Is what most people call mysticism an escape from reality or a means of entry into it with greater intensity? My standard for mysticism is the same as for poetry: does it make life more interesting or less?

”

— Peter Cole, in Poetry, January 2013 (via yepsen)

(via kiamagic)

The feminist movement is generally periodized into the so-called first, second and third waves of feminism. In the United States, the first wave is characterized by the suffragette movement; the second wave is characterized by the formation of the National Organization for Women, abortion rights politics, and the fight for the Equal Rights Amendments. Suddenly, during the third wave of feminism, women of colour make an appearance to transform feminism into a multicultural movement.

This periodization situates white middle-class women as the central historical agents to which women of colour attach themselves. However, if we were to recognize the agency of indigenous women in an account of feminist history, we might begin with 1492 when Native women collectively resisted colonization. This would allow us to see that there are multiple feminist histories emerging from multiple communities of colour which intersect at points and diverge in others. This would not negate the contributions made by white feminists, but would de-center them from our historicizing and analysis.

Indigenous feminism thus centers anti-colonial practice within its organizing. This is critical today when you have mainstream feminist groups supporting, for example, the US bombing of Afghanistan with the claim that this bombing will free women from the Taliban (apparently bombing women somehow liberates them).

”

— Indigenous Feminism Without Apology - Andrea Smith (via ellesugars)

(Source: whitedenial-ontrial, via wolvensnothere)

I’ve thought a long time about what would be useful to the homeless. We need public toilets. Not filthy portapotties, but proper restrooms that are private and clean. We need safe places to sleep. Capsule hotels, which are found in Tokyo and some other places in the world, would be most excellent. The rooms should be very cheap, and I mean five bucks is too much. They should be subsidized, and there should be twice as many as there is a demand for them. They should be extremely secure, and you should be allowed to stay for as long as you want. We need showers. Safe, secure, single occupancy showers. Those are answers that would help people.

If cities want us off the streets, they should offer these alternatives. They would be cheap and easy.

Teen runaways who declare that they are without guardianship should not be treated as criminals, and should not be compelled to live a criminal life. They should be issued cards which confer the right to work upon them. Forget child labor laws. They have a perverse outcome, effectively forcing children to become prostitutes, drug dealers, and thieves. Emancipation should be an on-demand right for all children.

Get rid of laws which forbid sleep. Who are you kidding? Those laws contribute to the meth problem in this country. Those laws destroy lives.

You want to solve problems? Homeless people have problems, they are not the problem. Don’t treat them as something that needs a cure.

”

— http://guide2homelessness.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-solve-homelessness.html (via filthypolak)

(via abwatt)

Prometheus: In the past, when men fell ill,
there was nothing to help them, no food they might take,
no ointment for the skin, or medicine to drink.
Through lack of drugs they withered away, until I
showed them the ingredients of soothing medicines
by means of which they keep all illnesses at bay.
Then I laid down the lines of many ways of prophecy.

”

— Prometheus Bound, Æschylus[?] [400 BCE?] (via witchofforestgrove)

I use “fascism” here not as a cliché, but as an historical-structural formation principally rooted in the mature stage of capitalism, in which business-government interpenetration (what the Japanese political scientist Masao Maryuma called the “close-embrace” system) has created hierarchical social classes of wide differences in wealth and power, the militarization of social values and geopolitical strategy, and a faux ideology of classlessness to instill loyalty for the social order among working people.

”

—

Norman Pollack at Counter Punch. Under the Cloak of Liberalism

America on the Cusp of Fascism

(via protoslacker)

tiara of barbie doll heads: if there is one thing radicals/progressives/liberals have failed to get right in the new age »

themodernistwitch:

bankuei:

cupcakesnotbombs:

navigatethestream:

its the notion of boycotts

you wanna know why the bus boycotts of the civil rights movement were so successful?

because an alternative black run transportation system was created for those who couldn’t…

What would be the correct kind of person to have access to videos of civilian massacres? Who’s the right kind of person to be let in the know about the fact that we systematically turned academics and other ‘suspects’ over to the Iraqi military to be tortured? We want people who will, what, sit on this stuff? Apparently the idea is to hire the kind of person who will cheerfully help us keep this sort of thing hidden from ourselves. The thing is, when it comes to things like the infamous ‘Collateral Murder’ video, whether it’s Bradley Manning or anyone else, any decent human being would have had an obligation to come forward. Presented with that material, you either become part of a campaign of torture and murder by saying nothing, or you have to make it public. Morally, there’s no option.

”

—

Matt Taibbi (via theamericanbear)

I’m off to read the article now, but want to address a systematic distortion from the pro-Manning camp that this quote advocates. The releases that Manning is accused of making were indiscriminate dumping. For every document on some sort of abuse, there were hundreds released that appear to contain no wrong-doing but did compromise diplomatic interests. Most of the people on both sides of this issue wouldn’t support similar data trawling by anyone else.

Second, the accounts I’ve seen, Manning is accused of gaining unauthorized access predating any of the events he could be considered a whistleblower on. With several disciplinary actions predating this event and the indiscriminate nature of his leaks, the celebrating of Manning feels opportunistic at best, and for many, just a simple expression of similar resentment.

Have we not become aware of abuses just like this from many other sources on a regular basis that don’t break military discipline? Did the releases really tell us anything that wasn’t already before our eyes? Has any good come from the entire process?

(via wolvensnothere)