I was looking at the stars the other night, staring into the infinite, feeling small and in awe of something much larger than my little bundle of 'problems', when I was hit with a thought.
When we talk about 'cave people' or 'prehistoric man' , a wide range of images come to mind, but rarely are they in the vein of anything that could be described as positive. Surveying my own word and image associations came up with something akin to Fred Flintstone swinging his club at his wife and throwing faecel matter at his kids.
I think when we are dealing with pre-history it's easy to write these people off as something much less than us, but really, where does this judgement come from? I certainly did not build this image based on proposed fact or even sound reasoning. It's easy to think of them as less evolved because they had not the conveniences of microwaves, laser acne treatment and mobile dog-grooming mobiles, but were they less evolved because of this?
Looking at our evidence, the oldest Aboriginal bones in Australia were found to be 60,000 years old according to carbon dating. Homo Sapien has been around in its current evolution for at least 100,000 years. And without trains, planes and automobiles, these people survived. Anyone who has spent a night in the jungle could testify to this being no small feat.
They lived with a closer association to nature than we are akin to in our current society. In my study of our recorded civilizations, this is one of the larger commonalities. It seems when we create a civilization, we begin to feel like we are above nature, that because we rely less and less on the system that it makes us less and less a part of it. And when we begin to become ignorant of the natural system that we are all a part of, we unknowingly interfere with them and experience the effects of our cause.
We talk about the Stone Age, Iron Age or Bronze Age as if these were all steps to the pedestal in which we perch upon now. We have their social and technological innovations in bold bullet points as penance for our 21st century ease. I am sure, in future classrooms, we will look back on the Consumer Age with the same bullet points, and the same sense of crazed abandon.
Nothing lasts forever, and I enjoy how 15 years ago you couldn't talk about God without Religion, ecology without dreadlocks and spirit without incense.
Fast forward to today, where Oprah is getting her own channel, Green's have a political party, and the wacky scientist that used to give James Bond the shits with ever evolving gadgetry is now working on cures for cancer and drugs to enhance geriatric sex.
If anything, I'm optimistic.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The Intro!
It's Jule 4th, 2010. The sun outside is shining although its cold in Perth on the Western side of Australia. I'm sitting in a friend's house with no "stuff" to my name besides a badly beaten car, a backpack full of hilariously inappropriate clothing given the temperature, and a head full of dream's which coincidentally coincide and culminate with Americas Independence Day.
It was 234 years ago today that a group of men I will never know or understand announced their intentions for independence from a foreign monarchy. I try to relate their decision to a present day context. What would cause such action within me, to stand on a soap box in town square and tell the government to F off? In my current context, life is good. My cologne is recommended by Justin Timberlake, I'm a caucasian New Zealander and the future looks bright. Traditionally.
But does it? Im really not sure about it anymore. I've been reading things that are starting to shake my confidence in the whole "the system will look after me" buzz. The gap between the rich and the poor is getting larger, peak oil is threatening to turn our whole infrastructure on its head, and economies can fail because of fat American's spending more money on pies and less money on mortgages. 20,000 people a day die of hunger. Thats a bit rough. It's easy to dehumanize when the kids munching on flies on the telly ads are a world away, but if me and you hadn't won this genetic lottery and been born somewhere else, could it be my kid? My brother? John from down the dirt track?
I understand why terrorists are pissed with the West. We are all responsible for having way more than enough whilst their communities get by with bugger all. Our ignorance is no excuse from their perspective. This compassion has forced me to take a good look at me, my present and my future.
I'm basically retarded if the water doesn't come out of the tap, the electricity out of the socket, the fuel out of the pump and the gas out of the pipe. Without utilities, the city is a dead zone. I think back to the times the power went out, sitting in a dark room asking myself "What now?"
Well, my new passion is to get free of it. I dont want to be reliant on our system. I don't want to feel helpless in the face of change. I really enjoy the things our society provides, and the system is not to be knocked because we have done so many brilliant, compassionate, beautiful things with it. There is love in and behind everything we do, and I see it more and more everyday.
The study I have started on is to do with Permaculture and Intentional Communities, and life has started to spark up pathways towards these goals, as it always does when we have clear intent. I have an optimistic attitude for the future, for all of us, and I am planning to live comfortably in harmony with all the things I feel in life are true.
So follow me on my journey! I'll try my best to document my learning and progress so it may inspire and excite you about the changes to come!
Love Ben
It was 234 years ago today that a group of men I will never know or understand announced their intentions for independence from a foreign monarchy. I try to relate their decision to a present day context. What would cause such action within me, to stand on a soap box in town square and tell the government to F off? In my current context, life is good. My cologne is recommended by Justin Timberlake, I'm a caucasian New Zealander and the future looks bright. Traditionally.
But does it? Im really not sure about it anymore. I've been reading things that are starting to shake my confidence in the whole "the system will look after me" buzz. The gap between the rich and the poor is getting larger, peak oil is threatening to turn our whole infrastructure on its head, and economies can fail because of fat American's spending more money on pies and less money on mortgages. 20,000 people a day die of hunger. Thats a bit rough. It's easy to dehumanize when the kids munching on flies on the telly ads are a world away, but if me and you hadn't won this genetic lottery and been born somewhere else, could it be my kid? My brother? John from down the dirt track?
I understand why terrorists are pissed with the West. We are all responsible for having way more than enough whilst their communities get by with bugger all. Our ignorance is no excuse from their perspective. This compassion has forced me to take a good look at me, my present and my future.
I'm basically retarded if the water doesn't come out of the tap, the electricity out of the socket, the fuel out of the pump and the gas out of the pipe. Without utilities, the city is a dead zone. I think back to the times the power went out, sitting in a dark room asking myself "What now?"
Well, my new passion is to get free of it. I dont want to be reliant on our system. I don't want to feel helpless in the face of change. I really enjoy the things our society provides, and the system is not to be knocked because we have done so many brilliant, compassionate, beautiful things with it. There is love in and behind everything we do, and I see it more and more everyday.
The study I have started on is to do with Permaculture and Intentional Communities, and life has started to spark up pathways towards these goals, as it always does when we have clear intent. I have an optimistic attitude for the future, for all of us, and I am planning to live comfortably in harmony with all the things I feel in life are true.
So follow me on my journey! I'll try my best to document my learning and progress so it may inspire and excite you about the changes to come!
Love Ben
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