The Dark Economy

After a long transition we’ve gone from having a major world economy that takes place out in the open to one in which all meaningful – by the judgment of those in charge of it – activity takes place within a Dark Economy that is completely hidden from public view. The parasite on the parasite

Where is the break with our past most apparent?

“Forever.” When I read this simple word no matter where, it gives me pause. There was a time when forever had a tangible solid ring. Today? No more. There are countless assumptions that were once seemingly reasonable, that ring hollow today. It is a symptom of the end of an era. In this situation the

Ignorance Wrapped in Knowing. Belief Lacking Compassion.

…no matter how noble the system would be. A mind that has been trained only to know facts, is simply unable to deal with Life in all its diversity, with its subtleties, with its depths and heights. Krishnamurti Thanks to Julien Matei for this quotation. We suffer under ignorance wrapped in knowing. Belief lacking compassion. The tools of the enlightenment destroying any potential for useful

Process

process early 14c., “fact of being carried on” (e.g. in process), from O.Fr. proces “journey” (13c.), from L. processus “process, advance, progress,” from pp. stem of procedere “go forward” (see proceed). Meaning “course or method of action” is from mid-14c.; sense of “continuous… As with so many words, we rarely look at where they came

Tyranny of Choice

We are confronted by the seductive promise of endless choice. Not simply in the way Nixon wowed Khrushchev in a supermarket in the fifties. We now have this medium to toss us into an infinity of choices for our attention simply by rolling a mouse and clicking on icons. The pressure of futility is strong

Here’s the Thing…

If we can’t drive a wedge of awareness into the current cycle of how we make judgements, if we can’t find ways to break the loops we’re trapped in, we are condemned to continue repeating them over and over again until we are swept away by the sheer volume of our irrelevancy. This is an

Austerity, and the Ways We Disguise What We Lack

Austerity, a term that’s been hijacked by financial criminals to cover their extortion. What else could it possibly mean other than a gloss, a moralistic veneer poured over the dismantling of the lives of great masses of people so as to mine whatever whiff of monetary “value” they might still have lodged in the corners

Dark Mountain 2

The Dark Mountain 2 anthology is out! Follow the link to the announcement on their site. I’m deeply honored to have a chapter from my novel, Something for Nothing included along with this incredible list of poets, writers, and thinkers. Naomi Klein, David Abram, Vinay Gupta, Paul Kingsnorth, Glyn Hughes, Luanne Armstrong, Charles Hugh Smith,

“Sentimentality is the superstructure erected upon brutality…”

Sentiment takes any criticism, real or only inferred, and turns it into an excuse for a reaction, anything to return the focus where we demand it belongs.

The Search for Hope without Control

“The Search for Hope without Control” The title of this post is a quote from the most recent entry on the Dark Mountain Project’s Blog. Dougald Hine’s conversation with David Abram is a treat to watch and a treasure trove of insight. You’ll have to see the video to find out which one of them

On the Future We Deserve

We inhabit – or would, if we stopped looking past it – a wondrous unfolding present. We are, or can train ourselves to be, witnesses to that unfolding. The discipline and humility required to inhabit our present: to live within a gift, is in itself a corrective that might lead us to a future we cannot predict. If we fail to inhabit our present we lose the only thing we know we have. Unless we turn our meditation on the future into motivation to focus on our present, we give up a “sure-thing” to remain within a chimera, a fantasy of heaven or hell, imagined brightly or darkly, arrived at actively or passively; but assuredly no-where.