This is not about immigration. It is about racial profiling and racism. I know that many here at DU do not support the plight of undocumented immigrants. Many, perhaps only some, but my perception is many, seem to think that they are burdening the school system, the health care system and whatnot. However, this post is really not an immigration post. It is in fact about rampant racism. The fact is what we have occurring is an orchestrated and state supported attempt to target a certain race for deportation. I work in the school system as an assistant principal and formerly a bilingual education teacher. I have worked with documented and undocumented immigrants for years. For the most part, they are fine individuals struggling to make a living in a new country but it is better than what they left so they will accept slave wages with no benefits. They put their children in our school systems so that they may receive a quality education, learn English and one day be productive citizens. Some of you might ask, why in the world are we teaching immigrant kids especially the undocumented ones? My simple answer is that to not educate them will lead to even greater societal problems plus it is completely legal and schools must accept all children even undocumented ones according to this SCOTUS decision, http://tourolaw.edu/PATCH/Plyler /.

Back to what is occurring currently in the city where I work…The Irving Police Department in conjunction with immigration officials are targeting apartment complexes, setting up road blocks and checking IDs, and at times walking house to house asking for identification of individuals. If the individuals can not produce the documents necessary to prove that they are either citizens or here under the appropriate work, travel or tourist visas, they are arrested, then deported. They care nothing for families. The men usually are rounded up and sent to the border almost immediately. Family members are split apart and whereabouts of family members are not known until the deported family member can find a phone and call home usually from the Mexican border even if the person in question is not from Mexico! Families are so scared that they are pulling their children out of school at alarming rates. Please read this brief article. http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_sto ... 2315.htm.. (http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_story_277112315.htm..).

Being the only administrator that speaks Spanish on campus, I have spoken to at least 10 families that have pulled some 15 children out of school only because of fear and intimidation. This is unacceptable! Are we Nazis? Where are our humanistic values of right and wrong?

I know what some of you are saying. They broke our rules and brought these problems on themselves. I do not deny that they broke rules, but my problem is the way my brainless government is trying to remedy the problem. If this is simply a legal operation rounding up undocumented workers, why are the police and immigration agents only targeting Hispanics? Why do I not hear that the police and immigration agents are also investigating known areas where there are Chinese immigrants, Korean immigrants, Vietnamese immigrants, Pakistani immigrants, Indian immigrants, African immigrants. Heck, we just received a girl two weeks ago from French speaking Canada. Should we have checked to make sure she entered legally? Oh wait, she looks Anglo. No problems exist there.

The police are so bold that they set up a checkpoint in front of my school at drop-off time between 7:00 and 8:00 am several times in the last few weeks. I was caught in the checkpoints and the second time this happened I asked them specifically what they were looking for after I identified myself as the Asst. Principal. The first time I was just waved through the checkpoint. The officer told me that the police were enforcing seat belts and child seat laws. Okay fine, but after talking to one of my parents who has now withdrawn his child, he stated that they were in fact doing the seatbelt and car seat checks and also taking down plate numbers which they used to track people back to their homes. Many of the parents then received visits from immigration and police. He stated they were very nice, but only spoke English to them and handed them a sheet of paper which he thinks was a paper that asked for their signature verifying that only these people live at this residence. His name and his wife’s name were already on the paper. How did they get this info? The plates? The apartment manager? Why these Hispanics? Only Hispanic parents have reported these visits to me. Why wouldn’t they visit others if they are only verifying addresses?

Why am I posting this today? Well, today was the straw the broke the camel’s back. We had a group of young kids come in crying. They were all Hispanic girls and boys. Apparently on the way to school a group of special education children riding a bus and several students riding with parents to school came across a “raid” or some sort of large police car stop. The police were being rather rough with a group of young Hispanic men. They handcuffed all of them and put them on the ground face down. This could be just a stop of hardened criminals, but the bus driver reported to us, when we asked why the children were upset, that the police were doing another “round up.” He saw the immigration van parked on a side street near the stopped car and handcuffed men. The kids were all afraid that this was going to happen to their dads as well. The ironic thing is that all of the children I saw crying or upset, some as old as 4th grade, are all here legally! Our counselors have been quite busy.

Racism is alive and well. What we are seeing is racial profiling at its most obvious and obnoxious, but not many seem to care. In fact, asinine citizens who see issues as black and white have no problem with this. However, if we really want to solve this problem, we, as a country, need to stop attacking the immigrants and start attacking the companies that continue to hire undocumented workers. Building a wall is stupid and will not work plus it is yet another waste of taxpayer’s money. Large scale harassment operations like the one taking place now is not going to work either. The government needs to attack and enforce rules governing the hiring of these individuals. The only reason they come is because there is work. Hypocritically, the government attacks the very immigrants that it wants to exploit as cheap labor. I want to see huge fines imposed on Brinker International, on Pilgrim's Pride or on the multitude of construction and farming agencies that continue to employ undocumented workers. If you want to stem the tide of undocumented workers, stop giving them a reason to return time and time again.

In the meantime I have children to teach. The government is already making this difficult with the incredibly ineffective NCLB and now I have kids that are scared that they won’t see their parents when they get home. Pathetic beyond belief.

Found here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... 89x1981901 (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1981901)

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
with silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Back to what is occurring currently in the city where I work…The Irving Police Department in conjunction with immigration officials are targeting apartment complexes, setting up road blocks and checking IDs, and at times walking house to house asking for identification of individuals.

Home sweet home. I'm proud to live in tha 'hood, thankee.

¡Sí, Se Puede!

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
with silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Gee thanks, France.

"Children would bring us the severed heads of their parents and scream for help," one says, "but our orders were not to help them."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/afr ... 030349.ece (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article3030349.ece)

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
with silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Good advertisement when you're in need of labor to build an Empire.

http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/images/postersMisc/nevermind.jpg

http://www.bluegreenearth.com/site/images/features_polit/internat/sth_americas/latin_america1.gif

"Children would bring us the severed heads of their parents and scream for help," one says, "but our orders were not to help them."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/afr ... 030349.ece (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article3030349.ece)

IP here is another article by Johann Hari not to be missed. Please spread the word.

Congo's tragedy: the war the world forgot
In a country the size of Western Europe, a war rages that has lasted eight years and cost four million lives. Rival militias inflict appalling suffering on the civilian population, and what passes for political leadership is powerless to stop it. This is Congo, and the reason for the conflict - control of minerals essential to the electronic gadgetry on which the developed world depends - is what makes our blindness to the horror doubly shaming. Johann Hari reports from the killing fields of central Africa
Published: 05 May 2006

This is the story of the deadliest war since Adolf Hitler's armies marched across Europe - a war that has not ended. But is also the story of a trail of blood that leads directly to you: to your remote control, to your mobile phone, to your laptop and to your diamond necklace. In the TV series Lost, a group of plane crash survivors believe they are stranded alone on a desert island, until one day they discover a dense metal cable leading out into the ocean and the world beyond. The Democratic Republic of Congo is full of those cables, mysterious connections that show how a seemingly isolated tribal war is in reality something very different.

This war has been dismissed as an internal African implosion. In reality it is a battle for coltan, diamonds, cassiterite and gold, destined for sale in London, New York and Paris. It is a battle for the metals that make our technological society vibrate and ring and bling, and it has already claimed four million lives in five years and broken a population the size of Britain's. No, this is not only a story about them. This - the tale of a short journey into the long Congolese war we in the West have fostered, fuelled and funded - is a story about you.

<snip>

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/afr ... 362215.ece (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article362215.ece)

http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/264/2992/400/retrophone_handset.jpg


Yeah, we know all about bluetooth headsets for cell phones, but forget that stuff! We have here the latest development in cell phone technology and it's a big hunk of beautiful plastic. An accessory for your phone that you can really grab onto. Something with heft and that good-old-American solid construction feel - like a 1972 Cadillac.

The Retro Phone Handset is a new production replica of the Western Electric 500-series model, which was the classic phone handset for several decades. It's been slightly modified to work with the headset jack of most cell phones (or via a "hands free" adapter kit, sold elsewhere). Just plug-in and dial - or for added effect, put your cell phone in your pant's pocket - then it looks like you're talking on a phone connected to... well, who knows?

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/congogenocide.jpg

The bitter truth of where the minerals and raw materials needed to create our laptops and cell phones come from is not something a lot of us want to hear. But one vital component, Columbo-tantalite - aka coltan - is heavily mined in the Congo, the source of 80% of the mineral in the world.

Project Censored reports that:

''...the high-tech boom of the 1990s caused the price of coltan to skyrocket to nearly $300 per pound. In 1996 U.S.-sponsored Rwandan and Ugandan forces entered eastern DRC. By 1998 they seized control and moved into strategic mining areas...

Coltan makes its way out of the mines to trading posts where foreign traders buy the mineral and ship it abroad, mostly through Rwanda. Firms with the capability turn coltan into the coveted tantalum powder, and then sell the magic powder to Nokia, Motorola, Compaq, Sony, and other manufacturers for use in cell phones and other products.

Keith Harmon Snow emphasizes that any analysis of the geopolitics in the Congo, and the reasons for why the Congolese people have suffered a virtually unending war since 1996, requires an understanding of the organized crime perpetrated through multinational businesses. The tragedy of the Congo conflict has been instituted by invested corporations, their proxy armies, and the supra-governmental bodies that support them.''

Millions have died from being worked into the ground, through starvation and displacement, and through military action enforcing the reign of terror and slavery perpetuated by corporations from the developed world. And yet the story goes largely untold, or if told at all, misrepresented as a problem internal to Africa and Africans.

In the following conversation with independent journalist Keith Harman Snow, the truth behind the developed world's role in the slavery and effective genocide in the Congo comes to the surface. For while the mass media often report of African slavery and exploitation, there is never mention that it is effectively orchestrated by companies from developed nations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox52YD8ttuU

"Children would bring us the severed heads of their parents and scream for help," one says, "but our orders were not to help them."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/afr ... 030349.ece (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article3030349.ece)

IP here is another article by Johann Hari not to be missed. Please spread the word.

Congo's tragedy: the war the world forgot
In a country the size of Western Europe, a war rages that has lasted eight years and cost four million lives. Rival militias inflict appalling suffering on the civilian population, and what passes for political leadership is powerless to stop it. This is Congo, and the reason for the conflict - control of minerals essential to the electronic gadgetry on which the developed world depends - is what makes our blindness to the horror doubly shaming. Johann Hari reports from the killing fields of central Africa
Published: 05 May 2006

This is the story of the deadliest war since Adolf Hitler's armies marched across Europe - a war that has not ended. But is also the story of a trail of blood that leads directly to you: to your remote control, to your mobile phone, to your laptop and to your diamond necklace. In the TV series Lost, a group of plane crash survivors believe they are stranded alone on a desert island, until one day they discover a dense metal cable leading out into the ocean and the world beyond. The Democratic Republic of Congo is full of those cables, mysterious connections that show how a seemingly isolated tribal war is in reality something very different.

This war has been dismissed as an internal African implosion. In reality it is a battle for coltan, diamonds, cassiterite and gold, destined for sale in London, New York and Paris. It is a battle for the metals that make our technological society vibrate and ring and bling, and it has already claimed four million lives in five years and broken a population the size of Britain's. No, this is not only a story about them. This - the tale of a short journey into the long Congolese war we in the West have fostered, fuelled and funded - is a story about you.

<snip>

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/afr ... 362215.ece (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article362215.ece)

http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/264/2992/400/retrophone_handset.jpg


Yeah, we know all about bluetooth headsets for cell phones, but forget that stuff! We have here the latest development in cell phone technology and it's a big hunk of beautiful plastic. An accessory for your phone that you can really grab onto. Something with heft and that good-old-American solid construction feel - like a 1972 Cadillac.

The Retro Phone Handset is a new production replica of the Western Electric 500-series model, which was the classic phone handset for several decades. It's been slightly modified to work with the headset jack of most cell phones (or via a "hands free" adapter kit, sold elsewhere). Just plug-in and dial - or for added effect, put your cell phone in your pant's pocket - then it looks like you're talking on a phone connected to... well, who knows?

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/congogenocide.jpg

The bitter truth of where the minerals and raw materials needed to create our laptops and cell phones come from is not something a lot of us want to hear. But one vital component, Columbo-tantalite - aka coltan - is heavily mined in the Congo, the source of 80% of the mineral in the world.

Project Censored reports that:

''...the high-tech boom of the 1990s caused the price of coltan to skyrocket to nearly $300 per pound. In 1996 U.S.-sponsored Rwandan and Ugandan forces entered eastern DRC. By 1998 they seized control and moved into strategic mining areas...

Coltan makes its way out of the mines to trading posts where foreign traders buy the mineral and ship it abroad, mostly through Rwanda. Firms with the capability turn coltan into the coveted tantalum powder, and then sell the magic powder to Nokia, Motorola, Compaq, Sony, and other manufacturers for use in cell phones and other products.

Keith Harmon Snow emphasizes that any analysis of the geopolitics in the Congo, and the reasons for why the Congolese people have suffered a virtually unending war since 1996, requires an understanding of the organized crime perpetrated through multinational businesses. The tragedy of the Congo conflict has been instituted by invested corporations, their proxy armies, and the supra-governmental bodies that support them.''

Millions have died from being worked into the ground, through starvation and displacement, and through military action enforcing the reign of terror and slavery perpetuated by corporations from the developed world. And yet the story goes largely untold, or if told at all, misrepresented as a problem internal to Africa and Africans.

In the following conversation with independent journalist Keith Harman Snow, the truth behind the developed world's role in the slavery and effective genocide in the Congo comes to the surface. For while the mass media often report of African slavery and exploitation, there is never mention that it is effectively orchestrated by companies from developed nations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox52YD8ttuU

This really needs to be plastered everywhere possible Chalmor. You almost never hear about this. Fuck.

This really needs to be plastered everywhere possible Chalmor. You almost never hear about this. Fuck.

I agree. Any strategies?

Here's what I've done, a few things. I've always got a few dozen 8x11 one-sheets that I almost always carry in my backpack and distribute frequently describing what is going on in The Congo. I've posted this stuff all over the internet and it garners little attention. I've posted it again and it receives little attention. I've posted it again....

I've talked to people all over about this and still I've seen little concern. I've seen no interest profound enough that this information would get folks to make any "personal sacrifices" which is the least. And not even an iota of an impression that any folks are going to act politically on this. So I'm at a loss.

Now I'm gonna harsh the buzz. Everyone has a cellphone. When some of us got together in DC everyone had a cellphone except yours truly. If you were to observe the "radical" demonstrators you'd find 90% of them had cellphones. When you get on the campus where I teach there isn't a single student without a cellphone. Now of course I'm stupidly focusing only on this one gadget but it exemplifies much of the situation.

Resource Wars.

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/828

http://www.worldwatch.org/bookstore/graphics/00000001/162-160.jpg

This really needs to be plastered everywhere possible Chalmor. You almost never hear about this. Fuck.

I agree. Any strategies?

Here's what I've done, a few things. I've always got a few dozen 8x11 one-sheets that I almost always carry in my backpack and distribute frequently describing what is going on in The Congo. I've posted this stuff all over the internet and it garners little attention. I've posted it again and it receives little attention. I've posted it again....

I've talked to people all over about this and still I've seen little concern. I've seen no interest profound enough that this information would get folks to make any "personal sacrifices" which is the least. And not even an iota of an impression that any folks are going to act politically on this. So I'm at a loss.

Now I'm gonna harsh the buzz. Everyone has a cellphone. When some of us got together in DC everyone had a cellphone except yours truly. If you were to observe the "radical" demonstrators you'd find 90% of them had cellphones. When you get on the campus where I teach there isn't a single student without a cellphone. Now of course I'm stupidly focusing only on this one gadget but it exemplifies much of the situation.

Resource Wars.

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/828

http://www.worldwatch.org/bookstore/graphics/00000001/162-160.jpg

I don't know. A funny thing I've noticed is that certain "health scares" are more successful than others. For instance, organic food is well-known by liberals to be "better for you" than regular produce and it is even more well established in liberal doctrine that second hand smoke is EVEN more dangerous than smoking yourself. Thus cigarettes must effectively be banned from public places. However, when someone suggests that cellphones and microwaves might be hazardous -- due to the electromagnetic radiation -- this gets..ignored? Overlooked?

It is not so overlooked I would be if you asked liberals to live next to power lines that are known to spike cancer rates.

Astonishing ain't it?

As for cellphones, I think thats a lost cause. Its sort of irritating when you realize that most women are not using a cellphone for communication per se but rather as a social instrument. It strikes me as rather frivilous. In general cellphones are a huge advance in communication potential but what happens when you're stuck in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night? No bars..:(

I've noticed a sort of retroactive rationalization. For years my parents did late night delivery work in backroads areas without a cellphone or any means of communication. Until I went away to college and got a cellphone and so did my mother. Years later they swear by it and their eyes would pop out if you suggested they go to work without one. "What if I break down??"

Funny enough, I remember going on a cross country trip in two cars and we used walkie talkies. Everyone had a callsign. My brother was Showboat. I forget mine but I'm afraid it might have been Stinky..

When some of us got together in DC everyone had a cellphone except yours truly.

If it's any consolation, my shit was years old and bought used when it was 'new' ta me...

I'm gonna eat and use what was already on the shelf, at the bottom and used, but there for sale.

Why fuckin' not.

I can't change the world. I -do- change my footprint.

And, if you were not driving a (radically altered yet famously durable) ride, what would it be? Decisions suck. Especially those that go to modern convenience. I do have a concern, but I do not have remorse about picking up the trash from the elite and using it. It'd be only worse if not.

That said, and no matter the objections of our admittedly conflicted local Marxist hardass, you'll not find many more in line with you do-without0-the-imperialist-ecocidal than me...I drove to work three times this week (powered by waste veggie oil) and was filled with remorse and guilt each -mourning- as i surveyed the grey skies above on the commute.

I agree. Any strategies?

I think you are doing great work on this. Hardly a day goes by that something you post doesn't shift my view and get me to re-think things. That "Peak Everything" idea you posted elsewhere has promise. We are hitting people from a variety of directions and building off of each other's ideas and perspectives even if it isn't always obvious that this is happening. It took me a long time to understand what you were saying. Your work is very powerful. I would say just keep going, keep trying new approaches.

An observation - I don't think that it is so much a matter of massive resistance to overcome. It isn't that people need to climb some insurmountable mountain to understand what you are saying, it is that they THINK you are asking them to climb some insurmountable mountain. I know that was the case with me.

That means that the whole footprint thing can backfire - it drives people inward and makes a mountain out of a molehill. They think - oh, driving is bad. And buying certain things. And the way I handle garbage. And the way I compost my widgets. And on and on and on. They think you are asking them to make these superficial changes - about a million of them - without changing their thinking about things. Does that get them to this - "OH, it is ALL fucked up and there is something fundamentally wrong?" It is easier (and more fun and rewarding) to rethink everything based on new premises then it is to stack up a million isolated "issues" to think about or to choose differently about or to take a different "stance" on.

Then, people confuse morally wrong with incorrect type wrong. They think you are scolding them for doing naughty things when you talk about cell phones. This is so child-like. "Don't take the cookies because mommy said so." An adult can make decisions on the fly a hundred times a day about sharing resources - if they have a social and ethical framework within which to work. "Oh now I am supposed to not use a cell phone" is the former, not the latter. "I shouldn’t' use a cell phone because chlamor says it is bad and he seems to know what he is talking about." Fuck that. What do YOU think about using a cell phone given the information that chlamor has posted here about them? How does that fit into your moral and political framework?

See, the problem is that most liberals don't HAVE a moral and political framework to use. The context in ehcih they live their life is that they are mostly good people, that things are mostly OK, and there are just a few things that they need to boycott, or protest, or be against, or some things that they need to contribute some time or money to, etc. Of course, time and money and attention are limited so they can't be expected to take on EVERY cause, they will complain.

People need to "whitelist" everything about modern society, not "blacklist" it. Instead of adding one thing at a time to their naughty-naughty good-people-don't-do-this blacklist, to preserve their self-image as one of the good people, they need to question everything, discard everything in their lives, and then rebuild consciously and rationally within a moral and political framework - adding a few things to a whitelist rather than creating an ever-growing blacklist.

That is a small (but critical) change in our thinking, not an insurmountable mountain to climb.

I agree. Any strategies?

I think you are doing great work on this. Hardly a day goes by that something you post doesn't shift my view and get me to re-think things. That "Peak Everything" idea you posted elsewhere has promise. We are hitting people from a variety of directions and building off of each other's ideas and perspectives even if it isn't always obvious that this is happening. It took me a long time to understand what you were saying. Your work is very powerful. I would say just keep going, keep trying new approaches.

An observation - I don't think that it is so much a matter of massive resistance to overcome. It isn't that people need to climb some insurmountable mountain to understand what you are saying, it is that they THINK you are asking them to climb some insurmountable mountain. I know that was the case with me.

That means that the whole footprint thing can backfire - it drives people inward and makes a mountain out of a molehill. They think - oh, driving is bad. And buying certain things. And the way I handle garbage. And the way I compost my widgets. And on and on and on. They think you are asking them to make these superficial changes - about a million of them - without changing their thinking about things. Does that get them to this - "OH, it is ALL fucked up and there is something fundamentally wrong?" It is easier (and more fun and rewarding) to rethink everything based on new premises then it is to stack up a million isolated "issues" to think about or to choose differently about or to take a different "stance" on.

Then, people confuse morally wrong with incorrect type wrong. They think you are scolding them for doing naughty things when you talk about cell phones. This is so child-like. "Don't take the cookies because mommy said so." An adult can make decisions on the fly a hundred times a day about sharing resources - if they have a social and ethical framework within which to work. "Oh now I am supposed to not use a cell phone" is the former, not the latter. "I shouldn’t' use a cell phone because chlamor says it is bad and he seems to know what he is talking about." Fuck that. What do YOU think about using a cell phone given the information that chlamor has posted here about them? How does that fit into your moral and political framework?

See, the problem is that most liberals don't HAVE a moral and political framework to use. The context in ehcih they live their life is that they are mostly good people, that things are mostly OK, and there are just a few things that they need to boycott, or protest, or be against, or some things that they need to contribute some time or money to, etc. Of course, time and money and attention are limited so they can't be expected to take on EVERY cause, they will complain.

People need to "whitelist" everything about modern society, not "blacklist" it. Instead of adding one thing at a time to their naughty-naughty good-people-don't-do-this blacklist, to preserve their self-image as one of the good people, they need to question everything, discard everything in their lives, and then rebuild consciously and rationally within a moral and political framework - adding a few things to a whitelist rather than creating an ever-growing blacklist.

That is a small (but critical) change in our thinking, not an insurmountable mountain to climb.

I agree 100% with this. What I've wanted to say but didn't know how. Its also confusing -- Chlamor is condemning all of these things (like cellphones) and they're obviously bad..but what does he think we should do? That is a two-pronged question. Part one is that it can't just be giving up your cellphone because that accomplishes nothing by itself. Part two is the feeling that you're talking to Jesus and rather than just come out and TELL you the basics he speaks in riddles and trivialities.

So you end up torn between being irritated (this guy won't tell me anything) and feeling stupid (OK, this guy is obviously smarter than me and seems to be trying to tell me something but..I don't get it..)

Of course, it comes with the territory because I don't have anything much to add to the presentation, so..

I mean, I seriously don't know the answer. Giving up a cellphone is no particular big deal for me, but I can't think of more than a handful of people I know who would even consider the matter. They would, of course, produce the proper and requisite "Oh, thats horrible" and "We need to do something about that"s when shown any of this information. If that is, they don't write you off as a bleeding heart or something.

Of course, even the Unabomber wasn't for full blown asceticism. Although I think his line was "only use technology for the purpose of destroying technology"..so maybe that doesn't count.

I agree 100% with this. What I've wanted to say but didn't know how. Its also confusing -- Chlamor is condemning all of these things (like cellphones) and they're obviously bad..but what does he think we should do? That is a two-pronged question. Part one is that it can't just be giving up your cellphone because that accomplishes nothing by itself. Part two is the feeling that you're talking to Jesus and rather than just come out and TELL you the basics he speaks in riddles and trivialities.

So you end up torn between being irritated (this guy won't tell me anything) and feeling stupid (OK, this guy is obviously smarter than me and seems to be trying to tell me something but..I don't get it..)

Of course, it comes with the territory because I don't have anything much to add to the presentation, so..

I mean, I seriously don't know the answer. Giving up a cellphone is no particular big deal for me, but I can't think of more than a handful of people I know who would even consider the matter. They would, of course, produce the proper and requisite "Oh, thats horrible" and "We need to do something about that"s when shown any of this information. If that is, they don't write you off as a bleeding heart or something.

Of course, even the Unabomber wasn't for full blown asceticism. Although I think his line was "only use technology for the purpose of destroying technology"..so maybe that doesn't count.

This is so great, kid, and I am hoping that you will hang in there and talk about this with me. You gotta help me out here because there is something I don't understand and I realized it after reading your post.

I don't understand the urge to do the right thing. Stay with me now, I am not saying it is wrong, not trying to correct you or anything like that. I really have a blind spot there. If I am following your post, you are struggling with what chlamor is trying to say, yes? What is he recommending, what is he saying would be the right thing to do, what is he trying to promote, what future does he see, what is he seeing that might be wrong about what you are doing. Yes?

Here is what I don't understand - why? Why does that matter? (NOT saying that it shouldn't or that you are wrong to care about that or anything.)

I will try to give you an example from my life that relates to this blind spot I have - this lack of understanding of people around me. I am in my fifties and have never owned a TV. But maybe more importantly, I never made a decision to not own a TV. Once at a show someone on stage before I went on was ranting and raving to the audience that the TV was the root of all evil, etc. and that people should throw it away. I didn't exactly disagree with what he was saying, but it seemed very odd and I didn't relate to it at all. Why rant against TV? I don't have a position, an opinion, a stance, or anything else about owning a TV, anymore than I do about owning a bazooka. But no one would rant and rave that people should throw away their bazookas as the key to improving their lives.

The only thing I know about TV is that people have over the years pressured me to own one, and that doesn't happen very often, and otherwise I don't think about TV. It is this type of pressure - they look at you like you are weird, or get this - that you are putting on airs and trying to be superior to other people. Think about that. It is odd. The decision is not really about whether or not to own a TV, it must be about going along with or resisting social pressure.

I didn't go at it as "why I should not own a TV." Why would TV and not bazookas cause someone to take that "stance." There must be something different about TV than about bazookas, yes?

Now, if I needed a TV to accomplish some project or get a job done, I would weigh that and could conceivably make the decision to get one. Unlikely, and I would always be resistant - that is the default position for me on any consumer item, especially if there is a lot of social pressure involved - that makes me suspicious.

OK, now I defended owning and using a tractor - although I am not completely happy about that. Why? Because a tractor enables you to feed 1200 people, it enables you to keep the land in farming, it enables the farmer to stay on the farm. Feed people, save the land, support the farmer. Could it be done by hand? Could it be done with mules? Yes, but it is outside of my ability to make happen. I can't agree with getting rid of the tractor so long as that means not feeding people, letting the land or most of it go to development, and making it impossible for farmers and farming communities - given the current reality - to survive.

Compare that with owning or not owning a TV. No consequences have come from not owning a TV anymore than not owning a bazooka has had any consequences.

See, I am missing something here. (Actually people have told me that my whole life, and it wasn't until the last few years talking with other misfit people, and watching things getting worse and worse, and reading what chlamor and others write, that I finally became completely convinced myself that I wasn't crazy.) I have asked people that over the years - what am I missing? What is driving them that I don't seem to have - to strive, to climb, to possess things, to fit in, to say idiotic things because they are the "right" things to say or because everyone is saying them? They can't tell me. If I point that out, they drop me from their guest list lol. It is just the way it is, they tell me. But they never seem very happy - though they are experts on what you should be doing in order to be happy - and they never seem to accomplish anything very real or meaningful - although they are the self-proclaimed experts on the subject of achievement - and they never seem to be able to think or reason very clearly - although they often have degrees and look down on those who do not.

So, a cell phone. I don't have one, have no urge to have one and don't have any debate going on in my mind about it. Why would I? I mean that seriously. Where does that come from? How do people get the idea that it IS something to think about? Now here is what people around me say - "what you don't have a cell Michael?" like I was a kid that hadn't been potty trained or something - no kidding! (Using your proper name instead of your nickname - Michael instead of Mike - is a way to scold you like a child, when it isn't the opposite - a sign of respect.) They say I am some air-headed impractical artist, that I am somehow being irresponsible by not thinking about this - as though it were a chore undone, or a sign of laziness or something. Then when I say bug off I am not interested, they get mad because I don't have some self-righteous rant against cell phones or something to justify this bizarre and radical decision to not have a cell phone. But I never made any such decision. And even if I did, and even if I had some rant together about it, it isn't like they would listen to that anyway - unless it were flawless and you out a shitload of time into the subject and even then, while they might not bite your head off, they would just nod and "think" about it or some shit that would have absolutely no consequence in the real world. other than this - from then on, whenever you were in a social gathering with that person, they would feel compelled to mention "Michael doesn't like cell phones. He thinks they are destroying the planet." Fuck, fuck, fuck fuck all of that kid, you know? None of this has anything to do with cell phones, it isn't mysterious, it isn't some big fucking deal, it has nothing to do with saving any planets or anything else.

It has to do with some fucked up middle class culture of fucked up white people striving and succeeding and living a fucked up so-called lifestyle and being complete fucking assholes wasting all of our time and making everyone around them fucking miserable. It doesn't take years of study, or deep understanding, or special knowledge, or the right guru, or the right theories. Just look around everyday, all day, everywhere you go. And it doesn't take baby steps, we aren't on the path to anything, we aren't getting there, we aren't improving and all of the rest of that drama.

It is nit difficult, it isn't hard to understand, it isn't arcane or esoteric what chlamor is trying to say. The hard work, the really difficult thing to do, is to keep participating in this ongoing and omnipresent and insane discussion going on all the time by the upwardly mobile good people. It takes a huge amount of thought, time, and energy; it is immensely unpleasant and stressful, to play along and keep propping back up an insane world view that would make whether or not one owned a cell phone some sort of big moralistic decision. People all around us are telling us continually that it is terribly immoral somehow to NOT own one of the fucking things. It isn't chlamor lecturing and scolding us that it is immoral to own one. He is talking sanely. It only sounds weird, or difficult to fathom or grasp, because we are embedded in an ongoing insane set of social interactions.

He isn’t a guru. That is why you don't understand him.

I am not a guru either, so please don't start following me or believing in me lol. I am an outcast, trouble, a pariah, a misfit. Get it? And it isn’t science fiction, or the Matrix or anything. It is self-evident, banal—I know that people are fucking with you the same way they are fucking with me. It is right in front of us everyday.

Now I just know that most people reading this know exactly what I am talking about. Why the conspiracy of silence about that?

I would say chalmor's message is this - "are you tired yet of being in pain and confusion? Tired of denying that you are? Give up trying to fit in. It isn't possible. It isn't worth it. It is killing you. The fault is with what and with whom you are trying to accomodate, not with you.

OK one more thing about cell phones, and then I am done for the night.

After I wrote that last post, I printed it out and showed it to some folks here. Everyone came up with objections.

For example - "but a doctor needs one so the hospital can call, otherwise people will die."

I met a couple on the road in Eastern Kentucky 20 years ago. He was a doctor, she was a nurse. He had been one of the top muckety mucks in a fancy hospital in Chicago. One day, they quit their jobs, sold the big house and the three cars, bought a motor home, packed up the three kids and hit the road. They have been running free clinics in all of the poorest areas around the country for almost 20 years now, getting paid by barter and donations.

The guy was all enthusiastic about the adventure, but when I got the chance to I wanted to talk to the wife to get the "real story" and expected to hear from her about all of the hardships and the down side. She told me "are you kidding? Everything is better, and everything is easier. You can't imagine how great life is. No complaints and no regrets. The kids are happy and getting the best education they ever could, we are with the most wonderful people in the world every day, people feed us and take us in, my husband and I are soul mates with a shared purpose and we grow closer every day, we see and learn so much, we feel like we are really helping people, and when we need a vacation - you know we never seem to need a vacation. "

"But, but, but that isn't for everyone."

It isn't? A better, easier, more fulfilling, less stressful life and the opportunity to make a greater contribution? That isn't for everyone?

"But, but, but what if all the doctors did that? What if everyone shirked their responsibilities and just ran off on an adventure? I mean this isn't realistic."

What if? We would fucking have universal health care, is "what if."

"But, but, but not everyone can do that."

That is true. Not everyone has the courage. But let's call that for what it is, and not blather on about practicality and realistic and responsibility.

Does this mean that cell phones are evil? Does it mean that motor homes are OK? No. In fact, if everyone "shirked their responsibilities and just ran off on an adventure" there would be so many doctors in so many places that you wouldn't need the motor home anymore, would you?

I warned you that I am trouble lol. Listen to me, and there is a certain smug and successful 10% of the population who will scold you and who will treat you like a pariah and who will do everything they can to make you as miserable as possible, if you let yourself care about what they think of you. Being willing to face that down is all that is standing in our way.

Mike these might be your most inspirational words. I can identify with nearly everything you're saying here. Maybe you've really never considered it before (you're weird like that after all ;)) but do I seem like a 'normal' 26 yo to you? (not tooting my own horn, I know I'm a "loser" lol)

Anyway, partially I was trying to express the gamut I've gone through reading Chlamor's posts over the past year+ (and yours too incidentally and Wolfs and Anax's). I've slowly come to realize what's really being said.

None of this has anything to do with cell phones, it isn't mysterious, it isn't some big fucking deal, it has nothing to do with saving any planets or anything else.

It has to do with some fucked up middle class culture of fucked up white people striving and succeeding and living a fucked up so-called lifestyle and being complete fucking assholes wasting all of our time and making everyone around them fucking miserable. It doesn't take years of study, or deep understanding, or special knowledge, or the right guru, or the right theories. Just look around everyday, all day, everywhere you go. And it doesn't take baby steps, we aren't on the path to anything, we aren't getting there, we aren't improving and all of the rest of that drama.

It is not difficult, it isn't hard to understand, it isn't arcane or esoteric what chlamor is trying to say. The hard work, the really difficult thing to do, is to keep participating in this ongoing and omnipresent and insane discussion going on all the time by the upwardly mobile good people. It takes a huge amount of thought, time, and energy; it is immensely unpleasant and stressful, to play along and keep propping back up an insane world view that would make whether or not one owned a cell phone some sort of big moralistic decision. People all around us are telling us continually that it is terribly immoral somehow to NOT own one of the fucking things. It isn't chlamor lecturing and scolding us that it is immoral to own one. He is talking sanely. It only sounds weird, or difficult to fathom or grasp, because we are embedded in an ongoing insane set of social interactions.

He isn’t a guru. That is why you don't understand him.


Yes indeed.

Mike these might be your most inspirational words. I can identify with nearly everything you're saying here. Maybe you've really never considered it before (you're weird like that after all ;)) but do I seem like a 'normal' 26 yo to you? (not tooting my own horn, I know I'm a "loser" lol)

Anyway, partially I was trying to express the gamut I've gone through reading Chlamor's posts over the past year+ (and yours too incidentally and Wolfs and Anax's). I've slowly come to realize what's really being said.

Thanks kid.

Gentrification. I don't want to see you struggle with that for the next 30 years, like I have. That is why I ask - what do you see that I didn't when I was your age? How can we break the pattern? It is pretty much over for us geezers - they are running out the clock on us, which is what HRC is about - running out the clock, prevent defense, the stall.

Is HRC Hilary Rodham Clinton or something else?

Clinton, yes. "Something else" too, I guess.