Taking Control of Our Lives – Part 1

In our British culture it is very easy to feel both powerless and isolated. These feelings are engendered in part by the divide and rule policies of the mainstream British media – exhibited par excellence by the press.

What many people don’t know, or understand, is that we do NOT have a “free press”, the vast majority of newspapers, as well as the “non-terrestrial” TV are owned by a very small number of very wealthy corporations.

These businesses believe that they have a vested interest in keeping things as they are. They, like the majority of corporations, are run to make as much money as possible for their shareholders. They have no other interest. They support their “friends”, that is people who may give them money, or people who may pass laws that will give them more money or protect that which they already have.

Their politics are actually that of their owners. They may appear to be working class (on the side of the working person) but it is a sham and manipulative empathy, designed to make sure that all the poor do not realise that they have infinitely more in common with each other (regardless of race, religion, gender or any other superficial and spurious difference that the media might focus on) and even the traditionally middle class, than they do with the selfish, self-serving media moguls and the politicians who dance to their tune.

They make it very difficult for ordinary people, like you and I, to realise where their true interests lie. This problem has been amplified in the last year or so through the surrender of the BBC to their political oppressors. No longer do they even attempt to provide unbiased and informative news. They have refused to report large scale protests, for example the 10s of thousands of people in the various Marches Against Austerity, and the under reporting of the March For the NHS… they will not stand up to the Ca-moron government of 2014.

The social media is our best hope for finding like minds and mutual support outside of our physical reach. We have to continue to take the power back from both the media and politicians.

A Picture of A Different Life

Modern Western society is focused on the short term pursuit of sufficient income to have a “good” standard of living. The longest term anyone ever really thinks about is the life of their mortgage, if they happen to have one. Many people have a severely limited income, they only look as far as their next “pay” check.

We have lived through the time when we were told to “get on your bike” if you wanted to work and there was no work in your area. Families have become dispersed and fragmented. The idea of being rooted in a place is the preserve only of the extreme ends of the economic ladder. The richest, because they can afford to do what ever they please and live where ever they please; the poorest, because they cannot afford to give up the tiny toe hold they have.

Everyone else is almost constantly on the move. Many people commute for several hours a day to go to work. They don’t necessarily live where they want to, but they live where they believe they can afford to live. Many people have holiday homes, where they spend as much time as they can “afford” to, away from their daily grind. And both these groups squeeze those who were born in that area out.

The cost of living in different areas is seldom addressed when people look at moving house. The extra tax of living in a rural area comes in the form of fuel prices. There is seldom any useful form of public transport any more. And anyone not able to drive themselves, for whatever reason, is stuck paying premium prices for everyday goods.

Everything revolves around money. What very few people remember is that money is merely a token to make bartering easier. It has no intrinsic worth. Nowadays new money is created by a bank on a computer in the form of a new debt. And then people wonder why there is a debt crisis. What else could it be?

There are very few people who are happy with their lives the way they are. So then the question becomes “do we have to live this way?”. Well, I don’t think so. But we would have to redefine what is important on a pretty much world wide scale. It’s not so much about creating something new, more about reclaiming some old ways and giving them a new twist and a new shine.

It’s not about abandoning science, we need science. The scientific, analytical mind is a wonderful thing. But we need science that is not bound by where the next “pay” check is coming from. Science that can look at a longer time scale than week to week. We need to think both big (maybe very big) and small (so very small). We also need a science that cannot be bought by the big corporations to give the answers they want; a science that will insist on looking at potential long term effects before even considering the possibility of trying things out outside of the laboratory if there is the least likelihood of ill effects.

It’s about returning to real values, long term values: the value of land; clean air; and clean water. For too long we have been dictated to by the supermarket chains with their illusion of choice. For too long our governments have bamboozled us with assertions of choice where none is wanted, and pretence of concern where none is felt.

People are laughed at for caring or believing. But we all believe in something, even if it is only ourselves. We all care. We sometimes care about the wrong things, but that is better than not caring at all. Most people are thinking, caring beings, but they have been lied to; misled; and deliberately confused. They have been put under pressure and forced away from their support systems so that they have neither the energy nor inclination to question or fight against what is going on.

People are not healthy because this is such an unhealthy way of living. We need to re-embrace healthier ways, both physically and emotionally. We need lives that are full of good food (local food), good friends (local friends & distant friends), time to appreciate things, time to create things, time to grow things.

Ivan Illich talked about deskilling society, that is what has happened. People have been taken out of their environment and thrust into a place of employment, where their natural skills and knowledge are not valuable or valued, so they are vulnerable and more easily manipulated.

For those who remember “The Good Life” with it’s theme of rural living in suburbia, there is probably some part of you that still hankers for that crazy possibility. Rural living isn’t for everyone, but it would work for far more people than the few who realize it. Our roots are in the land. We belong to it. We need it. Without the good earth we all starve.

I’m not rejecting technology, I am rejecting our current culture of greed, I am rejecting money (especially in the form of debt) and I am wholeheartedly rejecting our current political system. There is a better way. It starts with each one of us valuing ourselves and each other. It continues with each one of us valuing the land and the bounty it can bring us.