May 9th, 2008 09:54am
Rowan Wolf
By Carolyn Baker of Speaking Truth to Power
The end of everything we call life is close at hand and cannot be evaded. H.G. Wells, 1946
I recently received an email from a reader, frustrated with my insistence on holding a vision of what is possible alongside the dismal, inevitable current realities of civilization’s collapse. Admonishing me to bear in mind America’s Oprah and NASCAR world view and therefore abdicate any sense of optimism I might have, this reader accused me of suggesting that we should 12 Step our way through Armageddon. Rather than being offended, however, I was overcome with gratitude for this reader’s image, frustrated with me as he may be, because in spite of the regular “wordsmithing” that I do as a writer, I always feel a sense of relief and validation when someone else gives words that I may not yet have for what I’ve been thinking, feeling, or doing.
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May 7th, 2008 08:00am
Rowan Wolf
By John Steppling
I think your points about Iron Man are right, and it’s worth taking note, again, of the Orientalism implicit in these projects. Simply by virtue of having a colonial occupation in Afghanistan presented in a completely de-contextualized way, one creates the knee-jerk reactions about Islam and terrorism that the FOX news channel likes to peddle. The mysterious east has always been presented in the west as timeless and mysterious –and the motives of its people indecipherable and shrouded in veils of ancient tribal rights the progressive west can’t (and doesn’t want to) fathom.
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May 5th, 2008 11:09am
Rowan Wolf
[As promised in my last article "Peak Civilization And The Winter Of Our Disconnect", my colleague and friend, Sally Erickson and I are offering what we believe are vitally important tools for enhancing communication with our peers as we navigate collapse.-CB]
When we think of preparing our minds, bodies, hearts, and living situations for collapse, the focus is often on our individual or household living situations. Equally important is our need to develop a circle of trusting, mutually interdependent relationships. The culture we live in is based on hierarchies of control and influence. Work relationships, kept in place largely by paychecks and ordered by project managers and bosses, are the most common experience most of us have of being part of an organized group. We have little experience outside of those hierarchies. Even more rare in our hyper-independent culture is to depend on others for mutual aid, support and comfort. So, for most people, it likely feels overwhelming to consider how to build a wider circle of people based on mutuality, as part of preparation for the ongoing collapse of basic life support systems.
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May 4th, 2008 06:41am
Rowan Wolf
By Rowan Wolf
Cheney is now arguing that “Congress has no authority over the Vice President.” This comes through his attorney, Kathryn Wheelbarger, in response to a request that David Addington (Cheney’s former Chief of Staff and legal counsel) testify before Congress regarding Cheney’s involvement in approving torture.
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April 30th, 2008 07:09pm
Rowan Wolf
By Rowan Wolf
My hat is off to the courage of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union which has decided to stage an eight hour “stop work” on May Day (May 1) to protest the Iraq occupation. Longshore and Warehouse Union members across the west coast of the United states have called an eight hour “stop work” on the day shift (April 2008 ILWU Dispatcher). This will close 29 ports on the west coast. They are calling for the immediate and safe return of U.S. troops.
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April 29th, 2008 06:59am
Rowan Wolf
By Rowan Wolf
I have been heart sick, and I can’t quite shake it. Perhaps it is one of my “global depressions,” and perhaps things are as insane as they seem. I want to share three events with you that all seem to spring from the same source … the same story. One is the story of a wolf, one a story of a people, and one a casually uttered threat.
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April 28th, 2008 07:59am
Rowan Wolf
By Phil Rockstroh of Ebullient Skepticism
Fastened To A Dying Animal: a short jeremiad regarding that affront to the nation’s dignity known as the US election process
Here in this crumbling empire once known as the American republic, here in a nation that, at present, for all practical purposes, only produces Cheetos and killer drones, whose architecture is being winnowed down to thriving rural meth houses and foreclosed upon suburban mchouses, whose corrupt corporate culture has bequeathed upon our suffering planet dying oceans and
the hyper-caffeinated tsunami of Red Bull Capitalism — the essential question confronts us — how does one retain (not retail) one’s humanity amid the catastrophic machinery and inane accouterment of our age?
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April 27th, 2008 06:30am
Rowan Wolf
By Anwaar Hussain of TruthSpring
Note : Hunga is Texanese for Hunger.
What is hunger?
When the glucose level of the liver falls below a threshold, a feeling is experienced that is called hunger, usually followed by a desire to eat. Although an average nourished human can survive for weeks without food intake, the sensation of hunger typically begins after a couple of hours without eating and is generally considered quite uncomfortable.
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April 24th, 2008 07:40pm
Rowan Wolf
By Carolyn Baker of Speaking Truth to Power
To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring. ~George Santayana~
The appearance of springtime in North America may be more welcome this year than at anytime in recent history. The winter has been long, cold, and dreary-particularly in the Rust Belt where the devastations of housing foreclosures, unemployment, and the resultant blight have left a trail of human misery and degradation not seen since the Great Depression. Ten percent of the population of Ohio now relies on food stamps while hordes of domestic animals abandoned in foreclosed homes endure long and grotesque deaths from starvation.
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April 24th, 2008 07:40pm
Rowan Wolf
By Carolyn Baker of Speaking Truth to Power
To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring. ~George Santayana~
The appearance of springtime in North America may be more welcome this year than at anytime in recent history. The winter has been long, cold, and dreary-particularly in the Rust Belt where the devastations of housing foreclosures, unemployment, and the resultant blight have left a trail of human misery and degradation not seen since the Great Depression. Ten percent of the population of Ohio now relies on food stamps while hordes of domestic animals abandoned in foreclosed homes endure long and grotesque deaths from starvation.
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