Tonight Paradigms comes from Alaska!

Paul Pike is a musician originally from Newfoundland Canada, a Mi'kmaq man, a parent, grandparent, and a substance abuse counselor. Great interview, fantastic music!

Josh, part of Occupy Anchorage and Occupy Fairbanks, talks about some of the challenges facing Alaska.

Tonight at 8 PM Eastern http://wbkm.org and http://paradigms.bz

Here is where I am today.

There are numerous irons in the fire for Paradigms and for my teaching, and today I am at a pause. Nothing is happening today. Foundations are laid and now we will see what happens.

There is an overwhelming amount of information about things that are going wrong in governments, in policies, acts of cruelty, acts of stupidity; the presidential grandstanding and election theater in the US, the ongoing fighting for freedom around the world, more repression, more economic pressurization, more militarization. On it goes. All of it, from Wal-Mart to cluster bombs to riots, and it’s only just begun, this period of worldwide transition transformation, starting off with the ugliness one expects from dying empires, and hopefully leading to some creative kind effective sustainable new systems.

It is the dark time of the year and I am feeling tired. It is not cold and snowy here yet but hopefully it will be. I just want to sleep and dream and eat and hibernate and gestate the next season’s ideas, form the seeds for new creativity in the spring.

I am also tired of the human bullshit, all that stuff I listed above. I mean, really, this is the best we can do? So much foolishness, people lusting after power and things and status and all this meaningless nonsense, losing sight of (if they ever had it) the bigger picture. And the willingness to cause suffering in order to make money. That is really just sick.

The US Senate has now passed a law allowing military arrest and detention of anyone in the US, declaring that the “homeland is now part of the battlefield.” That’s pretty fucking scary sounding to me. The President can veto the law. I hope he does. If he signs it then the next phase of fascism will be set into motion.

This coming Sunday Paradigms will be about positive music and Gratitude. I would love to include as many peoples voices as possible expressing gratitude in their own way. If you are interested, please call 802-232-4205 and leave a message. You can say your name, or not, and then just speak or sing or whatever you like to express your gratitude. I might answer the phone in which case you won't leave a message, we will get to speak together and I will record your expression.

My Gratitude to all of You!

love,
Baruch

http://paradigms.bz
http://wbkm.org

Here is something I don't understand. A man, veteran of one of our government/corporate wars, shoots himself in the head in a public park in Burlington and no one is talking about the implications of that. What does it mean that this man, one of so many veterans who commit suicide, chose to do this in a public place? What is the statement? Obviously it is a cry of terrible pain, but is it more? When a monk or a nun immolates themself in Tibet it is seen as a clear political message. Why is that type of analysis missing in this situation? It is easy to say "Oh the occupation is unsafe, look what happened" but what we should be asking ourselves is "what does it mean about our way of life that a veteran kills himself in a public park?"

Addendum November 16

I was mistaken. The man who shot himself was not a veteran. I still think that there is a bigger picture to look at when someone kills themself in a public park.