2nd Renaissance -40 : Melbourne Indymedia

Maintain Resolve and Hope [272]
No matter what the Old World Order might do or say there are many ways that ordinary people can support each other and take both joint and individual action towards one crucial goal: establishing a Level 4 Civilization by 2014.

As the diagram shows, the disintegration and chaos of the end of the Level 3 Civilization is well advanced - far more than is apparent from the messages of the mainstream media.

The time is ripe to engender new awareness and hope in communities and common interest groups around the planet. This process has already started, particularly on the WWW. Now is the time to give new ideas and new meaning a greater impetus, and to widen and popularise Us-2-Us dialogue in order to help new thinking and values spread and take hold.

Remember, there is no revolution involved in a transition to a free and better society based on abundance and deep spirituality. There will be no violent overthrow of existing power structures; just a firm abandonment of the outmoded and limiting paradigms of the old civilisation that was based on scarcity and centralised control. In the looming age of abundance each neo-tribe and free city can readily support and control its own culture and ethos.

Be very clear about it, whatever the snowmen and parrot people might say;

Secession is not sedition.

Secession is an individual right! Every person born into a federation belongs in that land and society, but they do not necessarily 'belong' to a centralised administration. Citizens in a democracy only tolerate control and continue to fund central administrations through taxes if those administrations deliver them the things they aspire to.

One of the most important things that people everywhere want for themselves and their families is freedom. If a state of federation does not provide what groups of people aspire to those same groups have a right to secede and set up their own more advanced society. If they don't have such a right then they aren't living in a democracy at all, but in a totalitarian state that is disguised as a democracy.

Freedom is an intrinsic right, it should never be granted or withdrawn within the framework of extrinsic rights established by nation states and federations, and governed by The Rule of Law. Remember the diagram of collective rights, it is reproduced below.

As the old economic and political orders disintegrate, the control freaks within federal and state administrations can be expected to move to restrict freedoms and tighten the rule of law over extrinsic rights. This is what happened towards the end of the first Dark Age in Europe, and it can be expected to happen again. In fact the signs that a new era of suppression of rights has already begun are everywhere.

It is vital for the members of emerging leaver-giver tribes to remain non-violent. New tribalism does not imply the sort of behaviour that has, sadly, characterised the decolonisation of many African nations. The genocide in Rwanda in 1994, in which 500,000 people, mainly Tutsis died, (about the same death toll as that of the 1945 incineration of Dresden), and over one million people fled into other countries as refugees, is not the form of tribalism that will be helpful to the 2nd Renaissance. The type of behaviour that occurred in Rwanda was not tribalism, it was barbarism as bad as that exhibited by British War Cabinet in WWII and the COW nations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

New tribes must be driven by proud values and spiritual awareness. Violence and revenge can have no place in the advanced cultures of a Level 4 Civilization.

Remember the two great levers for change: superior numbers, and communal communication abilities. Talk to each other in an Us-2-Us fashion. Take up the task of spreading counter-logic and new solutions throughout the old, faltering, 'civilization' that is founded on capitalism - the economics of scarcity, federalism - the centralisation of power and control, and militarism - the doctrine of 'might is right'.

Numbers matter - Act like the ants. [273]
There are said to be at least 15,000 human beings sold into slavery each year in the USA alone. Some commentators and human rights workers put the figure as high as 50,000. Similar trafficking in human livestock is occurring in Britain, Australia, and many other countries. The unfortunate slaves are forced to work on farms, in restaurants, as domestic 'servants', in brothels, and in pornographic video productions. There is no point relying on authorities to stop this new-slavery, most politicians are indifferent to the plight of these people because they are powerless - and there is nothing that career politicians and bureaucrats despise more than powerless people.

Consider what might be done about sex slavery with sufficient numbers. A few concerned citizens can't be effective in having sex slaves released from a particular brothel. If they go to the police there is a good chance nothing will happen, the officers are probably getting kick-backs from the brothel operator (and possibly even 'free rides'). If six or even a dozen or so citizens go to that brothel to release unwilling workers there, they will be set upon by pimps guarding the girls, and by lawyers acting for the establishment. But, if six hundred citizens go to a brothel to release any slaves therein, the operators will let the girls go without a murmur, the pimps will offer no resistance, and no legal action will ensue. That's the sort of power that can be generated by many people acting like the ants.

Note that the above example does not advocate closing brothels in which women work of their own free will. Prostitution is as old as humanity itself and this 'oldest profession' is often far more honourable and worthy of respect than the 'second oldest profession' that is often used to harass its members. The cure for prostitution most probably lies in the establishment of economic abundance and the creation of social conditions in which women don't have to do such work in order to survive. Also important might be a leaver-giver ethos that engenders support networks for those members of the society who need help to find ways to survive and contribute without having to prostitute themselves.

The difference between support networks within a taker ethos and a leaver-giver ethos comes down to who it is that is supported. In the taker world a family will usually act to rescue one or more of its own daughters from a life of prostitution, but they will leave the rescue of "other people's" daughters to someone else. In a leaver-giver world, each family regards other people's daughters as part of their own social group, or tribe, and they will act collectively to rescue them from the clutches of prostitution networks. This is not a 'mission impossible' ideal. There are historical examples of natural human tribes in which prostitution and suicide were largely unknown. It's just that few such cultures have survived the twin onslaughts of colonialism and the industrial revolution. Now it's time to reverse that situation.

State Money Controls Us - Our Own Money Frees Us [274]
One of the greatest psychological hurdles that prospective leaver-givers will face is losing their home and other property if they don't meet their mortgage repayments. They probably won't see their own way clear to 'leave' a federation or state and help set up a free city. While they will urge others to take such action, and genuinely support them, they themselves will not feel able to follow the example. "Not yet - not until we can afford to." But the reality is that those people who hang back will never be able to 'afford to.' That's the way the economic system is geared.

However, money as we know it - state regulated and valued by international trade movements - is unnecessary.

When the colonial powers first moved into Africa they found thriving 'economies' based on barter or the exchange of unregulated 'money', these systems were efficient and the tribes who used them remained free. The colonial masters brought the native populations of Africa, Australia, and the US, to heel by introducing a central money supply. To use Daniel Quinn's expression, "The food was under lock and key." You could only eat if you had state money and you could only get that if you entered the state-run economy; often as a low-paid labourer, porter, or the like. The indigenous peoples of colonised countries have been labouring under the yoke of the international monetary (aka control) system ever since. They have been joined by the non-indigenous descendents of the original European colonists, and other people who migrated to their lands.

But, every now and then, reality shines through a small crack in the system of national currencies and international trade, and then it is shut out once more. This happened in Argentina during the economic meltdown of 2001-2003, which involved the government defaulting on an external debt of US$132 billion, the collapse of the banking system, the freezing of deposited savings, soaring inflation and massive unemployment, and a "pots-and-pans rebellion" in which large numbers of Argentineans took over the streets of Buenos Aires and besieged the closed banks, demanding their deposits be returned.

Although many people suffered real hardship as a result of the lack of state-backed money, they were able to survive and quickly introduce their own systems of barter and unofficial currencies. And while sadly, some people died in the initial riots, for most Argentineans life did not end. The people of Argentina demonstrated that they could build an alternative economy and basic support frameworks for each other.

Nobody disputes the fact that the financial crisis in Argentina was due to mismanagement and corruption within the government and, to a lesser extent, the banks. Nobody suggests that the economic malaise that descended upon a country that had once been the seventh richest nation in the world was the fault of the people of Argentina. Thus, it is highly ironic that the money that was mismanaged and misappropriated was the people's. It was not the government's money - governments don't actually have any money unless they raise if from the people by taxation. It was not the bank's money - banks don't actually have any money unless people deposit it and then borrow money within the system. The money and the wealth that was so greatly devalued in 2001-2002 was ultimately the people's.

There is a strong possibility that if the Argentinean people had not participated in a state-managed economy, and if they had not dealt with large multinational banks, but invested and borrowed with local cooperatives instead, Argentina would still be one of the richest countries in the world.

Here are some WWW excerpts that capture the nature of the new communal movement that quickly emerged in Argentina, once the state-managed economy collapsed (They come from Global Village News and Resources - GVNR).

* "Alva Sotelo was just trying to hold onto her job and her salary. By December [2001], she and her fellow workers' pay had fallen to only five pesos a week. ... She and her fellow workers began sleeping at the factory because they kept hoping their employers would come back and pay their salaries. "At first, we were waiting for someone to tell us what to do," she says.

Eventually, the workers at Burkman realised that wasn't going to happen - the owners had effectively abandoned the debt-ridden factory. The workers began, slowly, to run the factory themselves. They elected a six-member commission to coordinate the work. They paid off the company's debts with factory profits. They paid their salaries by dividing the remaining profits equally among themselves. ... Alva and her 50 or so fellow workers continue to sleep in shifts at the factory. But now they are bringing home around 50 pesos a week, and they laugh and talk to each other while they work. "We've actually discovered that we get more done when we communicate with each other." she says.

Alva Sotelo is one of many people in Argentina who have been forced by the collapse of the economy into creating alternatives. The result is new-found solidarity and empowerment and an opportunity to create new models that transcend the old individualist capitalist one. "Solidarity solutions" are sprouting up all over Argentina: street corner soup kitchens organised by neighbourhood assemblies, food donations replacing money as the price of entrance to cultural events, neighbours buying food together, community food gardens. The most notable changes have been the explosion of worker cooperatives, the rise of neighbourhood assemblies, and the proliferation of barter clubs. ... Once workers take control of a company, they can use legal channels to apply for cooperative status. Owner attempts to evict workers are often unsuccessful either because they are legally challenged or because members of local neighbourhood assemblies show up en masse to support the workers and non-violently prevent the eviction.

These assemblies, born in early January from "the pot and pan uprisings" (cacerolazos) of December, are another powerful force for innovation within a collapsing system. Breaking through the fear of activism instilled by the brutal military dictatorship, roughly 200 groups of neighbours throughout Buenos Aires have rejected traditional party divisions and opted for direct democracy and a "politics without politicians." They are sending delegates to an inter-neighbourhood assembly, publishing newsletters, requesting donations from local merchants for street corner community kitchens [children in some areas were reduced to eating fried toads and rats, so emergency food relief was vital] and organising demonstrations. In addition to confronting the practical needs of the neighbourhood, the assemblies have become improvisational think tanks where people trade political, social, and economic ideas to create a new vision for the country.

"In December," says assembly member Hugo Perez, "we dissolved the trance we had been in of 'Don't get involved.' We woke up and claimed the street, and once we had it, we didn't want to give it up." Many of these middle-class professionals have lost their jobs. Some have had their utilities cut off because of lack of payment, and some worry about how and what they are going to eat. Pro-government forces have attacked and threatened neighbourhood assembly members. Suddenly their own situation does not seem so different from the struggles of the working-class unemployed who have been protesting by blocking roads. A new slogan is chanted at demonstrations: "Potbanger and roadblocker, it's the same fight!"

Social distinctions also blur at the barter clubs proliferating throughout the country. With 400.000 participants and 800 nodes, the barter system now accounts for US$400-600 million worth of business. The nodes operate with slips of paper called credits, earned by trade in goods or services."

... Social economist and barter promoter Heloisa Primavera says the barter economy creates "social money" that fosters community rather than the isolation of traditional consumerism. "It's also a tool for replacing scarcity thinking with abundance thinking."

How far can this thinking go? At least one Argentine writer has suggested that the country could use barter with other countries as a way to free itself from the leash of the IMF and the external debt. When an entire people wake from the trance of political passivity, as the Argentines did last December, it seems that anything is possible."

Although it lacked a new-tribal spirituality and the leaver-giver ethos, the Argentinean example shows the latent tribalism that lies just under the surface of their capitalist society. While the IMF and the OWO have again - for the moment - established economic and political control over ordinary Argentineans, the brief period of financial and political instability clearly showed that the people of Argentina were able to get along without a state-controlled currency, the 'services' of multi national banks, or the 'help' of the IMF. There is really no reason to suppose that they couldn't have carried on; to build a different and far better society, and to barter with people in other countries outside the international monetary system.

Once ordinary Argentineans began printing their own alternative currency they became free from the economic control of the state. Had they persisted they would have unleashed powerful innovative and wealth creating forces that had long been constrained by the old economic order. If the people of Argentina could do these things so can the people of any country or free city. They just have to realise that they can achieve far more without the overburden that state bureaucracies and national political parties impose. Then, once they decide that they can do far better using enterprise and social collectives, and applying natural tribal principles; they must act like ants.

The best time to make the break with the old order is before the economy totally collapses; that will avoid most of the hardship and grief that accompanies a complete financial meltdown. People who are concerned about their large mortgages and credit card debts must realise that when (not if) a major depression comes the banks will show them no sympathy; but will seize their property and other assets with the full backing of the rule of law. However, it doesn't have to play out that way.

Just as numbers can change the balance of power when people - acting collectively - decide to free trafficked women from brothels or take over a failed enterprise, so they can turn the tables on predatory banks and other financial institutions. If a few thousand people were to declare their intention to default on their loans, the big lending institutions would quickly sool their lawyers on to these individual families with great indignation and vigour. But, if several million families were determined to abandon their contracts the story would play out very differently.

Note that there would not be a violent attack on the old order, but it would be an attack nevertheless. No one should expect that people abandoning the Level 3 Civilization will treat its denizens and institutions kindly - just non-violently. The same goes for respecting unfair or unduly limiting patents and copyrights; or any of the other economic and social control mechanisms that hold back the prospects of a new and better world in the early 21st century.

The Feds are justifiably scared of a swarming populace - of angry and frustrated people - being able to talk and rethink their society among themselves; as around a third of the Argentine population were bound to do by the collapse of their official economy in 2001. This is why sophisticated new surveillance systems are proliferating and intruding into our privacy more and more. And it is why more and more people are being 'encouraged' to become informers and spy on their fellow citizens who are often labelled as 'terrorists' or 'terrorist sympathisers' (modern 'witches'). This pattern is absolutely typical of all historical slides into totalitarianism. Do not expect the OWO to give up without a struggle. But do expect the angry ants to win, because the combination of their superior numbers and growing access to new communication technologies will guarantee their eventual victory over the OWO.

Follow A Freedom Flag [275]
Patriotism and pride in national flags is increasingly misplaced. The flags of the CoW nations and many other countries have been so sullied by war crimes, and social and economic barbarism, that they are no longer worthy of any reverence. Not only have the national governments that fly those tainted flags repeatedly engaged in military actions that have killed and maimed large numbers of non-combatants (women, children, the aged, and the infirm), corporations from those nations have also routinely engaged in the deliberate destruction of surplus foodstuffs in order to maintain their scarcity and high prices, while many children around the world have starved to death for lack of nourishment. Very simply: the sullied flags the Feds fly are no longer worthy of being followed.

Leaver-Giver movements and the free cities that will form during the 2nd Renaissance will need a new flag to follow - a freedom flag that is pure and unsullied by two centuries of capitalism and federalism. A draft design, which is of course freeright, is offered here. It is by no means completed and still requires detailed attention by a professional graphics artist to perfect it. Also, the final design should probably be in the dimensions of the Golden Mean instead of the 5:8 ratio used by the draft. Nonetheless, several symbolisms are contained in the flag as it is shown here.

The white waveform signifies the new and liberating knowledge and technologies that will banish scarcity and enable the formation of a Level 4 Civilization. It also depicts the reality beneath the seeming solidity of the world around us, that although there appear to be solid objects everywhere, vibrations create all matter and we are really inhabitants of a universe of waveforms.

The spiritual significance of the waveform motif is that just as there is no matter there is no death. Our physical bodies quickly wear out and turn to dust, but our souls continue to exist forever and we journey on in other lives and other bodies.

Several important numbers appear in the draft design of the Freedom Flag. There is one flag (1) and it has two (2) colours (white is a tone rather than a colour; here is signifies zero (0) or nothingness). There are three (3) troughs in the wave motif and there are four (4) crests to it. The sum of the number of crests and troughs is seven (7). Readers who have understood the earlier discussion of Peter Plichta's work will realise the significance of the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4. Seven, on the other hand, is the number of mystery in sacred geometry. For example, nobody has been able to discover how to draw a mathematically perfect heptagon. Seven is also the only number in the decad (the first ten numbers) that cannot be produced by multiplying any other of those numbers and which cannot be used as a multiplier to produce any of them. For this reason the ancients knew seven as the Virgin number and regarded it as a symbol of the eternal.

Seven is used in the Freedom Flag to represent the possible limitations to human understanding and our need to take some matters on faith alone, and not expect to be able to 'prove' or 'disprove' them with our incomplete tools and logic.

Readers who desire to know more about numbers in ancient times should consult John Michell's excellent book, The Dimensions of Paradise - The Proportions and Symbolic Numbers of Ancient Cosmology, from Adventures Unlimited Press, 2001.

By changing one or both of the two colours used in the Freedom Flag it will be possible for every free city and leaver-giver tribe to have their own distinctive form of the design. While the colour combination shown represents the overall movement for freedom, abundance, and the establishment of a Level 4 Civilization.

The hex code for the upper colour of the primary flag is #800080 and that of the lower is #FF8000.

Each free city and LG-tribe can choose their own colour variations and then register them on Freenet. Some Freenetter is sure to set up a page where they can do that. That freesite should include the final graphic design for the Freedom Flag and a way to claim and record specific colours for each flag being registered. At first, the registrations might need to be anonymous and only refer to the fact that a group of people in a city (say Dallas!) is working to found a LG-movement there and they have chosen two colours for their flag. Since all larger cities in the West are established strongholds of the OWO, formative LG-tribes will probably need to remain relatively discreet until they achieve a critical mass of membership and community support. It's not a free country yet!

Basic Entitlements In Free Cities [276]
Cities that proudly fly their version of the Freedom Flag will begin to implement an abundance economy by first providing the basic necessities of life; free to all their citizens. These basics will include food staples, basic shelter, adequate clothing, medicines and health care, digital libraries and access to Lightnet terminals, etc. No money will be required to access the basics for living. Non-basic commodities and services will be traded during the early years of the free economies, using barter or a 'people's currency' much as the Argentineans did in 2001. Gradually, as magic new technologies make inroads on scarcity and begin to generate goods and services in abundance, more items will be added to the free list.

It will be some time before luxuries such as yachts and cosmetic surgery become free to everyone, but that too will eventually be possible. However, by that point, the influence of new spirituality will have greatly reduced the desire of people to accumulate material possessions. Life will be full of joy and love, but simple in its requirements.

An Outline of the Game of Life [277]
What follows is a greatly simplified model of the purpose of life, as set out in far greater detail, and often with considerable obscurity, in various spiritual teachings from past ages. The Snakes and Ladders metaphor used here is a practical explanation, and is not deeply grounded in research and science (although some such forms of evidence do exist). The advantage of this simplified model is that it brings the nature of the game of life to the fore and skirts past all potentially diverting considerations of the details of its underpinnings. It is the latter area that usually bogs down in debates between those people who choose to believe in the existence of a divine judgement mechanism and those who want to see it proven beyond doubt - which is something that we might never be able to do while we are in our human form.

Even young children understand the principles of the game of Snakes and Ladders. A player moves a counter over a board according to the throws of a dice, and the aim is to travel from the 'start', at the bottom of the playing area, to the 'finish' at the top. Throws of the dice which land a player's counter on the foot of a ladder advance it to the top; throws that land on the head of a snake send the counter back down to the end of the tail.

The board-game of life can be likened to snakes and ladders, but with 'free will' operating each time the counter lands on the foot of a ladder or the head of a snake. In life we have the freedom to choose whether we will travel up a ladder or down a snake.

Usually, deciding to climb a ladder has some 'cost' attached; we have to give up something in order to rise up the board by way of a ladder. Conversely, going down a snake can bring us some form of gain, we might choose to cheat someone, or we might even decide to kill them in order to gain an advantage or to keep a secret hidden from the world.

Because we have the 'gift' of free will and are not constrained by fate in the same way that the player of a normal Snakes and Ladders game is, we can choose whether to give and do good - climb a ladder - or to take and do harm - slither down a snake.

Thus, we can strive to reach the 'finish' or we can decide to ignore that goal (often because we have no faith that there actually is a 'finish' or reward for helping others at our own expense) and deliberately cause havoc for our personal gain or satisfaction. The people who travel down snakes of their own free will are not usually convinced that there is any divine 'score keeping' involved in the game of life. They reason that if they can escape detection or hire a skilled lawyer who is able to get them off any charges of wrongdoing they have somehow 'won'. Only those of us who recognise the existence of a divine design and plan behind the game of life are concerned to climb ladders and reach the top of the board of life.

A perfect life is beyond most of us, we inevitably go down a few snakes from time to time. But we can all strive to finish as high on the board of life as we possibly can. In this regard it is never too late to switch from choosing snakes to choosing ladders. The Rule of Law and its attendant judicial punishment processes universally fail to recognise this fact. Wrongdoers are either confined in prisons under conditions that make it difficult to just survive, let alone find ladders to climb, or in the case of capital crimes they are increasingly likely to be executed. The 'justice' system ends the game and they are denied any opportunity to regret their crimes and seek to reform their lives. Paradoxically, the agents of judicial punishment who prevent wrongdoers from resuming the normal game of life are completely unaware that they themselves travel down a snake each time they take such 'legal' actions. Ultimately, they can finish lower in the game than those they judge and punish.

Teachings from the ancients and present-day shamans suggest that the board-game of life is played many times, just as snakes and ladders is played repeatedly. However, people brought up on mainstream religions that emphasise one life and either heaven or hell to follow have lost this understanding. Most of them have also given up the notion of a judgement day and consider that the end of their life is the final end - nothing exists for them beyond death. Of course, these ideas are contrary to the teachings of the various religions, but those institutions have been progressively marginalised by the secular power of nation states and federations. All present-day religions have also been overshadowed by the materialistic cultures spawned by commerce and capitalism.

Is it too much to attribute the decline of spirituality to the growth of central governments and economies based on taker philosophies? Not at all. The Renaissance in Europe began the process of sidelining spiritualism five centuries ago. The Reformation broke the temporal power of the Roman Church and also split its religious following. At the same time the flow-on effects of Johannes Gutenberg's mass printing technology transformed Europe into a thriving hub of commerce and conspicuous consumption. These changes laid the foundations for the present Level 3 Civilization, with its focus on the material world and the acquisition of material possessions.

History tends to happen in cycles. The second wave of communication technology is now having the same effect that mass printing did during the Renaissance; it is connecting information and thoughts in ways that are exposing and undermining the power of nation states and federations. At the same time there is a resurgence of interest in meaning, particularly amongst young people and the elderly.

Those in their middle-life stages would also be concerned with meaning, but they are so enmeshed in their repayments - mortgages, credit cards, etc - and a daily struggle to advance within a system of relentless economic scarcity, that they have little time to think about such esoteric matters as the meaning of life. Even women, who used to stay at home and raise their children on a full-time basis, are now forced to work to make ends meet. Only the very young and the very old presently have the luxury of time to wonder and search for meaning. But the situation will change as it becomes apparent that there are new alternatives to economic scarcity and predatory globalism. Soon, everybody will be seeking new meaning and new opportunities to climb as many ladders in the game of life as they possibly can. Once this happens a Level 4 Civilization will be assured.

Related:

2nd Renaissance -39

We are living through the downfall of a whole system of civilization, and growing chaos is inevitable. All the while the snowmen and the parrot people will trumpet the 'advances' being made in the War On Terror (aka War On Freedom) and lionise 'good' citizens such as federal agents, police, border guards, and the like. Citizens will be encouraged to inform on each other to 'keep our country safe'. This had already started to happen. It will accelerate as the threat of people breaking away from the control of the old order increases,

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/06/113936.php

2nd Renaissance -38

The prison system has never been reformed except in name. The prison system is, by now, incapable of reform, and the same can be said for the law enforcement and justice systems which feed it. This reality applies in most nation states within the old Level 3 Civilization, it is not confined to Australia, Britain and the USA. But that doesn't make it right for those administrations to be engaging in the incarceration of women and children. The practice is barbaric wherever it is practiced and by whomever it is authorised and administered.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/113687.php

2nd Renaissance -37

The World Organisation for Human Rights USA site also documents another innovation that enables guards to control greater numbers of prisoners, with consequent savings in operating costs.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/113467.php

2nd Renaissance -36

It is not fanciful to believe that criminals can be rehabilitated or that the harm they have caused might be repaired, various tribal societies managed to achieve such outcomes for thousands of years. It can be done, and discussing the presently catastrophic regimes of justice and incarceration will lead people to fathom ways of doing so again, within a Level 4 Civilization.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/113284.php

2nd Renaissance -35

But, before considering the implications of the death penalty, there is reason to consider how we already treat each other in relation to the imprisonment and punishment of women and their families. Great barbarity is going on right now in this area; within the ambit of the rule of law and the revenge and punishment systems of our "civilized" societies.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/113143.php

New Strategy for an Autonomous Politics

My aim in this article is to present some hypotheses on issues of strategy for anti-capitalist emancipatory movements. The idea is to rethink the conditions for an effective politics, with the capacity to radically change the society we live in. Even if I will not have the space to analyze concrete cases, these reflections are not a purely "theoretical" endeavor, but spring from the observation of a series of movements I had the chance to be part of -the movement of neighbor's assemblies in Argentina, some processes of the World Social Forum, and other global networks- or that I followed closely in the past years -the piquetero (unemployed) movement also in Argentina, and the Zapatistas in Mexico.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/113147.php

2nd Renaissance -34

Punishment By Imprisonment Is A Medieval Concept [258] Although this is the 21st century, the societies of the Level 3 Civilization have not yet abandoned the medieval notion of prisons being places of punishment. Today’s institutions of incarceration are called 'Correctional Centres' and other sanitised terms, but they remain vehicles for revenge and punishment exacted by courts under the Rule of Law.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/113003.php

2nd Renaissance -33

The natural, some would say instinctive, organisation model for humans is the tribe. But there is no suggestion here of attacking or harming the less numerous members of big government and big business organisations that are structured along institutional and militarist lines. Any physical attack on the forces of the OWO would not only violate the sixth commandment, it would fail to advance humanity or benefit society in any way. No, the conflict between the OWO and the rest of us is a battle of ideas and, as such, it holds great potential as a transformational force that will benefit all of humanity - even those people who are presently on the side of federalism, capitalism and a creeping totalitarian control of the many by a few.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/112747.php

2nd Renaissance -32

Then the penny drops, literally. The earthlings are selling water, they are treating it as a commodity. For the sellers of water this means that the scarcer fresh water is the higher the price and the greater the profit. There is still CAPITALISM on Earth; a system that became redundant in most galaxies aeons ago. No wonder water is scarce here.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/112562.php

2nd Renaissance -31

The dissemination of information about the end of the 20th century scientific Dark Age and the advent of wondrous new spike technologies is something we can all do. It is not yet illegal to write or talk about such matters. In order to help raise general awareness of already existing opportunities to end economic scarcity it is necessary to first discover and absorb information that is never presented by the OWO controlled media. Then it is time to spread those alternate perspectives of science and technology at the interpersonal level.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/112310.php

2nd Renaissance -30

"Near-Spike technologies will ensure that everyone could have access to this cornucopia, and while different cultures and moieties within those cultures will respond idiosyncratically to the great change, we might expect a general drift back toward the ancient codes implanted by evolutionary pressures. Humans have evolved in a million years and more of moderate ease, each tribe's small numbers drawing modestly upon the self-replenishing bounty of the earth. We will slip easily back into that blissful state, spared its occasional murderous bouts of uncontrollable fire, flood, drought, plague and infestation.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/112101.php

2nd Renaissance -29

There is a simple answer, however, and that is to set up the bomb, and arm it to go off when the Sun passes through the required geometric point. The newspapers warn us that the tests will be carried out over a series of months, so we sit back with a set of astro tables and paper on which to calculate Sun positions, and wait for the results. When the first start coming in, we must confess to a certain excitement. What began as a theory is proving in actuality to be perfectly correct. We have cracked a code that the atom bomb countries have long tried to hide. "

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/111933.php

2nd Renaissance -28

Far Out Ideas For a Far Out Century [226] This freesite is not concerned with the existence or otherwise of aliens or UFOs, nor is it concerned with what such beings might be doing in our skies. There are thousands of web sites and publications that deal with UFOs and aliens. This freesite is concerned with far more serious threats to the freedom and well-being of humanity than extraterrestrial visitors. These threats have already been identified as takerism, nationalism, capitalism, and militarism. The iron grip of the OWO on the world's resources has far more serious consequences than the alleged activities of aliens and UFOs.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/111733.php

2nd Renaissance -27

At first impression this might seem a good thing, but the real price of such a concealment has been more than seven decades of denying the means and capability to bring abundant energy to the whole world. Not only could the release of such knowledge have ended all militarism and the related suffering caused by wars, it could have enabled presently 'developing' countries to feed, house and clothe their populations to levels that would have freed them from poverty, disease, and the burden of debt they currently 'owe' to the capitalist West.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/04/111574.php

2nd Renaissance -25

This diagram is not reproduced here to suggest that the absolute amount of energy that can be obtained from matter is known, Cramp points out that it is theoretical. The purpose of the diagram is to drive home the realisation that energy is by no means scarce. All that is required to tap it is the right knowledge. Tesla and many others have already shown that such knowledge exists and that it is practical to draw energy from beyond matter - from the ether itself.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/04/111235.php

2nd Renaissance -24

The defection of large numbers of people from federal citizenship, and the establishment of free cities that will run on free energy, can and will break the hold of old ideas and false scientific notions that held us back during the entire 20th century. That 2nd Dark Age is now behind us and the way to a better, Level 4 Civilization, is open. How soon the transformation is accomplished is now in the hands of ordinary folk, it has very little to do with our federal 'representatives', the industrial councils of big business, the parrot press, or the dogma specialists of orthodox science.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/04/111028.php

2nd Renaissance -23

While it is far less radical than Tesla's idea of 'broadcasting' power to everyone on earth, the Christie/Brits generator could revolutionise domestic power supply, if it were ever allowed to do so. Once a household had one of these devices it could not only meet all its own power requirements, it could also feed around 10 kW of energy into the local power grid each day. When a family moved home, it would be practical to take the generator with them to their new residence. Given the long service life of the device, many generations of the family would inherit it, and it would continue to pump out 24 kW of clean power every day.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/04/110786.php

2nd Renaissance -22

Tesla was arguably one of the most outstanding geniuses of the late 19th century. But he was never astute in business, being far too naive and trusting. Tesla thought that everyone would readily support a discovery that would make energy available to all, and do much to end poverty and scarcity in the world. The capitalist/militarist establishments of the US thought quite differently.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/04/110212.php

2nd Renaissance -21

Who Is Running The Universe? [205] There is a common piece of street wisdom that describes how to determine who is really running any strange town that you come to on a journey. The advice is to listen to who is mentioned in conversations about the affairs and administration of the town. It is never the people who are talked about in connection with town matters or politics who are actually running things. The rule says that it is always the people who are never mentioned who are in real control. If you want to know who has the power, find out who is never mentioned as having any. When you begin to learn about and debate science with other non-scientists like yourself, remember this piece of street wisdom. Nothing is what it seems to be. The mayor or the police chief might seem to wield the power but, in reality, the power lies elsewhere, and that truth is seldom mentioned.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/04/109956.php

2nd Renaissance -20

Who are the most imaginative and lateral thinking people in our present society? Are they the scientists, or possibly the high IQ individuals employed to find new products and markets? Are they the entrepreneurs of the world, or are they advisors and consultants to industry and government? The answer to this question is known, and it is surprising to most people.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/109767.php

2nd Renaissance -19

A key principle in such situations will be to limit the time that any individual can serve in political office. One or two terms should be the limit, there should be no opportunity for people to make a career out of politics. Nor should it be possible for generation after generation of any family to be employed in politics or as politicians. One only has to look at the distortions and inequalities that some of these political dynasties have introduced to the course of legislation in Australia and the US to know that long-term careers and generation to generation successions are not a good idea.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/109519.php

2nd Renaissance -18

It is worth learning geometry as the ancients taught it because music is geometric. It is worth studying music in a geometric sense because this uncovers truths about vibrations and patterns of vibrations, Vibrations are important because all matter is formed from them. The 2nd Renaissance involves an explosion of knowledge and discovery that is taking humanity beyond the old 'drop in on your foot' materialistic and mechanistic view of the world and the universe beyond. The 21st century talent collectives that will build new technologies to defeat scarcity and create abundance will do most of their work in the realms of invisible vibration patterns. All young people, both boys and girls, now need to learn within these fields of knowledge, because humanity's future will be built there.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/109198.php

2nd Renaissance -17

Education systems in free cities and regions must be very different to those of nation states. It is not just the methods of encouraging learning that will distinguish education in free cities from that of nation states, but the truth that the knowledge is rooted in. There is no point in swotting to pass examinations in subject knowledge that is wrong. Yet, that is exactly what young people in state education systems are doing. Neither they, or their parents, or their teachers realise this fact, but it remains the case.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/109002.php

2nd Renaissance -16

Supporting secessions and the formation of free cities and regions is going to be crucial. Only in these new beachheads of tomorrow’s society will such innovations as home-schooling, and a lack of state censorship and media spin, enable young people to discover the truths they will need to know to build a Level 4 Civilization.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/108722.php

2nd Renaissance -15

Historically, there have been periods when legal distinctions between animals and humans have been blurred. For instance, in medieval Europe, in the 14th and 15th centuries, numerous trials and executions of animals occurred. One source identifies 34 recorded instances of pigs having been tried and cruelly put to death. Besides pigs; rats, chickens, goats, and bees were similarly tried. Some of the pigs were fully dressed in human clothes at the time they were, inevitably, found guilty. In one case a vicar excommunicated a flock of sparrows that infested his church. All this happened despite the theological stance that animals had no soul, and no morals or conscience. They could not really be guilty of transgressing the Rule of Law.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/108557.php

2nd Renaissance -14

Withdrawing Support For Militarism [179] The problem with revenge is that it lowers the humanity of those who exercise it down to the same level, of even below, those who committed the original crime. Although we can't yet know who was responsible for 911 or 1012, we do now know that forces of the Coalition of the Willing (CoW) have, on occasions, been just as barbaric as the people who killed on those dates. This has been amply demonstrated in Afghanistan and again in Iraq. If you doubt this, seek out more facts about the CoW's use of DU and NDU weaponry and cluster bombs. These horror weapons continue, to this day, to put young children and adult civilians at risk of injury or death from unexploded munitions, radiation, and toxic substances in the ground water and the food chain.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/108373.php

Surveillance

It is up to ordinary people to raise the level of debate about the undemocratic surveillance practices of the many faceless and unaccountable agents who make daily intrusions on individual privacy, and about the apologists and propagandists for the War nn Terror who applaud every new attack on human rights and freedoms as "prudent" or "necessary". If there is no discussion of reverse surveillance in the national media, create it on the streets on a citizen to citizen basis. If nobody is talking about the outrageous assaults on privacy and human rights embodied in the new antiterrorist acts forced through US, UK and Australian legislatures, start talking about it to your neighbours and friends.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/108175.php

2nd Renaissance -13

Such a development is part of the phenomenon of reverse surveillance that will come to characterise the 2nd Renaissance and a rapid transition to a Level 4 Civilization and a truly free society. You can learn more about reverse surveillance at the 'Surveillance' freesite. Reverse surveillance principles extend well beyond the use of ubiquitous digital imaging technologies, and include audits of all aspects of federal government operations, by randomly selected teams of citizens. The Feds and the parrot people will be quick to pronounce that such monitoting is "not in the national interest," but it will definitely be in our interests, and those of future generations of humanity.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/107989.php

2nd Renaissance -12

There are reports that in one Balinese kampong that provided labour to the clubs in Kuta Beach, seven empty coffins were buried, because there were no identifiable remains of the missing workers. It was as if they had been vaporised. Scores of people, mainly locals, are thought to have disappeared without trace.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/107756.php

2nd Renaissance -11

Fortunately, the power and control of government and military elites is illusory in the 21st century. The world no longer works the way it did, and there is nothing to compel people to support failed, outdated systems any longer. This is an understanding that must be widely and quickly shared. The future of our children and the planet depends upon our changing our thinking about governments, and our support for them.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/107560.php

2nd Renaissance -10

In the Afghanistan turkey shoot the CoW forces used vast numbers of hard target weapons and other munitions containing depleted uranium (DU). This substance is almost twice as dense as lead. When it punches through concrete bunkers, armour, or mud huts, DU disintegrates into a chemically toxic and radioactive dust. In contrast to the earlier DU weapons used in Gulf War I, the newer ordinance produced deaths and deformities within weeks of the start of military action by the CoW. Between 1990-91 and 2001 the US arms manufacturers are thought to have "improved" the DU technology by introducing milled uranium ore to their warheads. This non-depleted uranium (NDU) is - wait for it - cheaper to produce and far more potent than DU. It poses massive health risks to civilian populations exposed to it, and constitutes, in every sense of the word, a weapon of mass destruction, or WMD. "Hey they're hunting them in Iraq, aren't they?"

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/107216.php

2nd Renaissance -9

The Old World Order will not do anything to smooth the path to a Level 4 Civilization, and a better world. On the contrary, they will do whatever they can to make it difficult. The police, the military, the media, the financial system, the rule of law, and all the mechanisms of civil control and surveillance will be mobilised in defence of the status quo. But, once they understand their options, the people of the world will not engage in a battle with the forces of the OWO. They will simply abandon the old way of living under national rule, for a better, freer, life in new tribal societies. Kinship mechanisms will help people cope with the pressures of official opposition to radical changes that will finally enable them to escape the invisible prison that the OWO had fashioned around them.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/107047.php

2nd Renaissance -8

Ultimately the old order will lose the battle to preserve their privileged way of life, based on all prevailing scarcity, pseudo-democracy, and the rule of law. But in the interim, hundreds of millions of innocent people might lose their lives in bloody resistance to the changes being made by the Old World Order (OWO).. If such a terrible thing happens, it will all have been for nothing, because:

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/106816.php

Tales of Adam
Daniel Quinn*
http://ishmael.com/index1.cfm

2nd Renaissance -7

When coupled with the introduction of artificial scarcity and taker concepts of property ownership and legal tender, Western death-fearing religions played a significant role in subduing, otherwise independent, tribal peoples.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/106537.php

2nd Renaissance -6

The second route involves the setting up of entirely new living spaces on tribal lands that were previously seized by colonising governments that espoused and followed Taker philosophies. This route has greater credibility, in the sense of secession rights, where clear historical ownership of the land can be shown.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/106327.php

2nd Renaissance -5

Quinn contends that while governments can imagine a revolution they can't imagine abandonment. As he puts it, "..even if it could imagine abandonment , it couldn't defend against it, because abandonment isn't an attack, it's just a discontinuance of support."

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/106136.php

2nd Renaissance -4

In due course, there is one achievement of overriding significance that Caral might well provide. One great contribution or lesson that can be applied to the 2nd Renaissance. How to live in peace, with spiritual meaning, and without warfare, for a thousand years.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105935.php

The New Renaissance
Daniel Quinn*

http://www.mnforsustain.org/quinn_d_new_renaissance.htm

2nd Renaissance -3

Plichta writes of this model as follows. "There was a time I used to make fun of the Apocalypse of St John and believed it to be a totally unreliable historical source. Today I am filled with deep humility, perhaps because I am now able to give a concrete description of the foundation of the world as seen by St John with my mathematical discoveries, and thus possibly open a new way to all of humanity which has now reached a dead end."

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105799.php

2nd Renaissance -2

Georg Cantor (1845-1918), by his origination of modern set theory and his studies of the nature of infinity, left science a valuable legacy. Cantor was regularly admitted to a psychiatric clinic within the University of Halle, in Germany, where he lectured and worked as a Professor of Mathematics. On each occasion that he became ill he had been thinking about infinity and the continuum hypothesis. Such intense thought, at the boundaries of his comprehension, caused Cantor to suffer repeated mental breakdowns. Infinity drove him mad.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105634.php

2nd Renaissance

This story was published in September 2004 and it was a big secret. I received it on disk but I think it should be public by now anyway. It is interesting to look back at it and in terms of today's world some two years on. I will link each chapter as I go along over the coming weeks.- The Old World Order - Happy reading!

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105519.php

Fight Iemma - Debnam

All they can say is 'lock em up'

It seems we are in the thick of it again - the stupid, heartless "Law & Order" auction.

Premier Morris Iemma and Opposition leader Peter Debnam are trying to outdo each other with idiotic "tough on crime" policies.

Original Article
http://oldsydimc.cat.org.au/front.php3?article_id=64701

As the diagram shows, the disintegration and chaos of the end of the Level 3 Civilization is well advanced - far more than is apparent from the messages of the mainstream media.

No matter what the Old World Order might do or say there are many ways that ordinary people can support each other and take both joint and individual action towards one crucial goal: establishing a Level 4 Civilization by 2014

Leaver-Giver movements and the free cities that will form during the 2nd Renaissance will need a new flag to follow - a freedom flag that is pure and unsullied by two centuries of capitalism and federalism.