Saturday 28 February 2009

Anarcho-Primitvist : John Zerzan Radio Show 24Feb09

Here is the most recent radio show from the legendary John Zerzan, an Anarcho-primitivist based in Oregon, USA.

Give it a listen, there's some dope content:

'A Crude Awakening' - An ashockalyptic reflection

The film, 'A Crude Awakening'.



Well, I don’t know if that is quite an accurate statement, but the film did certainly bring a few points to my attention which I was previously unaware of.
Whether it was that much of a shock to me, is debatable.

For me, the film is a good piece of cinematic ‘shock-therapy’. However, upon further thinking after watching the film, and research, the actual situation we face, I don’t feel will be as apocalyptic as the film suggests.
For example, the film debunks the possibility that by using energies such as solar, wind, tidal, geothermal and hydro-electric power, we can replace the energy that we use from oil. However, upon further research, it is possible (from various sources) to maintain our current level of energy consumption that we obtain from oil, with other alternatives.
The film doesn’t provide a solution or at least focus on the possibilities that might lead to a solution. That’s not really what the film is about. If it was, it might have been called A Crude Awakening, followed by something saucy like ‘A Lude Solution’, but it’s not.

What the film portrays is how oil is becoming less and less reliable as a resource. And rightly so. But the future, the near future at least, is not so bleak, in my opinion.
And here’s my reasoning.
From what I understand about Peak Oil, we’re pretty much at the peak of production level now, or at least will be before 2010/2015. 1970s saw the peak of oil consumption, since then, the amount we have has been running out. The time lag between the two sets of info on Hubbert’s graph, shows that coming very soon, is the pretty much the end of oil.
Now, briefly, let’s look at these oil monsters. These people aren’t clueless. They’re not idiots. A couple of companies even managed to get a family and a executive representative into the White House for God’s sake, in the form of Bush and Cheney, both with huge oil company connections. Since being in office, Bush executed his plan quite well of using man-power of America to go in to the Middle East and get himself some more oil.
All in all, that was an efficient plan, and it worked. It was disgusting and he should be tried for war crimes, however, you can’t deny that it worked.
Now, do you honestly think that these oil monsters are turning a blind eye to the reduction in oil levels / production? Do you really think if they can execute a plan to get someone as PRESIDENT, that they would be as stupid to not have a follow-up plan after the oil is gone? I think to say that these monsters are clueless is quite ignorant. They have been one step ahead of the game since they invented it.

Recently, if you saw Obama’s inauguration speech, you would have heard him mention quite obviously, his desired introduction of ‘greener technologies’ as opposed to fossil-fuel based technologies.
My theory? That these monsters are already planning / have planned the back-up energy source to oil. They are going to introduce it, soon, and they are going to make money off of it. It is going to be labeled as the ‘greener solution’ and 85% of the people that can afford it are going to leap at the idea, thinking they are ‘doing their part’ to save the environment. You watch, I reckon this is the kind of formula they are going to follow.

However, is it going to be greener? A touch, but not really. Those of you who are familiar with the fraudulent term ‘sustainable’ know that in truth, no method of energy that we are harnessing is sustainable. The source of energy itself might be, such as sunlight or wind etc, but making the technology to harness / capture and convert that source is not.
And if is not sustainable? Well, that means money. Potentially HUGE money.
It won’t surprise me if the same companies that have fucked the earth over year after year, start turning around under different names, churning out ‘sustainable’ alternatives to oil. It’s a very clever idea.

In the news recently, Chevrolet have begun their exposure of their new electric car. However, it only does 40 miles on one charge. Their previous model back in the 90s ... 70 miles per one charge. This is another point; it won’t surprise me if the technologies we have access to are deliberately designed to be less efficient than is possible. The car is a good example. If back in the 90s they had the technology to make a car run 70 miles on one charge, the technology now, let’s say, could at least get you 100. Or maybe 71 miles. But the fact they are releasing it at 40 miles? Well, I suspect it has to do with the good old Capitalism factor of ‘planned obsolescence’.
On a worryingly pess/optimistic note, you could say that the whole ‘oil’ era was planned obsolescence. After the last oil field was discovered, these people would have concluded that they need to come up with other plans. I say just watch what happens in these next few years, as to what is force-fed to us and labeled as the 'alternative solution' to oil.

This theory that I am proposing, that the governments will start pushing other ‘alternatives’ on to the populations by way of the corporations’ requests, I think will only last a matter of time.

On one hand, you could say that there are going to be stages.
Some examples of the stages might look like this:
Oil (runs out, planned obsolescence) > Perfect opportunity to introduce ‘Green’ technology

Oil (runs out, planned obsolescence) > Companies use Uranium as a ‘bridge’ > Eventually we reach Green.

Oil (runs out, planned obsolescence) > Companies use coal as ‘bridge’ > uranium or green etc.


On the other hand, after the oil is gone, there are a mass combination of energies, Uranium, coal and green technologies, all working together to power the globe.
I don’t think the world would just stop and collapse. There are too many people at the top of their pyramid that need to make more money and have more power, and they wouldn’t be as stupid as to let that happen solely by not planning ahead.

My current explanation is; with the remaining oil we have left, I think these companies are using that oil to power their research into other technologies. It wouldn’t surprise me if they had planned out just how long we have left before the earth is fully dry, and have tapered their new energy production to coincide perfectly with their ‘oil-time’ limits.
If the technology exists to cure cancer and aids, or to construct a train line upon which the train can travel up to 4000mph using magnet and vacuum technology, all of the latter being things we haven’t 'heard' about, then I am pretty sure that these fuckers at the top have got it pretty figured out.

But, perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps the world is going to collapse after the oil runs out.
And what is interesting is that the film, intentionally or unintentionally, points to the only viable solution being primitivism. For me? Well, that’s awesome, haha, as anarcho-primitivism is something I have been looking into recently. If the world did collapse, how ironic that we might return to our primitive state!

So either way, if we’re given a fixed choice of energy alternatives, or if the world collapses, I think it makes sense to start looking into self-sufficiency as much as possible, right now.
I came across the term ‘Permaculture’ recently, and the ideas behind this appear very interesting in relation to the ‘self-sufficient’ lifestyle.
I think to rely on governments and energy sources, their methods of ‘solution’ is only a prolonged form of suicide. If the world does collapse due to oil running out, the sad fact is that the billions of people that are currently ‘reliant’ on governments etc, are all going to die. Period. This is what is referred to, in primitivism as ‘The Die Off’.

So far, that is all I have to conclude on the subject.

Some interesting things you should read to balance out the view made by ‘A Crude Awakening’:

There are some great points here:-
Peak Oil Debunked: Confessions of an Ex-Doomer


A VBS video about Toxic Alberta, Canada;

Friday 27 February 2009

'Do schools KILL creativity?' and the Hazardous view towards education.

I came across this fantastic video the other day, unintentionally, and I was fascinated by it.
It has solidified, in video format, views I have had towards education for about the last year or so. I was quite amazed that someone with the title of 'Sir' was coming out with the same shit I have been thinking for all this time.

The video will take no longer than 20 mins of your time, and it is entitled 'Do schools KILL creativity?'
If you are in any form of education as of present, or ever have been, this is THOROUGHLY recommended from us here at HPHQ:



After watching the video, here are some comments I have towards some certain points:

‘Education is supposed to train us for the future. The current generation of school kids, will be retiring in 2065. We the world over, have no idea what is going to happen in 2065, so how are we supposed to train these kids for it?’Exactly.

‘Creativity is as important in education as literacy’
They should both go hand in hand. Both require different sides of the brain to function and interact, so why don’t we currently treat each of these topics as equals?

‘If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original’Mind blower.

‘We run our companies like this, we stigmatize mistakes’One of the millions of constituents of social conditioning. ‘We are now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst things you can make. The result is we are educating our kids out of their creative capacities’And what does this lead to? A nation / world full of ‘LIFELESS DRONES’.

‘Every (formal and state) educational system ON EARTH has the SAME hierarchy of subjects’Now isn’t that a COINCEDENCE? I think not. (This solidifies ‘theories’ of secret societies / behind the scenes planning for me, amongst other evidence).

‘I think you would have to conclude, that the whole purpose of public education is to produce University Professors’I think that’s a little narrow, haha, but it is definitely something to do with producing a specific type of result – A people that don’t think (or create) for themselves. A People that become reliant on what is fed to them from the spoon, a people that are of a specific brain-wavelength, a people that can solve the mathematical equations of fascination, and write a shit load of intelligent books that don’t really say fuck all, a people that cannot, as a majority, create and PROGRESS.

‘Our education system (worldwide) is predicated on the idea of academic ability. And there’s a reason. Round the world, the were no public systems of education before the 19th Century’This seems a little convenient to me that the forthcoming of such secret society activity came to light at the beginning of the 19th century.

Even if the secret society thing turns out to be bullshit, read these next points:-
‘They (education systems) all came in to being, to meet the needs of INDUSTRIALISM’what is the underlying factor of industrialism? MONEY. What is money, or who is he who has the most money? The most POWERFUL and he has the most CONTROL. This can be related to secret society shit or it doesn’t have to be, but the fact remains that this education was DESIGNED for a purpose (to create people which could fuel the machines of industrialism with their intellect) the result – putting the control in the hands of the few / elite.

Keep reading. It gets more obvious.

‘The hierarchy was written upon two points.
Number 1: that the subjects viewed as most ‘valuable’ for WORK, were at the top of the hierarchy.’
Why do you need so many people to WORK ? So the few can control the workers. So the workers can earn the bosses money. So there are more workers instead of people with brains that think for themselves. This makes it ridiculously easier to control people if they are ‘trained’ to work for the early 12 years (minimum) of their life, does it not?

‘Benign advice’this is essentially what you are fed for your entire time at school. I was. And why is that? Why do you think they tell you, ‘Don’t be a musician, you’ll never make enough money doing that’? For the simple reason that you are setting yourself apart from the body of fuel for their machine. You are being creative, thinking for yourself etc. And that, ultimately, for any power, especially pyramid in structure (which is the structure of TODAY’S world, CAPITALISM), fucking DANGEROUS.
My own family even frowned upon the idea of me wanting to pursue routes other than the path of academia, for quite some time. It is more ‘social conditioning’, and it even exists within our own homes as well as our school, work places and universities.


‘Today, degrees are hardly worth anything’Exactly. The trend of people that graduate university and have ‘that job’ that ‘sets them up for success in life’ is so fucking minimal, it’s ridiculous. I saw past this façade early enough, thankfully, and I didn’t want to spend all that time earning a degree which technically, in the present state of the real world, wasn’t going to be worth anything other than a sense of personal achievement.

‘It’s a process of academic inflation’And, just like the financial crisis of the west, do you think that academic inflation is just another COINCEDENCE? Just another CONSPIRACY THEORY? Please. The evidence is before your very eyes. This is DESIGNED to work this way.
Why do you think the sub-conscious atmosphere of schooling in a child’s life, consists of thoughts and opinions promoting university so heavily. Why do you think that the link to success between school and your job, is labeled to every child as university? Why do you think the government invests MILLIONS of putting kids into university? Why do you think the time and effort your school gives to each child, asking them ‘what do you REALLY want to do?’ is SWEET FUCK ALL? If think this is all a chance, quite frankly you have some serious waking up to do.


‘Gillian Lynn’Prime example of someone who was told they ‘needed help’ to some extent by the formal education sector, and she is now a figurine in history, of achievement and success, and ironically, highly respected by the formal education sector now, so much so, that departments in schools even study her work and own videos of her musicals such as the famous CATS.

‘Our education system has mined our minds in the way we have strip-mined the earth, for a particular commodity and it won’t serve us.’Our creativity has been taken from most of us, unconsciously, from an early age. The commodity – CONTROL.
Why do you think around 85% of the earth are clueless when it comes to truthfully ‘important’ topics? There’s no chance factor behind it, the way of the world has been engineered and designed rigorously.
The way of your world, has been written for you before the days you were born, and you will sub-consciously live out this false-manifestation, action for action, if you let yourself.
That’s what has gone on for centuries and is the reason the world is how it is today. The majority FAILED (not necessarily their own fault) to see that they were all on a path to nowhere. Just what the ‘doctor ordered’. It is no different today. The evidence shows we are set up to meet the same demands as we always have, and for as long as this is the case, nothing will change, history will repeat itself, and mankind will be no different to the herd of cattle led to the slaughter house, or more relevantly, than the 6 million Jews that were led to their horrific deaths.



Another interesting and relevant point with regards to the education system globally, is actually how inefficient it really is. Studies have shown that if I talk to you for three hours and you just sit there, passively, no note taking or interaction, you will remember LESS than 10% of what I have said to you in 3 weeks time.
If you take notes, you will remember 40%. If you take notes, listen AND have a MEMORABLE interaction with the situation, you will remember 90%+. Now let’s look at the patters of today’s education.
Pre-school – the most interaction. Songs, games etc, so you don’t forget how to read or count in 3 weeks.
High-school – Less interaction. Most just sit there. Some take notes. Even fewer ask questions.
University – Even less interaction. You have lectures. Question asking is limited and note taking is probably your savior. You’re looking at about 40% memory, on average.
Well, thanks, that’s really great for the average £15,000 + debt I’m going to be in to the government for going to Uni.
Let’s be optimistic, and say that you will retain 50% of what you learn in class. Combined with your own learning, (and in current grade-trends, this is probably quite accurate) you will probably come out of your time at Uni, learning 65-70% of what you were required. In England, this will probably get you a 2:1 score. On average, the scores at Uni, for the majority will be a 2:2, because Uni isn’t JUST Uni after all. There’s plenty of distractions.
So, my point being, EVEN if there was something I was DYING to learn about at Uni, something that really gave me a buzz in life, I would even fuckin’ bother under the current trend, simply because of it’s inefficiency.
Science shows me that I won’t even come out learning 75% of what I want to, if I rely on the education system alone. Being pro-active for that last 25% is actually much more sacrificial than you might think, and for the most part, would require solitary confinement-style of learning. No going out, no fun, no nothing. Well, unless the distractions were reduced, it wouldn’t be worth the effort to undergo such a demand now, would it? Especially if we consider that you’re not going to learn everything (even if you have a burning desire to) in your first BA or first 3-4 years at Uni. The set up is designed so you go and do a MA, or a PhD to learn ‘it all’.

Until what Sir Ken Robinson is talking about, is put in to play (and I honestly don’t know how long that will take with the force of solely intellectual people that take no real violent action) then I deem the educational system pretty inefficient and not a good use of my time. With my own study and organization, efficiency learning methods, etc, I could probably achieve the same level of knowledge of a BA degree, in half the time, or less, for a fraction of the cost.
Something to think about perhaps?

To close –

‘We have to be careful now, that we use this gift wisely (intelligence), and that we overt some of the scenarios we have talked about, and the only way we will do it, is by seeing our creative capacities for the richness they are, and seeing our children for the hope that they are. And our task is to educate their whole being so they can face this future. By the way, we might not see this future, but they will. And our job is to help them make something of it.’Enough said.

Airport security and its relationship with capitalism, control and a whole bag of BOLLOCKS.

Howdy, let's get rowdy;

I wrote this on Saturday 21st in BKK airport -
‘Sat in the airport right now. Had a bit of a battle getting my liquids taken off of me. Pretty pissed off about it if I’m honest. Firstly, the grammar on the signs was incorrect, and nowhere does it say that it is the size of the container that is more important than the amount inside it. Secondly, the whole idea towards terrorism that this rule is supposed to coincide with, is absolute bollocks. If I want to blow a plane the fuck open, or kill the majority of people inside an airport, I’m not gonna fuck around with liquid consumption, let’s be honest. Nor would I let some slender tart run his way through my bag to find them in the first place. All that the rule is designed for, is so that you buy more shit. I brought three different containers with me. Now that’s three more different things I gotta buy when I’m on the otherside, but I guarantee you they don’t sell what I require in 100ml or less containers. How convenient.’

And as our mate synchronicity is on our side right now, I thought it would be appropriate to post up an article I came across not too long after the above episode;
http://matadorgoods.com/breeze-through-with-flybags/
This was my response –
'Haha, how much did they pay you to review their product then?
Granted, having one of these bags may prove to reduce time, but the time gained from it achieves what?
A little longer in the departure gate, or more time to re-pack your wash-bag that set off the search-alarm?

Having my liquids taken off me very recently at Bangkok airport will undoubtedly make this a biased response, however, I think there are some interesting things to point out about towards the above ...

The FlyBag is capitalising on our misfortune and to some extent our (uncompromisable) control. You could say 'Well done' on the fact that someone's making money off of this idea, but you can also say that isn't the 'FlyBag' just another gutless submission to a set of laws in place that really don't need to be there?

For those of you who have looked in to the majorly flawed sector of airport 'Security', you will hopefully have concluded yourself that such a set of rules being put in place is not really an effort towards increasing 'Security' but one to increase control upon the average person.
What really results when they say you can't take these small substances on board with you? Well, more often than not, you will end up having to buy more make-up on the other side, or a bottle of water once you get through the checks. In all, you spend more money, the situation eludes you to believe you are wasting valuable time (and in such a 'pressured' atmosphere as an airport, this is effective on most people) and so in order to never go through such an ordeal ever again, you don't address the ridiculous set of rules on the chin, but instead, take the easy route, buy the smaller amounts etc, or even better, get yourself a fashionable 'fly Bag' in a grey that matches the colour of your slowly-sedated sense of acceptance.

Not really a Rant, but I think as travelers, NOT asking ourselves the questions of the underlying matters in situations like these, is only going to see our priceless travel experiences become more and more diluted as we are forced, ever so slowly, to take the food off of the spoon, with products such as these...'


Hopefully, for all of you about to travel very soon, this has got you thinking about the wider picture.
Peace and rice,

Homelessness Update Part 2

Hi everyone,
Hope you are all well and loving life as much as we are right now.
If that's not the case, you need to pay attention to lots of interesting stuff coming your way, on this blog, over the next couple of days. Exciting shit!

An update for all of you that are wondering;

We are both still homeless! But all is good. Hazardous Davis is back in Pattaya, literally counting down the days until it is time to leave for Cambodia, after having an absolutely incredible 4 days spent in Malaysia.
Hazardous John is still diving in the Similan Islands, and is now doubt having an incredible time, returning tomorrow in fact.

We are looking to get the HP vides to you in literally a matter of days, so hang on because there will be 4 new episodes coming your way very soon.

That's all for now,
There's going to be a lot of info these next couple of days, to last you until we find some point of civilisation in Cambodia that has an internet connection.

Blessings,
Peace and Rice,
HPs

Saturday 21 February 2009

Homelessness Update

Well, since being chucked out of our room, which was a very strange feeling after living there for 4 months, John and I have been floor-surfing for the past 2 nights.
Just so all you lovely people out there can see what luxury we live in, here is a photo for you all of what Hazardous Davis' latest arrangements looked like:



John spent his first night sleeping on someone's balcony, in his hammock, under his mosquito net. What he didn't know, was that there were 4 mosquito trapped inside his net with him. They made the most of it.
40+ bites in one night, here are a sample from his arm:





As further updates, Hazardous Davis is off to KL in Malaysia today, and Hazardous John is flying out to live aboard a boat for 4 days in the Similan Islands, to dive his heart out.

Come March 1st/2nd, we will FINALLY be leaving Thailand, and be off to Cambodia, which we plan to travel through in about 3 weeks or so.
Hazardous Davis has an exciting announcement to make about Cambodia very soon, so stay chooned.

We'll be with you soon,
Peace and Rice,
HPs

Friday 20 February 2009

Reassurance...and yet again, synchronicity...

Well, how about this, an article from a psychologist about facebook:-

Take it with a pinch of salt though, it is from MSN!
Peace and rice,
HPs

Facebook and Narcissism

Thinking a lot recently about; scrapping my personal facebook account or at least facebook and what it implies about people in general.
Having lots of thoughts about ‘Narcissism’ and people who are (for the most part) subconsciously egotistical, sometimes in ridiculous amounts.
Someone close to me came out with this thought recently; ‘people in general (that combine themselves with facebook) are just so narcissistic’ and that is something that I have thought about a lot since it was mentioned to me.

So, the title of today’s effort …. Facebook and Narcissism

Facebook, for most if us, is now an apparent part of our day to day lives, and I feel is in most cases, becoming detrimental to us as living beings.
This might sound deep already, and if it sounds too deep for you, then you probably should keep reading.
Because it’s so widespread and used by so many people just like you and I, I think the subject of Facebook and its relation towards monotony and narcissism are ones to be addressed, whether here on paper, or in our own minds.
It all boils down to expressing your ‘individuality’, and just like the driving force of consumerism, the ‘individual facebooker’ is really no different than the ‘individual consumer’.
Like consumerism, there are few ways to escape the grasp of Facebook completely if you still want to use it and have an account, but there are numerous ways for getting 98% there.
(The relationship to consumerism; if you still want to wear clothes, then you will be caught up in consuming clothes somehow, whether it’s buying shirts to write messages on, or ruthless sweeps of the rails in charity stores. But you can get 98% towards not being a part of the machine, if you really want to.)


People feel they are being original, uploading their latest ‘night at wherever’ in its entirety, frame by frame, shot by shot, when in reality, this couldn’t further from originality, as it’s all I see now when I log in.
When it snowed in England the other week, the amount of ‘snow’ albums that popped up a day or two later was ridiculous.
I saw one picture that I thought was artistic and original, out of maybe 300. To me, that says something about how generic most people have become, without realising it.
Recently, I have taken photos down off of my page, for the simple reason that I want my ‘page’ to be more about the cause I am fighting for than about me as a person. Me as a person is what my close friends and family gets to see and experience. For the ‘cyber community’ it’s not important for them to see where my latest drink was, or my collection of ridiculous faces caught in a blink of an eye with the flash-burn.
The photos that do go up are of two kinds. Thought provoking / controversial, and/or artistic in nature. The photos I take and fuck around with on photoshop, I like to think as being a touch artistic or at the very least, expressive and original. The others, are photos that I come across everyday that move me and catch my attention from other sites, I also put up.

When you have 12 hours a day to research and use the net (like I have been fortunate enough to have recently), you realise how much the ‘same’ everybody is on our ‘cyber social community’. Vary rarely do I look at new photo albums now, simply because they are so boring. Even the travel pictures. I already have an image in my mind of what the album will look like. The photos are going to be of scenery, people and themselves. The shots will be slightly blurred in most cases, not cropped and just pretty unoriginal, to be honest.
I think if you’re somewhere that you really want to be, so much so, that you feel you have to show everybody else how great it is, at least do the fucking area justice and take a photo of it properly? Learn a few different functions on your camera to make it stand out that much more, so it becomes harder to distinguish between the moment experienced and the moment captured.
There are a very small number of people I know that do actually take the time to make an effort. I think if we’re online or if people are looking at our shit, they should have a reason to come back and check again, or if not, at least enjoy and remember the time they spent checking our stuff out for their first time.
It may sound a bit much, ‘Oh but it’s only Facebook’ but to be honest, this is a powerful tool for inspiration and reaching people. When people aren’t with each other physically, where are they? Most of them are connecting other ways; via telephone, internet, messenger etc. So why not put these tools to good use and make something of them, rather than just another generic template, within the template. The layout and everything about these social network site-designs is pre-thought and pre-structured, much like the architecture of a city. And just like the street artist or street activist, does it not make sense to use our generic surroundings and the blank canvases within them, to our advantage?
Think of the hundreds of people that will pass that wall. Or your profile page. What is going to make them stop and think? And what is going to make them stop their ‘profile-hopping’? Something generic, or something that captures their brain for that split second?

What can you put up or take down on your page, that might just help someone else out, other than yourself, for just a few seconds?

Narcissism, to some degree, is present in all of us. Or at least ‘selfishness’ is. It’s part of survival. But showcasing yourself off to others just isn’t necessary. In this day and age, where narcissism has almost become a founding philosophy in most people’s lives, it is however, difficult to push aside.

This is summed up pretty well by these lyrics, from a band called ‘August Burns Red’
The song’s title, interestingly enough, is called ‘Consumer’
‘Let’s watch where it takes you.
You really don’t have it that bad.
Try looking through the glass of beauty.
It will show you the truth.
We are all guilty of self-centeredness.
We have committed the crime,
but what we fail to realize is the dent it leaves in our soul.
Everyone is full of it in their own way.
A young boy cannot comprehend social status,
and this boy is better off than any of us.
Life will pass by us like a summer storm,
and if we consume ourselves with ourselves,
we will surely look back with sorrow.’

I myself, each day, am trying to lower the amount of time I spend thinking about me, and instead, increase the amount of time I can spend thinking about how to accomplish something better for other people.
We can take self glorification and use the energy involved, to reverse the process.
That’s one thing I like to do. Yeah, so I’ll take a photo or two of myself, but it’s not to be self glorifying. Instead, I want it to stand out, to catch people’s attention and hijack their brain for a second, by being controversial and sometimes mildly offensive.
All my life I have hated having my picture taken, especially for stuff like ‘the family album’ and shit like that. In fact, it’s quite funny, because from the age of about 12 to the present day, there is no ‘me’ in the family album anymore, just blank pages.
I don’t have a smile. I don’t have the generic smile-shot I ‘use’ for my showcase photos. I pull stupid faces to merely abuse the situation of ‘trying to look good for myself and other people’. To be honest, I don’t really care how the shot comes out when I fuck around. And when I’m trying to make a point with a picture, it is not me that is the focal point, but merely an addition to the message in the picture as a whole.
A lot of people may argue, ‘But that’s what I am doing when I take photos, just fucking around.’ That’s fair enough. Then if they aren’t that special, why bother showing them to the cyber world?

Do you ever get the friend requests from the people that never talk to you in person or the people that you never go out of your way to talk to when in a real-life situation?
Then why the fuck are you clicking accept? Honestly? To me, it seems ridiculous.
Unless you are trying to get a point across to your entire ‘friends’ list, what is the point of having so many people added to your cyber ‘self-temple’, if there is no meaningful interaction between you and them?

For the most part, the average facebooker just reminds me of the average graffiti artist. They have no real artistic interest or talent, and they simply want to get their name on to the wall, for no other means than self glorification.

So what do you do, in order to view yourself as less of a demi-god?

Some thoughts and processes towards being less narcissistic:
1. What photos are you putting up? Did they take effort on your part, do they have a message or moral behind them, or were they just snapshots of moments which you seem to experience 3+ nights a week?
2. And similarly, what photos are you taking off? Are you removing the ones of you pulling the same smile in one hundred different places? Those photos which when you look at them, you could never guess where on earth you actually were?
3. No one that I know judges whether or not someone is going to be their future friend, by looking at their interests and ‘about me’ sections. Don’t bother. They’re pointless. For people that know you personally, these boxes are irrelevant. For people that don’t know you thoroughly enough, well, what ever happened to just asking someone a question or two about themselves?
4. What are you really achieving by adding people that you’ve never really had a connection with or had an intelligent conversation with? If your facebook page is on route to becoming something more truly influential and motivational, then keep these people in your lists, as they mind stumble across your page one day and actually take something from it.
However, if your page is still your own little place for you to worship yourself, then I challenge you to delete 10 ‘friends’ off of your list, tonight.
5. Once your page is less narc’d out, why not just result to using Facebook as a means of free, genuine, communication? Send private messages to people you genuinely care about because you cannot travel a few minutes to see them in the flesh. Send someone a link to something that they mind deem special, or copy and paste a quote to someone that is just sat there waiting for their inbox to come alive, updating their status with ‘I am updating my status’.
6. Get on this site, http://www.meetup.com , and see what groups and meet-ups are happening in your area.

I am just as guilty as the very people that create the narcissistic pages that I come across in the first place. But, I think there’s no harm done in trying to become less self-indulgent, and instead, more motivated to help those around us, whether it’s in the land of ‘cyber’ or in the real world that we face everyday.

If I have you on my friends list, it’s because I value your attention. Not your attention towards me, but towards what I have to say, or a point I am trying to make.
These somewhat ‘generic templates’ that surround us in our say-to-day lives, whether is it Facebook pages, Blogs, Profile Pictures, walls of a building; all these blank canvasses can be used to glorify ourselves if we really wish. But just as you can draw a self-portrait on the piece of paper, you can also write down the message that is capable of changing someone’s life.

Peace and rice,

Wednesday 18 February 2009

Reassurance...

A little reassurance to myself that I'm not actually chatting complete shit, look what I came across just now, which sums up a lot of what I talk about below:
Incredible:



The article that I came across is here, called - 'The Tao of the Vagabond Travel'

Synchronicity. Gotta love it.

One reason for you to get out of bed in the morning.

Well actually, 2 reasons.
One is to read this.
The second is to carry out what you will read today.

This is straight fire right here, from the canyons within my heart where the flames howl with passion...

So, John and I had just finished eating our pizza. It wasn’t the nicest of meals, but that’s not the point.
Whilst we were sat there, sweating, John came out with this –
‘So I got talking to some of the other divers today about Mark Thomas and his episode where he goes and hassles McDonald’s (classic!). The other British boys said they had heard of Mark Thomas. I explained a bit behind what he was up to in that episode. Then as soon as I had finished speaking, they starting saying ‘Ahh yeah! I could do with a good Maccy D’s right now! That’s what they should do here in JomTien (where we live) shouldn’t they! Build a McDonald’s!’
John explained to me how the boys had completely missed the point. Completely. And no, they weren’t being sarcastic, they genuinely were suggesting that a McDonald’s should be built here in JomTien.

We chatted on the subject for ages. I concluded to John that some people in this life just WON’T get it. They just will not see how everything really works, how the world in front of their very eyes is an illusion and that we create what we see in front of us.
And we both agreed that it was a little more than just ‘some’ of the world. It works out at about 85% or so, of the world’s entire population. That’s 85% of our brothers and sisters that will go to their death-beds, not knowing what on earth they could have fuckin’ accomplished or made of themselves. (Unless...)

And why is that, I asked myself? Why is it, that there are a group of people (or even the majority of people), on this planet, that just will not have an ‘awakening moment’ or ‘enlightening experience’ in their lifetime, what so ever?
Why is it, that they will die off of this earth, being completely oblivious to what life is really about?

The definite answer? I am not sure.
But I have some ideas. And I definitely have some possible solutions.

Before we continue, I want you to ask yourself both questions below and you should find that you will be able to answer one of them definitely. (But being able to answer them, means you have to be completely honest with yourself, otherwise this post will be meaningless for you.)

The questions;
1. ‘Have I lived? Do I fully understand life and what living is all about? Have I had that ‘moment’ in my life, where I have decided that I am NEVER going back?’
Or
2. ‘Am I still searching for it? And do I really want to find it?’

If you answered ‘Yes’ to number 1, read on and appreciate what I am talking about, as you should know EXACTLY what I am chatting about.
If you answered ‘Yes’ to number 2 instead, then this is why I am writing all of this; for you. And congratulate yourselves. You have just taken the first step to ‘breaking the mould’ of the life that has been written out for you, since you were born.

As long as you have question number 2 in your head, and the passion in your HEART to find the answer, you will be WELL on your way to being able to answer ‘Yes’ to question 1. I.e. you will know what it is to really LIVE, and soon. Believe me.

My ideas towards the ‘remainders’ or ‘everyone else’, as to why they just DO not and WILL not get it (unless something is done) is to do with their ‘social conditioning’.
This is their background, how their parents lived, and their parents’ parents lived.
It’s their lifestyle and the society they have been brought up in via influences of the media and government. It’s the way their brain has been trained how not to think for itself, and the numbing force-field that surrounds their heart, making it very difficult to get through to them. It is the box they live in, and the fact they have been led to believe there is nothing outside their box. Their world is still flat.
To help explain this point a little clearer –

Roger, quoting from the film ‘Roger Doger’ - :
‘…And when they're feeling sufficiently incomplete, you convince them your product is the only thing that can fill the void. So instead of taking steps to deal with their lives, instead of working to root out the real reason for their misery, they go out and buy a stupid looking pair of cargo pants.’
How is the average person supposed to deal with their issues, when all the ‘solutions’ are offered to them, in the form of prefabrication?’

And a quote from ‘Expect Resistance’ by crimethINC –

‘…spending your life in reaction and adaptation, hurrying to catch up to whatever is already happening, means being perpetually a step behind, at the mercy of history as it unfolds. That's no way to go about pursuing your desires, whichever ones you choose to pursue…You can't sever yourself from the chain of
cause and effect that produced you-not with any amount of will power. If you need to follow leaders, find leaders who will help you depose them from the pedestal you put them on; if you wish to lead others, find equals who will help you dethrone yourself; if you have to fight against others, find wars you can wage for everyone's benefit. When it comes to dodging the imperatives of your conditioning, you'll find that indulge and undermine is a far more effective program than the old heritage of "renounce and struggle"…’


To break it down, let’s take anyone, from any background out of this ‘85%’.
For example, let’s take the rich girl, who’s parents are loaded with cash, she grew up in her country-side house which is MASSIVE, was brought up in a private and expensive education, has never had a job, is very popular and is always ahead of the fashion game.

Then let’s take the tear-away boy, who started smoking cigarettes at aged 10, his father left his mother when he was a kid, his mum works in Primark, they live on a council estate, he left ‘school’ at 16 and now works on a building site. He has a girlfriend, and spends most of his money on weekend nights out with the lads or on a meal with his Mrs.

Well, as surprised as you may be to hear it, these two people are EXACTLY THE SAME. And they are both well on their way to their graves, not knowing what they could have been or could have REALLY achieved in their lifetime, unless they are intercepted from their oblivious path.
They both are trapped in the mindset that money is the foundation of survival. They have been brought up to believe that success is determined by; how much money you earn, if you can support your family or not, having a family in the first place, a house, 2 cars and a dog. The ‘Jones’ mentality.
They look forward to taking their holidays off, whether it is once a year or once a month.
They are pressured by society to buy the latest clothes and accessories. They feel they have to maintain their ‘status’ in society, and to do this, they have to ‘keep up’ with the rat race. If they stop work, they have no money. Or if they stop spending their money, they can’t go out. All these ‘ifs’ lead them to believe they will be falling behind, and become a nothing.
‘…hurrying to catch up to whatever is already happening, means being perpetually a step behind…’

One of my ideas to the way this happens is via genetics and hereditary processes.
Let me explain.
Take both of these examples of people. Looking at their ancestors, let’s say for argument’s sake, (and it is most probable) that their ancestors all worked. They all had jobs of some kind, families, etc, and were classed by society as ‘successful’ or to put it another way, ‘they kept up with the race.’
Well, their ancestors’ children would have grown up, learnt from their parents what ‘success’ was, and let’s say they went about the exact same path towards ‘keeping up’ or being ‘successful’.
Then they had kids, etc, and the pattern repeated itself for 5 generations.
After which, our two examples came along.
Would it be fair to say, judging by the past 5 generations, that these two were going to live their lives in a similar fashion, trying to achieve ‘success’? I think so. I think that’s exactly how it would work.

Now add to this ‘ancestor-gene pool’ , the social conditioning that surrounds us all every day (the list is endless) and what do you have? You have the perfect situation to keep these people in their own boxes for the rest of their lives.
For as long as they live, they will NEVER ask themselves ‘question 2’. They will never question their existence, why they are working a job that they hate, etc, (again, the list of ‘why’ questions that they could ask, is endless).
I have thought about this a lot, and for now, all I can come up with is the fact that their predecessors lived similar lives as they feel they have to live, and that social conditioning has helped form them into ‘lifeless drones’ since birth. So why would they want to question anything? As far as they're concerned, they're on the path to happiness and success, and that's all that matters.
This makes sense because the majority of the world seems to be this way.

I could be wrong, but the fact that the numbers are still in the whereabouts of 85% means SOMETHING has been going on/is going on, to keep these people boxed in and oblivious.

What I would like to say about our two examples is this: ‘They will NOT MAKE IT ON THEIR OWN’.
No matter how much you sit back and ‘hope’ that they will just ‘figure it out’, they just WILL NOT get it. And it’s not their fault, it’s important to realize that it is not their fault.
Also, they are led to follow a path to ‘success’. This is a path that HAS NO FINISH LINE. There is no one waiting at the end of the road saying ‘Well done mate. You have achieved the title of someone who is ‘successful’. It’s a road where in order to stay on it, you need to keep working, keep consuming, and ‘keep up’. But to them, it is the only road they know.

So, for all of you reading who answered yes to number 1, will know, that you know, that you know, what it is to LIVE.
You have had that ‘Sledgehammer to teeth’ moment of realization in your life, and you can NEVER go back to the ‘daily grind’. This next bit is for you.
It is our duty, as people that are fortunate enough to have been awakened, to lead, by being living examples of human BEINGS, to the rest of the world.

It is now, our vocation to inform those ‘85%’ any way we fucking can about how amazing life is once you take that step; that step on the path to becoming a BEING. That step that will take you on a journey so wonderful, words will struggle to keep up with you. A journey so beautiful that the ‘little things in life’ begin to blast ‘success’ the fuck out of the water. A journey of to a pool wisdom and knowledge so great, that you will be classed as ‘dangerous’ by the rest of mankind.
It is our duty to get that message out to the rest of the world, ANY WAY WE CAN.

This other ‘85%’ consists of our brothers and sisters. They are made of the same flesh and blood that you and I are. Put it this way, if I was in that ‘85%’, if I knew that someone could come and inform me of what was waiting out there, I would get down on my knees and beg for them to tell me. If I knew that someone might just come along and let me know that the ‘way I have been living’ is an insult to what I really could be experiencing, then I would do anything in my power to hear them say it.
If you were imprisoned, and fully aware that you were behind bars, never knowing what was on the outside, and you got wind that someone knew how to get out, would you not long to hear their words, with unquestionable desire?
But the truth is, these people don’t know what’s out there waiting for them. If we don’t inform them, they will never look outside of their box on their own accord and see how beautiful life is.
Our limited time on this earth is fucking short. We are specks of dust in eternity. And whether you believe in life after death or not, the fact remains that we only have a good 80 odd years on this planet, at best.

Therefore I put it to all of you who have made that step, who have been awakened, to get out there and spread the word.
We are the ones fortunate enough to have gained an insight on how life is to be LIVED, and how to get the most out of everything. But we are also the ones with the duty to tell others.
This is the sole reason behind the meaning ‘Dissent’. This is the only way for our brothers and sisters to be set free. The struggle against those powers seeking to lock us down, is not for the my or your benefit any longer. We now see what life is, and whatever happens, we know that we are on the path to happiness or have already found it.
It's so that they too, the ‘85%', might see what we see, and decide to smash the fuck out of their little bubbles.
So that they can be shown the way and thus be able to make their own choice that they too, can be free like us. That they too, can look at life and see how beautiful the ‘ugly’ is, and how ugly (what society terms) ‘beautiful’ is.
This is what Hazardous Pioneers is all about. This is the reason I get up in the morning.
This is the reason there is a constant buzz underneath my heart, running around in my soul.
I could die tomorrow and die happy, knowing that I have figured out enough to be at peace for eternity.
But what good is that to the rest of the world??
They will leave this earth, going to their graves being as ignorant and naïve as when they entered life itself.
Unless, we speak out and rise up, and let them know, with a vengeance, what is waiting for them.

That is our duty.


To close;

Revolution writings from ‘Expect Resistance’


The revolution will not be shown on television.
Nothing will be on television… or if anything is, no one will notice.

The revolution will not provide you with political clout, a luxury car or designer antidepressants.
It will render such things as superfluous.

The revolution will not help you build muscle mass or tone your flabby thighs.
It will make it possible to feel beautiful in your body, not because of it.

The revolution will not put the right people in control of the government or impose limits on the conduct of corporations.
It will abolish control, government, limits, corporations.

The revolution will not give you superhuman powers of creativity, audacity or conflict resolution.
It will push aside the obstacles that inhibit you from exercising the powers you already have.

The revolution will not put and end to violence, struggle or interpersonal strife.
It will offer you the chance to fight for your own interests for once, and let the chips fall where they may.

(Two verses skipped, the scan of the document was bad quality.)

The revolution will not provide you with the man or woman of your dreams.
It will bring out the unique beauty of the ones already around you.

The revolution might not always feed or house or heal you, but hunger, thirst, cold and even sickness will trouble you a lot less.

The revolution will not mean you finally get what you deserve.
It will give you treasures no one could ever deserve, just as sometimes it will hurt with a pain nothing in your life has warranted.

The revolution will not be simple or clean or easy.
It will help you to find meanings in difficult things, to be courageous in facing complexities and contradictions, to get your hands dirty and like it.


The revolution is not going to happen tomorrow –
It’s never going to happen.
It’s taking place right now.
It is an alternate universe that runs parallel to this one, waiting for you to switch sides.


This is one of the most beautiful pieces I have read in a long time. It sums up just what I am trying to say.
Hopefully it hits you as hard as it hit me.

Tuesday 17 February 2009

Informative Indulgence (FINAL) Part 9

Hazardous Pioneers :- ‘Getting tanks across tightropes since ‘09’

Today is the last in the series of Informative Indulgence.
Yes, I feel your pain, but have no fear. The rest of this week is going to be interspersed with all sorts of stuff, and two posts are going to be quite deep.

For now, today’s theme is : I WEAR MY SKIN

That’s the name of a song, from the first band I went to see live, at 13 years old! (As a result, I got in deep shit for it, as I snuck out of the house to go! But, it was FULLY worth it!)

The band were called ‘One Minute Silence’ and this is their video to ‘I WEAR MY SKIN’:


You can view the lyrics here :

Some of the lyrics ring so true in to what I wanted to talk about today:-

‘I wear my skin like it’s not a problem
Or is it a problem for you?

‘I wage my war in the name of living’
‘Punch back punch back
You’re so fucking easy, punch back throw’


After watching that, keep in mind the message in the music.
Today’s article reference is all about ‘Hipsters’.
Are you a hipster?
Are your flatmates Hipsters?
What is a Hipster?
Well, check out this article; ‘The Hipster Must Die’
This article goes hand in hand with the ‘Rebel sell’ , which I posted last week.

Hipsters and all you ‘individualists’ out there are just the right fuel for the machine that is consumerism, resulting in corporate lock down. You are owned by what ever’s out there, simply because you think that you are being different, by following something ‘original’ or as a minority.
For Hipsters, they seem to be completely clued up on whatever is ‘cool’ at the moment, or more to the point, what is ‘not cool with the masses, something that only a minority know about. And to be honest, it is an impressive amount of dedication that is needed to ‘keep up’.
But I ask you this; how amazing would it be to see these ‘Hipsters’ break out of their shackles of ‘falsified individuality’, by using and channelling their energy in a more positive manner?
I think it would be incredible, and for the most part, we (that are the minority) who are fighting for what we believe in, would experience something like a 70% increase of numbers, thus becoming the majority, very, very quickly!
That is ideal thinking, but the fact is, the ‘Hipster’ generation won’t change over night.

Just like in the OMS video at the top of the page, it might take one person to turn. Then perhaps another two, four or ten.
But in time, at least half of them will have awoken and turn the fuck around. When we are even in numbers with those that are sleeping, the chances are they will wake up a lot faster than the first 50%.

Sometimes it is difficult to explain myself as I wish, and articulation (accurate) is something which is definitely a skill, and something I am trying to get better at.
So, to help me along the way, and to help you understand, I am going to quote some pieces from a book that I am currently reading, called ‘Expect Resistance’ by crimethINC.com.

To start, is this you, or someone you know, perhaps? -
‘Could it be that I had never lived? I had traveled, but everywhere I'd been people spoke my language, accepted my currency, affirmed my assumptions. I lived in rented apartments built and maintained by people I'd never met; I didn't know how to build a house, or even fix my own plumbing. I bought food products from the supermarket without any idea what was in them or where they came from; I didn't know what it was to hunt and kill an animal or rely on a garden for sustenance. I had donated to charities, but never seriously done anything to address injustice or even interact with the ones who suffered it. I had voted for politicians and signed petitions, but never organized anything in my community, never. stopped a bulldozer or started a riot. I had dreams and aspirations, but it seemed I'd watched more action movies on television than I'd ever had adventures in real life. There were things I loved doing, goals I hoped to achieve, but I'd spent a lot more time working to pay for that rent, food, charity, television.’

Whether the above quote represents your thoughts or not, keep reading.

‘I wanted so earnestly to live, whatever that meant, but I was cocooned in a society that seemed to make that impossible, that sold itself to its citizens on precisely the grounds that it made that impossible.’ - Most hipsters and 'individuals' are trying to express something but as a result, it is usually something synthetic.


'All the career options and status symbols I'd worked my whole life to accumulate were starting to look like so many constraints and charades.'

'Diego and I would mock the ubiquitous billboards. "Look at that one," he'd point out, "Nice cowboy hat, gringo! And to top it off it's called 'Colt 45'-ever notice how every fucking malt liquor company has a name like that? We're supposed to identify with the brand names, to feel tough and powerful as we wreck our livers-but the barrel's pointed at us."
"And the crazy part is I still want the stuff. What else am I gonna do with the rest of the night?"
- Hipsters and 'individuals' think they are free and set apart from the rest, but the big picture is really that they are 'cocooned' in society.

For all you 5-finger-discounting-hipsters out there:-
"I know how to get everything for free, but I've got no idea how to get free myself."


‘Proselytizers (converters/preachers) seek footholds to claim territory within you, salesmen grasp for handles to jerk you around ... from new-age prophets to advertisers, from pornographers to radicals, everyone exhorts you to "pursue your desires," but the question remains: which ones! The "real" ones? Who decides which those are? ‘

‘It's a war for your soul on every front.'
- This is so true. So many people that regard themselves as 'free-spirits' in today's society, have already sold their soul without realizing it.

'We "want" to go to work because in this society no one looks out for those who don't, because it's hard to imagine more pleasurable ways to spend time when everything around us is designed for commerce and consumption.'



'If our desires are constructs, if we are the products of our environment, then our freedom is a question of how much control we have over that environment.'
- How do you think you are free, when you are bowing before the brands on your back? How do you think you have the power to choose, when on every block corner is a Starbucks, or McDonald's? How on earth are you controlling any of your environment when you are choosing to conform to it?

'It's nonsense to say a woman is free to feel however she wants about her body when she grows up surrounded by diet advertisements and posters of anorexic models.'

'It's nonsense to say a man is free to live as he pleases when everything he needs to do to acquire food, shelter, companionship, and a sense of accomplishment is already established and all that remains is for him to choose between prefabricated options.'

'We must make our freedom by forging the realities which, in turn, fashion us.'


'This sounds like a lot to ask. But change, revolutionary change, is going on everywhere all the time-and everyone plays a part in it, consciously or not.'



Everyone is playing a part in their own freedom, whether they know it, or not.
Whether they think they are free already, or not.

If you think you're already in the trap of being an 'individual', get out whilst you can.
If you're already out, stay tuned for the next couple of posts as towards what to do once you're out.

It is wearing your skin that is important. Not what covers it.


To close, I want to leave you with this thought that I came about with the other night;

‘Instead of spending so much time looking at your reflection, take a minute and see what’s behind it.’ - Hazardous.

Peace and Rice,
See you tomorrow, on Hazardous John's LAST day of exams! :D

Monday 16 February 2009

Informative Indulgence Part 8

Always remember – ‘This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time’.

With recent attention towards ‘Direct Action’ and the very fact that here at HPHQ, we are setting off for our second round of travels very soon, what better way than to have today’s post as an amalgamation of the two, here, ‘What Tyler Durden’s Philosophy teaches us about travel’ -

Today was a short one,
That’s because coming up towards the end of this week is some serious shit!
We’re breaking you all in gently…

To close;
‘You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it. ~Charles Buxton’

Peace and Rice,
HPs

(On a bit of a random note, for all you students reading this - http://theworkingpoordiet.blogspot.com/
Very interesting)

Sunday 15 February 2009

Informative Indulgence Part 7

Hello everyone,

Hopefully you had fun yesterday, although here at HPHQ, we believe that Valentine McSchmalentine's Day is all a load of shit, and no doubt all of you reading this will have figured that it shouldn't take one 'special' day out of the year to make an effort with your partner, the effort should be daily.

So, on to part 7, already, wow.


And so the song goes -

‘With a heart made of steel, I smashed through everything.’ – (1.09) Terror, One with the underdogs



We have now looked at two possibilities of what there might be to come in the future, or more to the point, what people are fighting for right now.

Regardless of whether the last few days have interested you as ‘solutions’ or not, nothing that you deem ‘ideal’ is going to happen just by you reading about it on the internet, sat on your arse.

Today’s post, therefore, is all about getting off of your arse.

As for everything, there’s a name for this: DIRECT ACTION ,

And the name should pretty much sum up what it is all about.
Anything from leaflet dropping to window smashing to interviewing people, all come under this title.
Thus, it’s a pretty broad use of terminology, but just getting out and doing something is basically what it is all about.

For the most part, all I can suggest to you is looking at your strengths, and sticking to them when it comes to taking Direct Action.

Do you have an approachable manner and good conversational skills? Look at interviewing and the journalism side perhaps.

Can you run fast, fight and don’t mind 14 hours in a 6X6 bricked-out room in case your running isn’t on form?
Look at protests and smashing up corporate property.

Good with designing and drawing, writing or creativity?
Take the arts route, look at writing articles, making a zine, designing leaflets or posters perhaps.

The list is endless, but if you focus on something you feel you’re good at, you’re more likely to do it. And everyone is good at SOMETHING.

It’s all about doing your part to get the message of truth out there.

I can’t even begin to type out the list of things that the Hazardous Pioneers have got planned for the next 6 months. But we are aiming big, and you will find out before long!

It may be that time is short for you. Well, you have the same time as everybody else on the planet for one day. That’s 24 hours. It’s how you divide up your time, how you make it, that will determine what you can get done.
Start small.
You’re less likely to give it up faster. Write something controversial or thought provoking, on a surface somewhere. Stick up a poster or a sticker. Ask that question to your professor in your next lecture.

Getting in to the mindset of Direct Action is often best accomplished via stages at a time, or so I have come to figure from experience. On and off, I started taking methods into my own hands from about the age of 12. And since then, it has become a way of life.

That’s the only way you are going to get something done that you’re happy with, by doing it yourself. And more often than not, we are our worst/best self-critics, so that just keeps pushing us further to achieve a point of happiness for ourselves, if nothing else.

Ok, well, with out further a do, I’d like to showcase some methods of Direct Action that have been inspiring to us, here at HPHQ, and hopefully you will find them inspiring too.
Also, if you come across inspiring stuff, feel free to send us a link via our email: hazardouspioneers@hotmail.com

Get ready for the video binge, because unless your name’s ‘Hazardous John’ then you should have today off, (or at least at some point), to sit, chill and watch the vids below …

This first one should moisten the appetite, haha!



Could you get on your local radio or tv station, posing as a corporate spokesperson? And start claiming that you will right your wrongs?
This is a classic…



Do you think you could help organize a flashmob?

Really powerful ways to get messages across to people in a way that they will not forget. Making an anonymous tip to the local newspaper and news crews in your area is a great way to get your message out.
Just watch this space when the Hazardous Pioneers return to England …





Or take on your local fast food monster? Absolutely love this one …


Visuals more your thing?
Of course, instead of branding, you would want to get a message out there…



Interesting Guerilla media strategy towards homelessness in L.A.



Or you fancy getting very direct?
:D

Black Block












ALF and ELF







So there you have it, just a minute amount of what can be done as a means of ‘Direct Action’.
Yes it requires effort. But the scale of happiness and of accomplishment that you will feel after pulling something off, if done correctly, is pretty much immeasurable.

So get off of your arse and start planning your missions.

Post them in to us via email, whether it’s ideas, videos, press cuttings, whatever, just do something worth while.

To close;
‘Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead, where there is no path, and leave a trail.’ – Ralph Waldo Emerson

See you’s on the ‘morrow,

HPs

P.S.
This is what the current HPHQ looks like. Yup, a shithole! ;)



Saturday 14 February 2009

Informative Indulgence Part 6

Wow, part 6 already.
Friday the 13th has come and gone, hopefully it wasn't too much of an ordeal for all you suspicious folk out there.

So yesterday we looked at one option that you might / might not class as a possible solution to all our shit!
Today is the second, and quite different approach, but still one that I am dissecting myself.

First of all, if you haven’t seen the second Zeitgeist film, ‘Addendum’ yet, then I recommend checking it out here first - / (and whilst you’re at it, check the first one too if you haven’t seen it either.)
The reason being, is that various solutions are brought up in Zeitgeist 2, and the film will do a better job of portraying and explaining it that I can!

Ok, so essentially, this second ‘solution’ is what has been called ‘The Venus Project’.
It’s mastermind is a guy called ‘Jacque Fresco’ and he claims to have it pretty much figured out. It’s the other end of the spectrum if you like, as this Venus Project is pretty much as futuristic as it gets.
The website for the project is here.

A video promo begins here.

Wikipedia info.

A basis for this is essentially a ‘technocratic society’ in which it is technology that is viewed as the solution. Government would not be as we know it, but instead the majority of decisions would come from the scientists etc that are skilled in certain areas pertaining to the appropriate technologies.

It’s pretty much as futuristic as you can imagine, and as Zeitgeist 2 points out, there are technologies in existence capable of making life a lot, lot easier for us. It’s just they haven’t been mentioned into the public eye.

It’s definitely an interesting proposition. The idea of a ‘Resource Based Economy’ and the idea of abundance, meaning that using technology, there would be so much material, food, water etc for everybody to have, that there would be no need for a monetary system any longer. Machines are described as doing pretty much all the work that they are capable of doing, freeing up the human life to accomplish other feats.

I personally swing both ways on this option as a solution to our problems.
I have many different points, probably that will be mentioned at a later stage, but for now;

Pros – well, I love motorbikes, what can I say, and there are other technologies which I have learnt to implement in my life and do enjoy, eg my computer, listening to music etc,
And as opposed to Zerzan’s proposed ideas of anti-civilisation, the above poses a possibility that I can still ride a motorbike, listen to some savage tunes and be on a laptop, who knows, maybe even all at the same time.
In other words, I have come to appreciate man’s inventions and technologies of various genres.

Cons – This whole idea still has a government implication, a computer government, or cybernetic. I just can’t help but think of that as something like answering to the robots in ‘I-Robot’. I.e. the thought of government is still in the picture.
As interesting as the cities and architecture looks, it does all look a bit model like for me. There’s little character in those perfectly curved globules and floating cities, for me. It all looks a bit pre-fab and generic.

And perhaps the most interesting for me, is that this is all bit on technology, or essentially the ‘silicone chip’. Yes, sand.
The bible has had it jotted down on its pages for centuries, ‘He who builds his world on sand, will truly fall’. And not just the bible, this has been apparent in other religious and ancient proverbial scripts too.
Haha, and what is this? A world built on sand.
Although, my counter to this point, which I thought of the other day, ‘How did the Egyptians build their world on sand? Like the pyramids? They’re still standing today! (But their civilization is not I guess …)’

Anyhow, there is some info on what is possible at least. Have a look at it and choose for yourself the pros and cons etc. The last quarter of Zeitgeist 2 will sum it up best, but of course bias to the ‘pro’ option.


To close;
‘First man. Then machine.’ – Honda


Some more fire coming tomorrow. Get ready ...

Friday 13 February 2009

Informative Indulgence Part 5

Reyyyy, Friday the 13th. Well, I’m not a superstitious person, so today won’t relate to that in any way, haha.

Instead, keeping up the theme or more precisely, lifestyle, of ‘anti-consumerism’, I guess it is now fair to start looking at some possible solutions to the ways of the world at present.

Yesterday, I mentioned ‘Clarity’. But that, I mean this: We have looked at just a microscopic amount of all the shit that is going on in our world right now. The truth is, if you keep looking for it, you will never stop finding out the negatives.
But I feel that now, after introducing you to a segment of ‘the shit’, it’s more beneficial to get you looking for yourselves at ‘possible solutions’ or ideas, or in that respect, pretty much anything that IS positive.
The truth is, there are 1000s of ideas floating around as to what we could be doing.

For me, I am currently in a process of selection, ‘torn between two ideals’, if you like. Two sets of ideas that I have come across which I have deemed as possible, and now I am just trying to look in to each one more, and see if it is something I can go and put a lot of effort into.

To be honest, I have given up with Politics and government as we know it. I now view myself as someone who upholds the principles and living ideas of an anarchist (including primarily those of individualism, anarcho-syndicalism and collectivist anarchism).
If you still have faith towards the government, as an ideal that can work for the better of mankind (in a society) and life in general, then that is your choice. For me, I have found enough evidence, and had personal encounters that have helped me make my OWN choice, best concluded by the phrase ‘There’s no government like no government’.

So, going back to the idea or ideals of ‘a solution’, or at least an alternative, I would like to put forth the two theories and ‘movements’, if you will, that I am currently in the process of dissecting and formulating an opinion upon each one.

Today’s post will start with one categorised movement, now commonly know as anarcho-primitivism or primitivism and is in context with ideas of ‘Green Anarchism’.
Out of the two, this is the ‘anarchism’ based movement / possibility.


For you that have read the previous ‘Informative Indulgence’ posts, (thoroughly recommended before continuing to read this, I might add) you may be familiar with the name ‘John Zerzan’, a leading thinker towards the anarcho-primitivism movement.

He was featured in the ‘Surplus’ film I posted a couple of days back, mentioning such classic analogies, such as ‘Sitting at home, watching MTV and smoking dope. To me that’s violent’.
To showcase the thoughts and ideas he is putting out there, I think the best way is to post some videos of him speaking.

Zerzan comes up with various points, some of which may sound confusing, some are simple. I think the best way for me to illustrate this to you is literally just to post links to his videos, and in your own time, watch them and dissect them for yourselves.
See what you make of them.

One set of his videos, ‘Earth’s Global Crisis’, you can watch here, on Youtube for free. It is in 8 parts and addresses some interesting points.

Another set, ‘Anarcho-Primitivism, Archeology and Anthropology’ is here, in 10 parts. Again, this link is a playlist, so you can watch it the whole way through if you please.


The last set, ‘Pretentions of Modernity’ is here, playlist too.

There are also three other films worth mentioning, which you can either watch on YouTube or Google Video, (youtube links are given.)

One is ‘Dead Society’ which is interesting, based on an interview with Zerzan. It raises some good points, for sure. You can watch it in parts, on Youtube here.

Another one, is ‘Adventures of a Speck of Dust’ , just 6 minutes long, below:


And lastly, ‘Yu Koyo Peya’ , playlist form, here:
That’s a lot of stuff there, so take your time.

To learn more about Zerzan, you can view his site here, where he has some articles that are of relevance.

To close;
‘We are all in the gutter. But some of us are looking at the stars.’ – Oscar Wilde

And, a beautiful song by Imogen Heap below, which is the only song I have listened to which gives me goosebumps more than 3 times, every time I listen to it!
Here is her live studio version of ‘Hide and Seek’.
Do we hide, or do we seek? I say seek. Always.
See you tomorrow.

Thursday 12 February 2009

Informative Indulgence Part 4

So hopefully you enjoying and learning a lot about what has been featured so far.

Today, for installment number 4, I would like to begin by referencing the missions I spoke about, that we, the Hazardous Pioneers, are going to plan out upon our return to the UK.

To illustrate what kind of missions I’m talking about, you should click this link, of British comedian, Mark Thomas or just watch the videos below.
Check out his blags that he did here (and listen to what is coming out of these people’s mouths!!) -



Part 2 -


And finally, part 3 -


This guy, all respect to him, put his nuts in some pretty hectic situations! Here he is, taking the piss out of some of the worlds most disgusting ‘behind the scenes’ killers. Legend.
You can read more about him here.


Just exactly what we’re going to do for our missions, we’re not quite sure. But we are going to have some fun with the corporations that have their posts in our city of Portsmouth, you can be sure of that. We hope to capture it on video too, so that’s something to look forward to.

When I was living in Brighton in 2007/2008, I did do a little mission of my own.
And the story goes –
Miserable with life in Brighton, and quite disappointed with the lack of eye candy at my music college, I decided to accomplish the blag of all blags.
The ‘Miss Brighton and Sussex University’ Fashion show / beauty pageant was coming up, and I was going.
But I wasn’t gonna buy a fuckin’ ticket. Oh no. I was going. As a press photographer.
That’s right.
Finding the organiser’s details on Facebook, I sent him a message, saying I was a photographer from ‘Time Out’ magazine (you may have heard of it) and that I was interested in grabbing some shots of his event coming up.
Well, sure enough, I got a reply, and knowing how these events work (roughly, used to run hiphop showcases back in Portsmouth from 16-17years of age) I knew that the organiser of this one, would be running around, and not really do his research as to he’s really letting in through the doors for free.
Well, the event was taking place at Digital nightclub, on Brighton’s seafront. Only down the road from me, perfect. Now, as any of you blaggers know, a blaggers best friend is his prop. I, claiming to be a press photographer, had sweet F.A. for props, so I gave my friend a call, to ask him if he could get hold of a large SLR camera.
Turns out, his house mate had one, and he was up for joining me, blagging himself as a fashion journalist.
Well, we both got there, told the bouncers who we were, met the organiser and just milked it. Hard.
The massive SLR I had round my neck didn’t even work! That’s right, I blagged us in, with a broken camera.
We got inside, had VIP access, got to watch a lot of hot, but stupid, girls getting changed and I even hustled every single one of their phone numbers and emails. It was a morale boost if anything, and quite a good laugh. I blagged myself on stage to take photos, not even having a clue what I was doing. And to say the least, it was pretty hilarious.
We left, not having paid anything, and I told the organiser convincingly, that I would ‘be in touch.’
Davis 1 – Fashion chumps – 0.

Another group of lads that get up to some corporate mischief, are the ‘Yes Men’. You may have heard of them already.
They also have a new film coming out in these next few days, which will hopefully be up on the net soon.
Here’s a little insight, from their website.

‘Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno are two guys who just can't take "no" for an answer. They have an unusual hobby: posing as top executives of corporations they hate. Armed with nothing but thrift-store suits, they lie their way into business conferences and parody their corporate nemeses in ever more extreme ways - basically doing everything that they can to wake up their audiences to the danger of letting greed run our world.’
You can read more about them here.

These guys are an inspiration. Laugh hard at what they do. But never forget what they’re telling you / showing you. They are embarrassing these fuckers for a reason, this ain’t some Ashtray Kutcher ‘Punk’d’ shit. The shit that these corps do, is very real and is going on everyday. It’s up to people like us to voice ourselves any way possible.

(For people reading this that live in the UK:
Mark Thomas has recently published this article.

And I think it’s a vital read to everyone who lives in the UK. Especially if you are unclear with the protocol that the police are supposed to carry out when they ask to stop and search you etc. Really good shit.
The article that this relates to, is written on Mark’s site here: the article’s name is ‘Criminal Policing’.)

To close,
‘The turtle only makes progress when it’s neck is stuck out’ – Rollo May

‘To live, is to sacrifice.’ – Throwdown

And finally,

'Always listen to your heart. The day you try to control it too much is the day it will give up.' - Harry Davis

Peace and rice chums,
Tomorrow? Some sort of ‘Clarity’, I hope.