The Nascence to End Work ..."The NEW":
“Nascence” means “birth.” To birth a movement to end work is the work of The NEW.
We have to be made commodities before anything else can, and we have to be made whole again before the earth can. (From: “Seeing The Communal Alternative”.) "Gross disparities in access to the goodies" is the "planetary imbalance" I'm waiting for all the environmentalists to confront.
01.31.12: Dear Brothers and Sisters:
The power-supply on my modem fried... as I was uploading files (yesterday).... My computer's power-supply also recently died... and cost quite a bit to fix... so... I'm at the library telling you this: it may take some time 'til I'm back on-line.
The critical thing for our movement is... to never let up momentum. Stay strong, Pamela.
Brothers and Sisters, see today's (01.30.12) update of the discussion "Unpacking ‘Democracy’ " at “Getting to Our Future Freedom” … which asks, “so what did Marcuse mean by “the democratic introjection”?
Also see a further discussion of ‘democracy’ at "Naming the Future: “What Do We Call It? Who Cares? It Means ‘Freedom’”", also: “Occupying Our Commons”, and the song “A Daddy.”
01.27.12: There is a new, Part 2, “The Pursuit of Happiness”… in addition to our conversations: “The Egyptian Revolution” and “We Are All Leaders”. Also: is there a brother or sister out there who can tell me whether a "smart meter" radio signal path can be used to infect a home electrical system?
Brothers and Sisters… Let's prepare our children for a bright future. Check out: The Talking Tree.
Palmers’ Chat: As We Take Our Earth Back… A Call To Reclaim… Our Earth… Our Thoughts… Our Minds… It’s Time.
09.01.11: Brothers and Sisters:
Challenging the ‘wisdom’ of allowing ‘the state’ to define the lines and limits of our future does not mean it is irrelevant who (nominally) controls existing government… it means we must (as always) juggle many tasks… become skilled in the balancing act… graceful at maneuvering in a swamp… because we must both systematically build our future – i.e. authentic lives that extend our inter-connections with each other and with the earth – and hold the ‘power’-mad at bay…. And with this danger-infused latter task the election of Barack was a gift we had no reason to hope for….
Plato’s Tribe has been testing the winds for furthering totalitarian tends for some time now (Honduras comes to mind… ditto the many cloaked passive-obedience experiments they continuously float… [how many can you spot?… e.g. telling incoming university students they must submit samples of their substances…]). Re-electing Barack could not be more important.
The Extreme Right’s objective is to make ‘government’ (until it’s totalitarian) ineffective… and ‘One-Man-Rule’ seem attractive (as the Spearman book says). Note how in eight years of Bush they seeded their functionaries in every nook and cranny of government… there to sneak and defeat, relay and delay… if we lose the presidency now, ‘government’ will quickly decay (and I don’t mean ‘wither away’… as we claim our own days)… it’s already been bled dry by ‘disaster’ after ‘disaster’…. (I’m sure for them it’s a hearty laugh… a great joke… to hear the name ‘god’ invoked.)
And if ‘government’ decays, as sure as paychecks means puppets they will wheel in some ‘strong’, ‘fatherly’ figure who will tell us he can solve all our problems for us… ‘poverty’… ‘violence’… crumbling infrastructure (think of the ‘jewel’ Ancient Greece could be with all that slave labor pounded out continuously… never fear, ‘our’ (read: ‘their’) cities could be just as ‘beautiful’ here….)
If ‘controlling the people’ is the primary goal (of ‘power’)… and it is… then levers must be found, refined, and religiously applied, to accomplish this design.
[“Occupying” is not about picking up trash *… it's much deeper than that… it's a movement that moves us… to our future freedom.]
05.22.11: Brothers and Sisters:
I’ve written a book in draft... but as... I'm experiencing body issues… and I like to plan… and life ain’t promised… (a truth-gift given with the pain… we all live under numbered days) …I thought maybe this time… I’ll share it serially online… and extend an invite… to any who’d like… to experience some insights… all together.
So right off the bat… I’ll tell you that… it’s called:
Palmers’ Chat: As We Take Our Earth Back… A Call To Reclaim… Our Earth… Our Thoughts… Our Minds… It’s Time.
(© 2011 by Pamela Satterwhite in support of Nas2EndWork)
So, here’s a “heads up” to those who want to engage in this show… there are four books you should know, if not in their entirety, then mostly:
The Open Society and Its Enemies, Vol. 1: The Spell Of Plato, by Karl Popper (© 1962 and 1966)
Plato is ‘power’s’ chief deity…
…providing its theory…
…and reason-to-be…
Modern Dictatorship, by Diana Spearman (© 1939)
Spearman shows that as the 20th century unfolded…
…a Plato-inspired vision of…
…a global… static…
…hell…
…was alive and well…
The Kindness Of Strangers – The Abandonment Of Children In Western Europe From Late Antiquity To The Renaissance, by John Boswell (© 1988)
While we know how viciously war rends…
…every soul caught in its destruction…
…and urge the need to treat…
…returning soldiers’ PTSD…
…I haven’t heard a peep…
…about the need to treat…
…the quite visible psychic remnants…
…of three thousand years of child abandonment…
(…and we know... its chief promoter was Plato.)
[I finally understand “Rock-a-bye Baby…” as a child it never made any sense to me.]
Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots Of Classical Civilization, Vol. 1: The Fabrication Of Ancient Greece 1785 – 1985, by Martin Bernal (© 1987)
The subtitle says it all…
…we owe a debt of thanks to Bernal…
…for showing how ‘power’ does it…
…when it needs a ‘history’ constructed…
So…I propose… a collective untwisting of a knot… the question of why so much disaster has been wrought… …by so few….
…I mean, really, what are they up to?
Because ‘greed,’ I learned, is for them but a tool…
…a weapon in a monumental dual…
Here the interests are far from taming or chaining the passions of the rulers; on the contrary, if the citizens become absorbed by the pursuit of their private interests, it will be possible for a “clever and ambitious man to seize power.” And Tocqueville directs some superbly caustic and prophetic words (written years before the rise of Napoleon III) at those who, for the sake of a favorable business climate, ask only for “law and order”:
“A nation that demands from its government nothing but the maintenance of order is already a slave in the bottom of its heart; it is the slave of its well-being, and the man who is to chain it can arrive on the scene.”
…If it is true that the economy must be deferred to, then there is a case not only for constraining the imprudent actions of the prince but for repressing those of the people, for limiting participation, in short, for crushing anything that could be interpreted by some economist-king as a threat to the proper functioning of the “delicate watch.”
Secondly, [Adam] Ferguson and [Alexis de] Tocqueville implicitly criticized the older tradition of thought that had seen in the pursuit of material interest a welcome alternative to the passionate scramble for glory and power…. [Their] point: as long as not everyone is playing the “innocent” game of making money, the total absorption in it of most citizens leaves the few who play for the higher stakes of power freer than before to pursue their ambition. In this way social arrangements that substitute the interests for the passions as the guiding principle of human action for the many can have the side effect of killing the civic spirit and of thereby opening the door to tyranny. (Albert O. Hirschman, The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph, p.123 – 125)
Because ‘greed,’ I learned, is for them but a tool…
…a weapon in a monumental dual…
(…and while they know this is true, we-the-people for the most part have yet to… so… let’s open our eyes and get to… our true ‘work.’)
The chief insight that will ensue… is that global suffering is solely due… to the misplaced allegiance of a few… to the Paterfamilias of Western ‘Thought’… who wreaked so much havoc on we-who-are-caught… in their monumental sense of loss….
You probably know…
…I’m talking about Plato…
…and as the disaster riding this steed…
…never stops accelerating…
…it’s time to consciously know…
…our historic role…
…of choosing the fate of conscious heroes…
…facing a completely uncompromising foe:
…the ‘Tribe Of Plato.’
“Why are the podrunks so afraid?”, my son asked me in one of two audio interviews. Of course a sound-byte venue ain’t really fit for big-chunk, musing analysis.
Hence this new book asks: “why indeed?”
But what’s even more confusing and calls for our musing is: “Why do we give ‘power’ our allegiance… allow them our passive obedience?”
And, lastly, Palmers’ Chat will argue that we must substantially sharpen our picture of ‘freedom’… …of ‘future.’
I think it’s time for all of us to get clear on these points, first, because so doing will help us know what (world) we want – and if we aren’t clear what we want, we won’t get it – and, secondly, if we don’t know what we got, not only will we be handed a future instead of creating it, we could be duped into believing the ‘future’ we’re handed is something ‘new,’ when it’s really just the same old poisoned brew.
When ‘power’ looks at our dilemma…
…they see no viable alternative…
…and for millennia they’ve known…
…that protest without vision…
…got nowhere to go.
We must recall they call us ‘cattle’…
…easily dismissed…
…easily saddled.
Imagine a herd gathered at your gate…
…threatening to strike…
…if there’s no hay-hikes…
…what would you do?
…you’d probably wait…
…until their stomachs start to ache…
…and then maybe offer to negotiate…
…pretend to placate…
…and watch while ‘protest’…
…predictably…
…dissipates.
Before we begin, a further word on my dilemma:
I spent a lot of time initially trying to get answers to the often all-body-pain. The knee, back and hip aches… and the asthma… were straightforward enough, but the head-aches and chest pain, doctors couldn’t explain. Eventually I arrived at the point (where I am still) in which using my available energies to write became more important to me that using them to run to ground my physical maladies.
Applying for disability brought further disappointment.
How to live? I worried, when I was rejected… Then I found on appeal they were willing to deal, on condition I accepted I was mentally defective. Afterwards in talking to my neighbors I discovered this tactic is frequently used on black folk, just as our youth are disproportionately slotted into “special education” classes. (We must be seriously threatening to this system.)
So let’s all claim ‘mental disability’…
…and, while we’re at it, ‘stupidity’…
“Stand with the Stoopids!” I say…
…and then maybe…
…one day…
…soon…
…together we’ll claim…
…our much-deserved…
…long-delayed…
…freedom.
So…solidarity in hand… I invite your feedback as we begin.... Find my postings herein:
Palmers’ Chat: As We Take Our Earth Back
P.S. to ‘power’… from Charlotte:
Oh, lovers of power! Oh, mitred aspirants for this world’s kingdoms! an hour will come, even to you, when it will be well for your hearts – pausing faint at each broken beat – that there is a Mercy beyond human compassions, a Love stronger than this strong death which even you must face, and before it, fall; a Charity more potent than any sin, even yours; a Pity which redeems worlds – nay, absolves priests. (Charlotte Brontë, Villette)
05.27.11
Brothers and Sisters:
(Has it really been a whole year?)
It's rather pathetic to feel such a sense of accomplishment in being able to upload to my own website. I changed my ISP only to find I'd only jumped side-to-side, to the very same company's 'green' alter-ego... Oh well.
...anyway, the upload function is working, so... if I can (lovingly) squeeze a minute or two from my son's time... a challenge as he just became a daddy (making me... ...ah... in the course of time... life finds its rhyme)... we will try to do... one or two or a few... more audio interviews.
I hope you'll... let me know what you think...
PS (from 06.01.10): The more I ponder the effect of "the news"...the more I'm convinced...it's primary purpose...is passive obedience...as what we're told is "reality"...promotes the grossest insanity...and our own slavery. I think it's time to think of "the news" as meaning what you and I do...with our limited time...to leave behind...a planet in far better shape than we found it...having discovered that it is "our hands"...under our own command...that will return us to...what we once knew: "the communal".
06.01.10
Dear Sal,
Thank you for your letter. It was helpful. I appreciate your sharing...not just your ideas, but the heart behind them. Lynn hasn't replied...which makes sense as she 'works'...and the point of 'a job' is to ensure we're too tired to help our brothers and sisters...so...my getting feedback on your legal issues may take some time. That you, despite being under such stress, take the time to engage in long-distance discussion is very generous.
I actually don't think of us as "brainwashed"...even though it's incontestable to say we've been 'trained.' (After all, from the perspective of 'Power,' what's the point of all those dollars if they can't buy a sense of safety? a guarantee of our continued passivity?)
When I was reading your letter I couldn't help but think of Emile Zola's Germinal – one of the few honest treatments of the lives of working people under the harsh regime of 'The Industrial Revolution.' I'm sending it along in case you haven't read it and might enjoy traveling with Emile for awhile. He researched it exhaustively to ensure accuracy – it's based on an actual event.
I can relate to your distaste for the state...but (as David Cay Johnston writes), "there's a reason that 35,000 people are registered as lobbyists in Washington, double the number of lobbyists employed there in 2000." The financial industry particularly has been yanking the state's chain for centuries....and my delving into their antics has definitely shown...you gotta follow where the money goes.
But I think "the state"...along with "the police"...exist not just as means...to transfer our dollars to the back pockets of the wealthy's jeans...but also to serve as buffers...so that "the puppet-master" behind the scenes can remain discreetly hidden. For example, Bill Gates is a major funder of these demonic geoengineering schemes you mentioned.
Zola is one of the very few ancestors (that I know of) who grapples with this problem.
In my life / experience it has been the literal truth that the ancestors, the earth, and each other are sources of power – the only true power...and that the force, manipulation and control the power-drunk are obsessed with...is illusion.
Our ancestors went to their deaths yet wrestling with the very same vampire we wrestle with today...it's critical that we honor them...and advance their gift.
Did you ever read this poem by Emily Dickinson?
I took my Power in my Hand –
And went against the World –
'Twas not so much as David – Had –
But I was twice as Bold –
I aimed my pebble – but myself
was all the one that fell –
Was it Goliath – was too large –
Or was myself – too small?
When we join with them we make them bigger...so that one day...their enormous love will be big enough.
On the very last page of Flesh, when the narrator asks Ernest, essentially, "why keep writing when nobody hears you?" he answers..."Wait."
Truth will out.
(It is a mathematical certainty.)
...Looking forward to our future freedom without bosses....
Brothers and sisters...
Happy May Day Yet To Be!...
...as this site approaches its one year anniversary...
...arguing that the only way to be free is to get off our knees...
...and embrace across the categories....
...And as "the system's" destroying the planet....
...it's imperative we withdraw our hands from it...
...and turn instead to our own project...
...which could be called: "re-incorporating the power-drunk...
...into the rest of us"...
...or, speaking more subjectively,...
..."listening to our bodies"...
...or...maybe...
..."seeding our freedom by being willing...
...to believe in good fellowship!"...
This site argues for the elegance of a theory and a movement...
...that advances our ancestors' gifts...
...and crosses borders of issue, state, race, religion and "complicity status"... ***
We've been falsely divided by a few elites globally...
...who are terrified of our becoming unified...
...and of our realizing that we don't need them...
...at all.
This site and the book appealed...
...to your support to keep it real...
...but that support has yet to congeal...
One man's given $12, another $20, and the third (a real prize) $45.
This practical parsimony comes at a time...
...when a flood of ideas are coming down the line:
...a kitchen to extend good fellowship...
...festivities for the youth here...
– as what middle-class movements find "fun"...for youth in the "street"...
...may not be.
So I'm asking more directly...in the hope you also see the crossroad where we stand...
...and the importance of the alternative taking material form...i.e. being seen...
...so that many more can change what they "believe."
...And...
Brothers and sisters...can we please stop saying, "we need jobs"...? Every time we do we're aligning our interests (unconsciously) with the pitiful-power-drunk-few. We don't need 'jobs'...we need full, vibrant, interesting, fun and reverent lives free of the yoke....It's time to houseclean our heads, sweep out the conditioning, change the messages, make our own 'stories,' re-name our 'selves.' I've looked "human being" up in the dictionary and there's nothing there about being a slave.(From: "The Ruses Used To Rend Us"]
Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds;...There is a terrible coercion in our deeds which may first turn the honest man into a deceiver, and then reconcile him to the change; for this reason – that the second wrong presents itself to him in the guise of the only practicable right... (George Eliot, Adam Bede)
"There is a terrible coercion in our deeds..." – and though we may be as unwilling to own them – as Arthur in Adam Bede was unwilling to own his heinous acts – when we sell our agency...our energy...our vitality and powers of analysis to the highest bidder...that deed shapes us nonetheless...makes us what we are...
– so how can we begin to make ourselves rather than cooperating with the plans of others to make us?
[Continued at: "Becoming The Function"]
Brothers and sisters:
Is there a word or phrase you'd like to taze?...or set ablaze...in innumerable ways...because of the walls they raise...and the ways they degrade...?
...for example...: "We need jobs;" "The experts say..."...
*** “We cannot allow good fellowship to be riven by false divisions."
Not long ago I passed by folks parading with pickets – calling attention to podrunk thievery....
By the time I'd reversed track and was on my way back the police had been called...to harass them....
One man in blue was talking to a woman clearly he was attracted to...
...I heard him gripe he didn't like being a tool for those who rule...
...so they smiled at me good-naturedly when I found myself bursting...
...into the song: "Which Side Are You On?"
Though it's guaranteed the power-drunk...
...are busy organizing as many complicity-seeking folks (caught in system-stoked invisibility) as they can...
...(police especially)...
...though this is a given...we can't allow good fellowship to be riven...
...by false divisions.
The majority of police are aware of the devastating cost to everyday folks...
...of the demonic schemes of the financial industry...
...but there are those, we know, being paid to sow...
...racial tensions between us...
...and as the stakes have stepped up...
...we'd best step our game up...
...and not hesitate to pitch our good news to the folks in blue...
...(and if you want Waking Up for this use, I'll send it to you)...
...police are forced to be "slaves" too....
...We can't make assumptions...
...based on salary-given functions....
...the fist called "the job" has us by the short-hairs too.
[See "Thank You Sandy"]
* This is a reference to a comment over the airwaves that one community is organizing a neighborhood clean-up as part of the ‘occupy movement.’
No one else can tell you what work you're here to do.
Across all false divisions that states inculcate, people are people everywhere.
"Human intelligence is like water, air and fire – it cannot be bought or sold."
The work that must be done requires all of us or none.
We need strategies; we need a plan.
We need approaches; we need a path.
We need steps we can follow,
And a view of the end;
We need patience to get there,
And a place to begin –
Refuse Division Work;
All of us, or none;
No tests;
No diplomas;
No degrees.
They aren’t needed
to be free.
All together now!
One, Two, Three, Four,
We don’t buy from you no more!
Buy from the people,
Buy from the source
Buy from each other
And bury the corpse!
Done with the fearing youth.
Done. Done. Done.
Love them
and they’ll love you back.
Feed them
and they’ll grow.
Done with the hurting youth.
Done. Done. Done.
Hitting is so passé,
so completely
yesterday.
We’re too brilliant
for such crude techniques,
Too buoyant
to be so cold.
Live simply,
Help each other,
Don’t buy anything
but the least you have to.
And whatever we use
We get from friends.
We’ll be forming the crew
that builds the NEW.
No more settling
for less than what we want.
Little by little
we whittle and whittle
away the death-worship,
the denial of meaning,
returning to reverence,
to spiral renewal,
to springs out of winters,
and to all things communal.
© Nas2EndWork (the NEW)
We’ve been conditioned to struggle with our frustrations – the challenge of trying to be a full human being, full of life, health, and joy – alone. Now is the time to talk with each other about these difficulties. Simply meeting together and acknowledging that the current social arrangement cannot meet our need to be whole is a huge step forward, but we cannot stop there.
We’ve been systematically stripped of our inheritance as free beings. Now is the time to reclaim that freedom.
This site inaugurates the movement to end wage work. Over the course of millennia the creativity, blood, sweat, tears, and love of working people have fueled a massive and bloody exploitation of the planet…but it’s time to rest. Through arguments, ideas, and actions explored and discussed on this site, our collective efforts to create a very different form of social organization – premised on our future freedom without bosses – will be evolved and pushed forward.
© 2009 Nas2EndWork (the NEW)