On the delusions of American exceptionalism.

It’s tiring though, isn’t it. These issues are ones that we should all be concerned about, are not unique to the UK and are a symptom of capitalism, particularly when the plebs get a bit lairy. I think what can be most tiring is the feeling of uselessness so many of us have.

I could have listened to her forever, so vast her experience, so full her life. Her words raised goosebumps as she spoke about her early life, “I know what it’s like to be a refugee in a strange country,” she told us, “I know what it’s like to be really hungry.”

“We mistakenly attribute the concept of vandalism to what is ‘marginal,’ and rarely to what is ‘central,’ when the term should apply to infringements against the integrity of public property in general. […] Vandalism is, therefore, the attempt to destroy property even in its abstract form — the body and identity.”

“After a year in which the whole world was called to action and solidarity due to environmental urgencies, racial conflicts and one great health crisis, the new chapters of Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid could start to be written.”

When I compare the present moment in the US to China’s Cultural Revolution, it’s not from the perspective of a defender of capitalism or the status quo. It’s from a perspective that seeks class abolition and complete social revolution, not just cultural radicalism.

“For many Armenians, today’s reality of ethnic hate and war crimes is a haunting reminder of the past, a second attempt at the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Turkey's involvement in this current war not only included a dark and long history of genocide against the Armenian people during the first World War, but in addition, a geopolitical, economic, and ethnic agenda of Pan-Turkism, the desire to unify all Turkish-speaking nations for the recreation of the Ottoman Empire.”

Faith in the democratic system is eroding not only in Belarus, but also in the United States and other places around the globe. The principles of ‘Freedom' America sought to defend for almost a century revealed to be a shortcoming in their own territory, and not exclusive to 2nd and 3rd world authoritarian governments.

What should be clear to all citizens who believe in the promises encapsulated in the Bill of Rights is that those rights are under direct assault. We cannot let the power structure define when, where, and how we exercise our rights.

The autonomy of those moving needs to be supported and not hindered because the particularity of challenges are different at different scales, requiring life at those scales to be allowed to act with nuance to the complexity of a changing world. Trying to manage this from on-high as an intelligent designer or manager only makes the situation worse as it hinders the adaptation that life needs to engage in to move with changing social and environmental climates and shifting resources.

There is definitely going to be a dash of Buddhism in this, so if you are super adamant about only reading articles about “Gods and Radicals” instead of maybe a few moments of “Bodhisattvas and Radicals”, you may want to skip the whole damn thing. I'm also going to talk about neurology, and probably fuck it up. Then to finish, we're going to look a bit at the society of the spectacle, and what 2020 can teach us.

I can clearly remember the moment when I realized what I was doing, the moment when I was able to let go, to stop trying to fight Death.

While the master position presents debt as liberating — one can invest the money wisely, pay for education, strive to make a living — it is the ultimate mechanism of economic slavery.

Oh you'll go outside again, work at a job, hate the president. But that old world is gone, let it go and prepare for the new.

It isn't like Pantheacon dying is going to make three wolf moon t-shirts go away. Or books offering native spirituality as a product.

As I write this it’s Boxing day. My house is a riot of noise and merriment, filled with my loved ones and I reflect on how lucky I am, to have food in my cupboards, a roof over my head and the most basic of needs met. Boxing day always feels a little melancholy, a time to reflect on the year almost gone and think forward towards the next. I will forgo such musings today however. Instead, on this day of servants (Boxing day originated from the peasant class - so many would have been working on Christmas day itself, in service to the upper classes that the day after was their Christmas day, when they would give and receive their own Christmas boxes and spend time with their families) let’s explore some weird and wonderful New Year celebrations that make our modern way of seeing in the new year appear bland in comparison.

This piece won’t have the pretence of analyzing the myriad of global uprisings and their effectiveness. It will deal critically with the Western gaze over Southern and Eastern movements — without promoting deradicalization. […] More often than not, mass media has been used to manipulate public opinion, and we must be critical, above all, of that which seems to have been catered for us.

And so I take my memories of her and the lessons learned from her into the future, for isn’t that one way our beloved dead live on? And what would those lessons be? To live in the moment and fully, to experience it all with truth and with feeling. To honour family and friends. To guard and protect those who cannot do so for themselves. To love with my whole being and to sink my teeth and claws into my enemies, those that would harm me and keep me caged.

As the pressure builds, we know we cannot carry on as we have been doing. We, as a species, will reap what we have sown, in one way or another, for I feel we are too far gone for anything else.

The Crackland in Rio— Portraits of people from the drug scene in the favela Maré.