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Do you HONESTLY want a revolution? (my cry for help)

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gozer the destructor

14:12 / 17.06.02

I want a revolution, but don't know where to start. One of the reasons I skipped out on Mayday was because I felt vaguely hypocritical since I a)worked at Starbucks

You work, your part of the working class. Sorry I just don't understand?!

Less searchable M0rd4nt

14:18 / 17.06.02

Yeah, man- just because Starbucks are high-profile, it doesn't mean thaqt another, lower-profile company might not be as bad or worse.

You can't live a 100% ethically pristine life- the important thing is to strive to do so. Do what you can with what you've got, where you are.

rizla mission

15:20 / 17.06.02

"The slogan 'Revolution!' has mutated from tocsin to toxin, a malign pseudo-gnostic fate-trap, a nightmare where no matter how we struggle we never escape that evil Aeon, that incubus the state, one state after another, every 'heaven' ruled by yet one more evil angel.
...
The vision comes to life in the moment of uprising- but as soon as 'the Revolution' triumphs and the State returns, the dream and the ideal are already betrayed. I have not given up hope or even expectation of change - but I distrust the word Revolution."

-- Hakim Bey

(hey mum, look at me, I'm quoting Hakim Bey!)

Regrettable Juvenilia

16:27 / 17.06.02

sfd - I hear what you're saying in many respects: I hope to god that where a lot of my political views are concerned, I don't mellow out, grow out of it, etc etc, and embrace moderatism and Hampstead liberal namby-pambiness. I also know what you mean about often feeling like you're banging your head against the wall "even/especially" on Barbelith - and yet, at the same time, I'm aware of my own limitations and failures - the time when I couldn't be bothered to challenge a statement or respond to an interesting post, so it would be hypocritical of me to go *completely* off on one and say "you apathetic fucks, why don't you get a grip"...

Will have to come back and explain this further later...

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

18:42 / 17.06.02

I can't just ask you how to break out of this self-created invisible prison I've created, can I?

Sure you can. And we'll do whatever we can to help you learn that the walls aren't there and that they never were.

grant: Yes! The Book by Alan Watts. Perfect. Also, I would recommend the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch. And while we're on the subject, why not the Way of Zen, also by Watts. I would also recommend a bunch of essays by Suzuki, but Watts looks at everything from more of a "western" standpoint, which I found helpful. Also, A Confederacy of Dunces, which has little to do with the subject, but I just recently finished it and it has become one of my favorites. Whoa!

Baz Auckland

07:30 / 18.06.02

Originally posted by sfd You can't live a 100% ethically pristine life- the important thing is to strive to do so. Do what you can with what you've got, where you are.

I'm trying... Other places may be worse to work, but Sbux to me is like working for the Gap or Nike while trying to make the world a better place....

...although I did almost make Starbucks lose their Nike account. They're pretty sensitive about the word 'sweatshop' it seems...

Shortfatdyke

07:38 / 18.06.02

well, mordant carnival wrote that, barry, but i agree with what she said. you do as much as you can - hell, i sometimes ride on buses operated by stagecoach, the company run by the totally homophobic brian souter (he spent millions trying to keep section 28 in scotland). i don't really have a choice, but it grates when i do it. unless one does the complete 'dropping out' of the system thing, one is going to participate/give money to organisations and people one finds appalling.

No star here laces

12:55 / 19.06.02

I don't want a revolution, but I'd like to see some change. Lots of it.

So, yay for Hakim Bey, good quote.

A lot of the change I'd like to see is a shifting of the terms of political discourse and more ambitious aims for humanity as a whole. Considering everything we've acheived as a species over the millions of years we've been around, we're currently setting our sights pretty low. I'd like to see more acknowledgement of the hierarchy of needs - survival - security - social - ego, and an acknowledgement of it being all of our responsibility on a global scale to ensure everyone else's survival and security needs are met before we worry about meeting our own social and ego needs.

In the spirit of which, I'd like to propose the use of the word 'cunt' be punishable by a mandatory £5 pay-pal donation to medicins sans frontieres, that way the whole debate can actually be of some use.

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