tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30919268.post6812180134458838909..comments2022-03-25T06:22:40.776-05:00Comments on exercising my rights and eatin' my power pills: "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"Emhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09152242140864444434noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30919268.post-86559483745132748212010-07-08T18:41:16.934-05:002010-07-08T18:41:16.934-05:00He says that, yes, but then he doesn't do noth...He says that, yes, but then he doesn't do nothing! He goes fishing!<br /><br />It's fascinating to me how when Peter is hypnotized, the effect is that he suddenly becomes free from the slavery of the "social arrangments" around him, and just (at first) does what he thinks is good. The hypnotic spell actually breaks him out of the hypnotic spell that is our culture, pounded into our heads starting about when our parents tell us that this toy is ours, but that one is not ours.<br /><br />The only thing preventing us from just going fishing, just living off the land like that, is some arbitrary law somewhere. Some government that tells us that someone (either a private entity or the government itself) owns whatever it is that we might want to use. Sure, the law designates a few areas where we can fish recreationally, but all the major fish stocks (and forest, and farmland, and every other conceivable natural resource) is "enclosed" and capitalized until there is nothing left.<br /><br />This is all particularly apropos because we're seeing a resurgence of a very old lie: the myth that the rich deserve to be rich, and that the poor are lazy[<a href="http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/07/07/rich_people_know_best/index.html" rel="nofollow">1</a>, <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joe_conason/2010/07/07/fergie/index.html" rel="nofollow">2</a>, <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joan_walsh/politics/2010/07/07/the_terrible_politics_of_deficit_reduction/index.html" rel="nofollow">3</a>]. This flies in the face of history, where we see that the rich actually accumulated wealth through a systemic policy of injustice: exploitation of resources that should be available to all, and oppression of anyone who stands in their way. So, yes, if "work" is the practice of raping the earth and her humbler inhabitants, then I want <b>none of it</b>. I completely reject that work, and rather seek the life that is given freely, using that which nature provides, giving back where I can, and then passing back into dust so that the process can continue.<br /><br /><i>Why obey any unjust law?</i><br /><br />God, preserve us, and hopefully some remnant of Your beautiful ecosystem, while You're at it!John L. Clarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11799082222127859256noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30919268.post-76865816585843572922010-07-08T13:44:59.236-05:002010-07-08T13:44:59.236-05:00Great write up. It really caught my attention whe...Great write up. It really caught my attention when I got to this " in which the right to pollute becomes a commodity". I had never really thought about it this way. <br /><br />Good thought tweaker.Tracyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02365145409102143868noreply@blogger.com