Fewer hours of work the bioregional way
Dear Slingshot: An answer to the seemingly never-ending struggle for social justice, as well covered in Slingshot, is to start the rebellion for a new society right at home. But instead of opting for living free of polluting consumer products such as cars, TVs, and refrigerators, etc., activists persist in compromising unnecessarily, thus rationalizing the destruction of my planet. (I use the singular first person possessive to make the point that we must not make “choices” that violate others’ right to live.)
If people adopted a philosophy and way of living that put nature first, and acted and reacted accordingly, political actions would be more relevant to our and all species’ common survival. Instead, anthropocentric tendencies prevail while we get caught up in no end of social causes. Keeping up with all the struggles is laudable but ineffective when one gets no closer to bringing about a visionary alternative to the poIluting consumer society. The Police State is evil and must be dismantled, but what if it gave way to a peaceful consuming society still destroying the Earth? With overpopulation a reality in the U.S., we have no reasonable hope to continue using even green technological products on a massive scale, as the Earth’s destruction would still march on. Racism and sexism are reprehensible and mustn’t be tolerated, but the human is not a life form any more valuable than another. When that mistake is made, the web of life becomes unraveled, and there’ll be no world to be racist or sexist (or fair) in.
Ken Ellis’ column in the Early Spring issue nudges people in a dangerous direction. He unwittingly advocates social justice as an end in itself, but on a dead planet. I can’t use it. And his notion of the economy is rooted in past misconceptions of the supposed need for material abundance. More free time for workers sounds great, but in Ellis’ economy the same idiotic production and consumption of “goods” would continue and keep destroying nature. The idea that this society is capable of providing for the necessities of life (for all or for the few) is a notion relying on unsustainable processes misusing the natural world and relying on diminishing resources such as petroleum. Ellis believes in work, productivity, and everyone having plenty of stuff many assume we modern industrial consumers need. Even if his faulty model was sustainable, there is another view of economics that takes us out of national and international manipulation and vulnerability. Bioregional-based subsistence, that revives traditional indigenous knowledge, will also feature fewer work hours. We will have to dispense with the bogus promise of using highly entropic inanimate energy for the so-called “necessities of life”.
Sincerely,
Jan Lundberg,
Fossil Fuels Policy Action Institute
Free Radio Letter
Dear Slingshot: I’ve got the Spring 1997 issue here and I thought I would give you an update for your FREE RADIO USA list. The STEAL THIS RADIO (Lower East Side, NY) frequency is 88.7 FM. There is at least one microtransmitting station in Philadelphia, PA (in West Philly), it is RADIO MUTINY at 91.3 FM (WPPR). There will soon be a station in Brooklyn (Williamsburg neighborhood) but I don’t know yet what frequency. I’ll try to keep you posted.
Thanks for putting together this incredible list. VIVA LA RADIO PIRATES!
–Roachiebug, c/o Paper Tiger TV