All these jokers...why do we put up with them?

The will of the people be damned. What we have is the will of the few, powerful money men and executives protecting their cash flows and profits. The entire political system has been corrupted to serve their ends and ignore our desires, our health, our childrenʻs educations, our economic supports...it goes on and on and on. To hell with ethics, morals, decent treatment of fellow human beings. The game is rigged, and the few who are truly the only players (weʻre just bystanders, notwithstanding the vote) are absolutely ruthless. Those of us who suffer qualms are way outgunned! Itʻs going to take massive noncooperation. Like, a general strike tomorrow. Just say No! And it better happen soon, because time is running out. Beyond the next turn is an abyss.

Not a pretty picture.

Kaleo

What Is Sustainable: The Rapid Growth of Human Populations 1750-2000

What Is Sustainable: The Rapid Growth of Human Populations 1750-2000.

This link is to my friend Rick Reese's blog, and just one of his many brief and often very penetrating synopses of books that give more insight into the maladaptive craziness, even insanity, of contemporary industrialized cultures that now operate on a world scale.  Following this link will give you access to all of his other posts in the right-hand column of his pages.  Highly recommended.

Social media and WWW architecture

My browsing today brought me to a very interesting presentation, about 30 minutes, by Douglas Rushkoff as closing remarks to a 2 or 3 day conference on using social media to promote brand marketing. This corporatized marketing focus apparently ticked him off. I discovered it on the Dreamflesh blog (http://dreamflesh.com/blog/) where it is introduced with this comment:

Douglas Rushkoff spontaneously lent me some money ages ago to fund my weird publishing ventures. When I could pay him back, he refused the offer.

So of course I have a background rosy feeling about the guy. But, while I found his recent books Life Inc. and Program or Be Programmed to be well-written, sound advice, none of it comes close to this closing keynote talk he gave at a social media conference. He says:

I got really tired of listening to brand managers talk about their “Twitter strategies,” and by the time my closing keynote came around, it felt like I had watched the corporatization [of] the net recapitulated over the course of the afternoon.

Please watch this if you’ve not come across Douglas’ recent ideas.

Getting back...

Working the past 2-plus months on a major house remodeling job. It's been exhausting most days, but now all the heavy work is completed and the last few finishing details are under way. During this time I've been mulling over my educational roots in expository writing and journalism, my life experiences, and what I know to be my purpose for being here on earth. This might be quite a story. Perhaps I will begin to unfold it here on this blog. A correspondent with more experience with blog writing and online newsletters, focused on the urgent needs of the world and the difficulty of moving our almost exclusively materialist culture, society and economy in the direction of sustainability, has suggested I begin with an account of an auto accident in my 20s, during which I had a near death, out of body experience (NDE/OBE)...the aftermath of which resulted in a complete redirection of my life into human service activities, away from what I had planned as a career as a sculptor and college teacher. I'm working on it.

It's still on my mind....

Boy, the last six months have kept me jumping! It's still that way. Now I'm trying to get back on the blogging path. Updated some of the blog page design elements: useful information, no real control over the blog's layout. But that's okay with me for now. Just getting the high sign for dinner, so will get back to this another time.

Still a newbie...

My, how time flies! Got sidetracked on my quest to learn about blogs and blogging. But I am getting back to it, now. I think I need to put blogging on my daily (or nearly daily) "To Do" list, then not let it slide. Even just a few minutes a day will add up to useful experience by next year.

Newbie to the blogosphere

Well, here goes my first foray into blogging....

I'm very curious about what it's like, how much time it requires, how rewarding the effort may be. Some folks' comments I've found on the Internet suggest that it can be very gratifying, indeed.

What I have to say at this point certainly isn't going to be helpful/interesting to anyone else. I'm assuming I can read others' blogs, which may assist me in getting my bearings.