or to satisfy personal curiosity) as such may only be expressed by an individual not a community or other group, learning about mushrooms, how to choose them, how to grow them, cook/eat them, use them for other purposes, making paper for example, or medical/health reasons, seemed as worthwhile.  In the most introductory reading we have found yet it would be hard to imagine a community that wouldn't need to learn about mushrooms.

The rights of Zapatista women

There can never and will never be any real social change without women equally participating in this change.  The zapatistas (men and women equally and from below) have done precisely this.

From Latin American Press

Orsetta Bellani
4/10/2014
Womens Revolutionary Law provides for access to political and military posts, fair wages, education, health, freedom from abuse and free choice of couples.

Fabiana wakes every morning at 4:30 a.m., like all the women in her community. She grinds the corn she boiled the night before until it becomes soft dough, from which she forms a few balls that once flattened and cooked on a griddle become tortillas. Fabiana, who is ethnically Tzotzil Maya, is 23 years old, with a husband and two children, and also a member of the support base for the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN).

She works at home almost all day, every day, while toting her youngest child. Her husband helps with some chores traditionally considered “women’s work,” like shelling corn or plucking poultry, and sometimes he takes care of the children while she cooks.

Agriculturists or People Without Land

Agriculturists Without Land 

www.csusbgreencampus.com/agriculturists-without-land/

The following is a critique of the content of the above article and aims to open a discussion on the issue of social movements being incorporated within the system when they can not be defeated by physical (violent repression) means. Comments related to the subject are welcome and will be published as soon as possible.

MST is a 30 year old movement in Brazil.  It has both class and social characteristics.  It is a movement for people without land by the people without land.  Brazil is the country with the largest percentage of the population having no access to land.  Very counter-intuitive if you consider the vast area of jungle and unexplored forests created by the Amazon.  This means that a very small group of people have converted all land to private status.  This was done with a mechanism called IMF when the country first started going bankrupt 40 years ago.

This article nevertheless calls the MST movement agriculturists without land, which apart from being poorly written reveals a specific political value.  What we can conclude from it is that land is perceived as means of production which utilizes specialized workers to produce for others.  Something that as far as we can find about MST it is not.  What is odd about the article and drew our attention is the term agriculturists, meaning agricultural workers, which if searched through the net it has not been used before in reference to MST.