[discuss-dan] Matrix

[allenbutcher@netzero.net]

I would like to apologize for using the "h" word.  It really isn't my 
habit to insult people, just a bad habit of expressing a poor sense 
of humor.  Since I included myself in the group of people who are not 
living according to their expressed values I thought I might be able 
to use that "h" word without offense being taken ....

I also think that it's good to be able to receive and to give 
feedback and constructive criticism, so thanks, Doug, for expressing 
your thoughts.  I have received similar criticism in the past for my 
writing.  Sometimes I manage to edit those negative aspects out, and 
to write in a more entertaining style, and sometimes I don't do it 
successfully.  Being reminded helps me to keep that concern more in 
mind.  And I do practice being short and to the point in writing tri-
fold brochures where I'm very limited in space.  I find that to be 
good practice.  Email, however, too easily lends itself to running on 
and on...

It is my intention to encourage discussion and I regret if I've done 
the opposite.  Part of my thinking is that in activist circles I feel 
that people tend to get so focused upon big picture issues, like 
globalization and media indifference, and fail to give enough thought 
to how mundane issues like our own securing of housing, food, child 
and elder care, education, health care and all those personal issues 
require similar concentration.  My suggestion is that through 
community, of what ever form, we are able to address these close-to-
home issues in ways that support and evidence the values that we also 
want to see expressed on larger societal levels, on up to the global 
level.

I have essentially decided that I want to focus on the local, 
personal issue of helping people to build community, whoever might be 
ready or interested in that, partly since so few other people really 
provide that focus, and so it can be hard to find relevant 
information.

If I weave a bewildering number of issues and levels of discussion 
into particular posts, it is because I've been thinking and working 
on all this for a very long time, to the exclusion really of other 
things that I'd also like to accomplish (like making money, for 
example).  I have a lot of information to share, and if some of it 
isn't readily understandable, just file it away or delete it.  It 
took me years to be able to understand and appreciate the land value 
tax idea, for example, and years to develop all the theory that I use 
to explain community, the time economy and so on, so I don't expect 
that people will necessarily understand my meaning in everything I 
write.  Community really isn't a commonly understood subject (yet I 
hope to see that changing ...).

So I offer what I have, and if anyone finds it to be interesting or 
useful, perhaps they'll let me know.  And I also appreciate that 
those who disagree also share those thoughts as it helps me to better 
address others' perspectives, or at least, that's my hope.  
Allen


--- In discuss-dan@y..., "Doug Bohm" <doug@d...> wrote:
> Allen,
> 
> If we could bottle all the energy behind that "long winded" 
verbiage flowing
> from your fingertips, we just might be able to break free of the 
fossil-fuel
> burning Matrix.
> 
> I don't pretend to speak for the `average' person when I say that 
you got
> some pretty good ideas, I guess.  Well, at least I think you do. Oh 
screw
> it, I can only understand about half of the points you're making 
(you are
> making points, right?) and I can never get to the end of any of 
your lengthy
> posts.  Sometimes the more I read, the more irritated I get.
> 
> It's kind of like you set people up, by implying that you want a 
discussion
> or debate on a very broad range of issues, then WHAM you hit us 
with this
> free-flowing banter that I doubt many of us has the sanity to 
debate point
> for point, even if they had the time to absorb it.
> 
> Sometimes the eloquent, detailed expression of your idea comes off
> condescending and elitist.  The inherent dilemma I see is a white 
male with
> his elaborate plan (which I am not judging the content of) to save 
the
> world, attempting to shape the debate in a very confined, narrow 
way.  I
> believe the majority of people don't know what consensus is, let 
alone how
> to reach it, nor do people have a basic understanding of the 
issues.  This
> is why I presented The Matrix analogy, to give people something 
they could
> quickly identify with when trying to describe globalization and the 
complex
> mechanism of control over us.
> 
> We CAN escape the Matrix, but I'm not gonna pretend that a white
> savior-Jesus-Neo individual (and I'm not suggesting you are) will 
come up
> with an end all, beat all solution to our predicament.  It is going 
to take
> a mass collective effort and that starts with mobilizing the masses 
toward a
> common goal.  If that common goal is a just, sustainable & creative
> environment free of oppression, THEN we can start having an open,
> consensus-building dialogue en masse about how to get to that goal.
> >snip<

> dougRANTula


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