The Golden Compass, a fantasy film based on trilogy of novels by Philip Pullman

This year's offering is The Golden Compass, a fantasy based on His Dark
Materials, the trilogy of novels by Philip Pullman. In the novel, a 12-year-old girl named Lyra sets out on a quest to expose a malevolent governing body called "the Church", which answers to the "Vatican council" and kidnaps children for experimentation.

Enough with the Cynicism. 'Listen, Little Man' a 1948 book by Wilhelm Reich. It's easy to be cynical

Are you truly alive, or are you ridden with the plague Reich of silent
complicity ...

http://artdurkee.blogspot.com/2007/11/enough-with-cynicism-already.html

Monday, November 26, 2007
Enough with the Cynicism, Already
...
It's easy to be cynical.
(Entropy is always easier than extropy, just as sewage runs downhill.)
It's easy to despair.
Sometimes it takes all one's energy to like a plan for living.
It's easier to be mean than it is to be gracious; it takes less energy to
be self-centered than to be altruistic.
After awhile, you begin to believe that no-one cares about anything you
have to say. At which point, you have generated a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It's also very easy to attack whenever your precious little ego is
attacked: a counter-attack, a counter response, even a pre-emptive attack,
is considered justified when it prefers the self above all others. Wilhelm
Reich wrote about this in 1948, in his little warning of a book, ''Listen,
Little Man''!

"Those who are truly alive are kindly and unsuspecting in their human
relationships and consequently endangered under present conditions. They
assume that others think and act generously, kindly, and helpfully, in
accordance with the laws of life. This natural attitude, fundamental to
healthy children as well as to primitive man, inevitably represents a great
danger in the struggle for a rational way of life as long as the emotional
plague subsists, because the plague-ridden impute their own manner of
thinking and acting to their fellow men. A kindly man believes that all men
are kindly, while one infected with the plague believes that all men lie
and cheat and are hungry for power. In such a situation the living are at
an obvious disadvantage. When they give to the plague-ridden, they are
sucked dry, then ridiculed or betrayed".
...
The plague Reich referred to was (silent) complicity ...
It is complicity in believing that one has already lost the game, because
the adversary has told you so, and therefore one might as well give up and
not bother.
The roots of cynicism lie in frustrated and embattled hope.
The fruits of cynicism are death and hatred, especially self-hatred,
because underneath it all lies fear.
A fear of passionate engagement, as is done by little children, who put it
all out there, and take it all in, giving and receiving a hundred percent
of themselves to each moment.
Passion means commitment, and the cynical are afraid to commit, especially
to commit the sin of admitting they might be wrong.
...
Don't confuse me with shallow optimists or Pollyannas. I have no use for
"positive thinking" when it's based on denial or repression, rather than a
realistic assessment of any given situation. I have little patience with
those who would paste over every conflict with a false smile: as though
sweeping it under the rug ever really made it go away.

Telling the truth, being honest to oneself and others, is a life-affirming
act, and the opposite of ironic distance. A prophet cannot afford to be a
cynic, and probably was never in any actual danger of becoming one;
although even prophets have times of despair.

The antidote to cynicism is fearlessness, and an embracing of the freedom
to be honest with oneself, and with others. This implies the freedom to
make a fool of oneself, of course; but it also gives us the freedom to
think for oneself, to formulate one's own beliefs and opinions, rather than
have them served to you by others. The antidote to despair is a realistic
assessment that includes what is good as well as what causes suffering.

If you fulfill the role of a prophet, somebody will inevitably come along
and try to dismiss you with ironic humor—irony has become the dominant mode
of cultural discourse, reflecting an essential hollowness, and forgetting
that irony is an experience, not a critical-rhetorical stance—because you
will make them uncomfortable, if you are sincerely childlike in your
refusal to be cynical. Which is essentially a refusal to play along with
the gang.

No-one will like you once you break the unspoken rules of the gang, and
speak for yourself, as though you were your own person.
...
It's easy to go along with the gang: that too is a form of entropy.

The gang will tell you Resistance is futile, and expect you to believe it,
simply because they say, and because they believe in the sheer power of
their own numbers. But resistance isn't futile: those silly little humans
ended up defeating the gang.

Reich also writes, "You plead for happiness in life, but security means
more to you". That is the general miasma of culture at this point in
history. So, if you stand up yourself, you are sticking your neck out; make
no mistake of that. If security means more to you than a life of personal
responsibility, then the gang already owns you, and will manipulate you
with ease.

It's easy to be negative, to be dismissive, to dismiss without having
genuinely engaged. It's easy to be critical, rather than constructively
critical. It takes more effort to be actively a mentor rather than a
dismissive critic.
...
But no: most critics would rather have something bad to say. Perhaps it's
because they're so small, they can only feel larger if they tear everyone
else down, bringing them down to their level. ...
Lamenting it won't make it better, or make it go away. The proper response
is a shrug, rather than a diatribe. There were no Golden Days, that's just
nostalgia for an illusory and fantastical past. The cynic would have you
agree with him, and will fight hard against you if you don't. Cynics are as
convinced they are right as are most fanatics; differing worldviews are
subject to mockery of the tepid lameness typical of late-night talk-show
monologues. Dismiss what you can't accept; mock what you can't undertsand;
then it's easier to ignore. Entropy wins again.

But the antidote to entropy is life. The anodyne of cynicism is passion,
passionate engagement, a well-formed opinion that isn't afraid of either
commitment or being wrong. The opposite of love is not hate, but
indifference: hatred implies you still actually care enough to spend your
energy on it. No true cynic wastes any time on hate, because that would be
caring too much; they know this, on some level, even if they won't admit
it. An ironic shrug is their stance, because that keeps them safe from
actual engagement or commitment.

it's easier to roll downhill with the rest. But you're going uphill, not
down, when you refuse to become cynical. You're going to see the wizard, or
to see what the world looks like on the other side of the mountain. You
don't even have to have a reason to go uphill. The mere fact that you feel
you have lost your way, anytime you don't feel like you're going uphill, is
a reliable inner barometer for taking the true path in life. Even if you
feel like your life and your art is being drowned by a huge wave about to
break over you, you have the choice to surf rather than give in and just
drown. It can be a struggle that seems to take away all your life-energy in
an instant.
...
So, go uphill. It may be a sisyphean task, and it may in the end be
pointless. But any action that slows down entropy, even locally, even for
just a little while, is divinely blessed, and sheds light and life on all
who witness.

posted by Art Durkee at 9:38 PM

Peter Garrett, Environmentalists in the ALP

In a light-weight story comparing Peter Garrett and Missy Higgins, Rocking the green boat, by Tim Kroenert in the ABC's online Opinion section [Posted Thu Nov 22, 2007 9:07am], the comments section was ablaze with dozens of polarised responses.

I read all of the responses, and I discovered that every single one of the "anti-Garrett" comments was not only cynical, but also grossly ill-informed. It is so easy to take someone down, but oh so much harder to actually affect change in this world.


Peter Garrett's incredible opportunity to make a difference

In the last State-level election here in our seat of Northcote the local Labor thugs doctored a letter of support that Peter Garrett wrote for the Labor candidate (Fiona Richardson), and bulk-mailed the doctored letter to every single person on the electoral role. They added words like “a vote for the Greens could help the Liberals get elected in Victoria” into Peter Garrett’s letter.

Whilst being unquestionably untrue, it had the intended effect and certainly lowered the Greens vote in the electorate of Northcote by quite a few percent. Quite a few friends and neighbours asked me about it, and told me that, as a result of the letter that they had received "from Peter Garrett", they had voted ALP instead of Greens, “just in case”.

A year later now and they are still worried about this issue, although I think that I’ve reassured them. I know for sure that a large proportion of such singing voters (the Greens < -- > Labor kind) in the Northern half of this electorate of Batman who don’t have someone to reassure them will still have voted ALP at this November 2007 federal election

Peter Garrett is the most heroic of environmentalists to have joined the ALP so that he can work for change from inside the system. You’d have to have a very tough skin to join the ALP now if you were a committed environmentalist. There are still plenty of inner-city greenies in the ALP. They're now in their fifties. These are the people who started CERES, pioneered indigenous revegetation of waterways in Australia (ie. Merri Creek), saved Brunswick North West Primary School from being closed (the greenest primary school in Victoria), stopped freeways, saved parks and heritage buildings, got bike tracks built, started Green Jobs schemes and got a whole lot of National Parks declared.

But alas, I can’t join the ALP as I don’t have the stomach for it, a decision confirmed for me when I ran for local Council for the Greens. Some of the local Labor apparatchiks with whom I’m friendly committed appalling acts of deceit and illegal dirty tricks directly against me; “just playing the game, mate”, they told me.

I’m a gentle type, and the Greens are my tribe; thus, I perpetuate the stereotype.

Community Safety; the streets are safe but people don't feel safe

A fantastic radio program on "Community Safety", today, Fri 19 Oct 2007.

There isn't really a crime wave, it is people's perception.
* People aren't walking on the streets, so they don't feel safe.
* "Stranger Danger" is a myth, but people don't let their kids walk to school, or play in the street.

Answering questions like:
How do we get people reengaging with community space if people are fearful?

The details of this program aren't yet up on the web ...

Australia Talks | Radio National

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/australiatalks/index/date2007.htm

First meeting about Vegie Garden, 8Mar07 - notice in school Newsletter

http://www.walesstps.vic.edu.au/home/?703
Wales St Primary School

Newsletter

WALES STREET NEWS
08/03/07

Vegie Garden at Wales St

Some parents Clare H, Marianne T and Adam T are meeting at 9.15am tomorrow Friday 9th March in the staffroom to talk about planning for a vegie garden at our school.
We are looking for anyone who may be able to attend the School Kitchen Garden conference day on Tuesday 20th March at Collingwood Town Hall.
Contact one of us if you are interested in either.
Adam Tiller 0413 835 173 adamt@psychcentre.org

Vegetable Garden Program

Wales St Primary School

Timetable for Fridays

Garden Period 1

10.15am - 11am (Sue's class for 2 weeks, Steve's class for 2 weeks)

Recess (kids will want to come over and want to help)

Garden Period 2

11.30am - 12.15pm (David's class, Week 3 goes for 45 minutes)

Garden Period 3
12.15pm - 1pm (Rosemary's class, with help from 2 or 3 kids from David's class, Unavailable week 3)

Lunchtime

Garden Period 4

2pm - 2.45pm (Dan's class, Rita takes this class for week 3)

Garden Period 5

2.45pm - 3.30pm (Kate's class for two weeks, Helen's class for two weeks)

Lincoln's ideas for the Vegie Garden

Photo of Mike Hill and Lorna

of WestWyck Ecovillage

This is my second post to this blog.

Adam

Native American food bed, Mediterranean food bed

Here are some thoughts about the garden, by Lincoln.

From: "Lincoln Kern"
To:
Subject: [wsps-bg:24] Re: Vegie Garden at Wales St, meet Fri 9Mar07 9.15am -
notice for newsletter
Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2007 09:48:41 +1100

G'day All

I am keen to help on the veggie garden project but won't be able to get to
the meeting on Friday.

My two cents:

The easy part is design and installation of the physical bits...all it is a
good fence, raised beds, maybe propagation greenhouse, tool shed and water
infrastructure...and the state government has a grant for this...

The hard part is incorporation into the school curriculum and the ongoing
parental and staff involvement to make it a vibrant program over time. I
believe the State Government Grants include money for a part-time teacher
the first year or two but ongoing people resources are the issue as I see
it.

I already have plenty of ideas to make it interesting:
- A bed of native American crops - corn, beans and pumpkins - and do some food around that.
- Grow a Mediterranean food bed and get some nonnas to come share their recipes.
- Other food themes and more parents to guide cooking.
- Teach how organic works and do trials with scientific methods on pest control techniques.
- Measure carbon uptake to offset greenhouse gases in soils.

Thanks

Lincoln Kern
Managing Director
Practical Ecology Pty. Ltd.
P. O. Box 228
Preston Victoria 3072
AUSTRALIA
Ph. 03 9484 1555
Fax 03 9484 9133
http://www.practicalecology.com.au/

First Post - First Day in the garden, Friday, 1st June 2006

This is my first post to this blog.
I couldn't get the name wsps, thornbury, darebin, adam, sharryn, sjat.

X-Thread: http://groups.google.com/group/wsps-kitchen-garden/t/f498c8b58c4e46fa/
X-Msg: http://groups.google.com/group/wsps-kitchen-garden/msg/0c1b03fb10857d69
Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2007 21:12:41 +1000
To: wsps-kitchen-garden@googlegroups.com
From: Adam Tiller <adamt@psychcentre.org>
Subject: [wsps-kg:83] five classes today! 1st May 2007. Timetable of who & when today

Hi everyone,
We took five classes today! Wow, it was busy!
The last two classes actually planted some seedlings into the edge of twobeds, and some into a third.
Chris Sexton came at the start of the first lesson with the first class and said a few words.
The kids loved it, and we're well on the way to it becoming THEIR garden.
Congratulations to everyone named!
Adam