Meeting Minutes.

Meeting minutes summaries will now be posted weekly, for people that couldn’t show up. We’ve got many weeks that we’ve met, and I’m finally posting the meeting minutes for them. Whew.

First meeting (awhile ago)

The topic was reform vs. revolution. It was discussion-based.

• We went around in a circle and proposed our personal ideas of what is needed to fix deep systemic problems, whether it was reform or revolution based (not violent revolution!)
• Proposed that we be more open, more creative with art, coffeehouses, speakouts, etc
• Emphasized that change of self is very important to whatever movement is going on
• Vigorous application of your ideal self and your potential everyday is a good idea
• For true revolution, EVERYONE needs to be supporters
• Ran into questions of communes working with medicine, supplies, etc (get into that at a later meeting)
• “Things that work, Survive”.
• Talked about the name, unschool, being too abrasive to people.
• Talked about all-one concept: everything is part of the whole
• Discussed the concept of change: People both need to be educated and also empowered to take action
• Art as displaying the beauty and the scale of trying to help everything
• No definitions. No standards.

Second Meeting : Venus project and Zeitgeist movement

• Where do we go from here? Possibilities of technology
• Our current state of affairs is mostly unintentional. Noone wanted war, poverty, etc
• “Spaceship Earth” Concept covered: Earth and all creatures as one, no seperation of nations, people, material, etc
• The idea of competing ideas, not people.
• Technology replacing processes that are menial tasks, more autonomous, more freedom
• Went over social conditioning, false lessons, “Right and Wrong”
• Reforming our world starts with ourselves
• Means need to equal the ends
• Idea of memetics: spreading ideas exponentially
• Voluntary society

Third Meeting: Social Construction. Heated conversation.

• 2 groups: Oppressed and Privileged.
• Privileged group: perpetuated by oppressed, norms, media, power, etc
• Oppressed group internalized message that they should be “normal”
• “Duties” and how that buys into the system, filling “roles”
• Colonization of the mind: Oppressed group is so oppressed they think what they are doing is acceptable and not questionable
• Advocate model: actively resisting norms and standards
• Patriarchy: System run by men for men.
• To be an active resistor, you must learn of your privilege compared to others
• Did pie charts to see how privileged we were. If it was full, you were the most privileged. Mine was full!
• To be “privileged” means the ability to ignore oppression or the ability to recognize it and resist
• If we had a society with no categorization of people, social equity would be reached
• Recognize the imperfection of language
• See people for how they choose to be seen

More meeting minutes coming up next week. Cheers.

Un-open your coke.

Coca-Cola is everywhere at UNH. I’m fairly certain they fund the sustainability program.. 😦

Why don’t we do something about it? What’s so bad about Coke, you ask?

1) Coke is NOT a local business, obviously. That means the majority of the money spent on coke products DOESN’T go back into the community.

2) Homogenized, “standard” products, as opposed to a unique product offered by a business in the seacoast area

3) Overexploitation and Pollution of Water Sources in India (indiaresource.org), Mexico (ciepac.org), Ghana and elsewhere  (polarisinstitute.org)

4)Aggressive Marketing to Children of Nutritionally Worthless and Damaging Products (commercialexploitation.org and schoolpouringrights.com)

5) “Coca Cola has contracted with or otherwise directed paramilitary security forces that utilize extreme violence and murdered, tortured, unlawfully detained or otherwise silenced trade union leaders”- (Killercoke.org)

Anyways, the answer is pretty simple. I believe we should eliminate vending machines completely, because they waste tons of energy and promote a wasteful lifestyle (eating packaged food shipped from faraway places is NOT green). BUT a step in that direction would be something like…eliminating COKE from UNH! Tons of other colleges have done it, so lets roll!

For more info, check out killercoke.org.

Are you a Manarchist?

ARE YOU A MANARCHIST QUESTIONNAIRE

General Questions:

I. Do you ascribe to either:

A) Passive-Aggressive Patriarchy: You often come across as: a victim/helpless/in need/dependent

and you get women in your life to: be your physical and emotional caretakers? buy you things? take care of your responsibilities?
pick up your slack? use guilt or manipulation to get out of your responsibilities and equal share of the work?

Do you treat your female partner like a “mom” or your secretary?

B) Aggressive Patriarchy: Do you often take charge? Assume that a
woman can’t do something right so you do it for her? Believe that only
you can take care of things? Think that you always have the right
answer?
Do you treat your female partner like she’s helpless, fragile, a baby or weak?
Do you put down your partner or minimize her feelings? Do you belittle
her opinions?

2. How do you react when women in your life name something or someone
as patriarchal or sexist? Do you think of her or call her a “PC Thug,”
“Feminazi,” “Thin-skinned,” “Overly-Sensitive, “COINTELPRO-esque”
or “Un-fun?”

3. Do you see talking about patriarchy as non-heroic, a waste of time,
trouble making, or divisive?

4. If a woman asks your opinion, do you assume she must not know
anything about the subject?

5. Do you believe that women have “natural characteristics” which are
Inherent in our sex such as “passive,” “sweet,” “caring,” “nurturing,”
“considerate,” “generous,” “weak,” or “emotional?”

6. Do you make fun of “typical” men or “frat boys” but not ever check
yourself to see if you behave in the same ways?

7. Do you take on sexism and patriarchy as a personal struggle working
to fight against it in yourself, in your relationships, in society,
work, culture, subcultures, and institutions?

8. Do you say anything when other men make sexist or patriarchal
comments?
Do you help your patriarchal and sexist friends to make change and help
educate them? Or do you continue friendships with patriarchal and
sexist men and act like there is no problem.

Activism Questions :

9. As a man, is being a feminist a priority to you? Do you see being
a feminist as revolutionary or radical?

10. Do you think that you define what is radical? Do you suffer from
or contribute to macho bravado” or ‘subpoena envy? (I.e. defining a
true or “cool” and respectable activist as someone who has: been arrested,
done lockdowns, scaled walls, hung banners, done time for their actions
argued or fought with police, done property alterations, beat up nazi
boneheads, etc.)?

11. Do you take something a woman said, reword it and claim it as your
own idea/opinion?

12. Are you taking on the “shit” or “grunt” work in your organizing?
(I.e.: Cooking. cleaning. set up, clean up phone calls, email lists,
taking notes, doing support work, sending mailings, providing
childcare?)
Are you aware of the fact that women often are taking on this work
with no regard or for their efforts?

13. Do you take active step to make your activist groups safe and
comfortable places for women?

14. If you are trying to get more women involved in your activist
projects, do you try to engage them by telling them what’ to do or why they
should join your group?

15. Do you ever find yourself monitoring and limiting your behavior and
speech in meetings and activist settings because you don’t want’ to
take up too much space or dominate the group? Are you aware of the fact that
women do this all the time?

16. Do you pay attention to group process and consensus building in
groups or do you tend to dominate and take charge (maybe without even
realizing it)?

Sexual/Romantic Relationships and Issues :

17. Do you make jokes or negative comments about the sex lives of women
or sex work?

18. Can you only show affection and be loving to your partner in front
of friends and family or only in private?

19. Do you discuss the responsibility for preventing contraception and
getting STD screening prior to sexual contact?

20. Do you repeatedly ask or plead with women for what you want in
sexual situations? Are you aware that unless this is a mutually consented upon
scenario/game that this is considered a form of coercion?

21. During sex, do you pay attention to your partner’s face and body
language to see if she is turned on? Engaged, or just lying there? Do
you ask a woman who she wants during sex? What turns her on?

22. Do you ask for consent?

23. Do you know if your partner has a sexual abuse, rape, or physical
abuse history?

24. Do you stay with your partner in a relationship for comfort and
security? Sex? Financial or emotional caretaking? If you’re not completely happy
or “in love” with your partner anymore? Even though you don’t think it
will ultimately work out? Because you’re afraid or unable to be alone?
Do you suddenly end relationships when a “new” or “better” woman comes
along?

25. Do you jump from relationship to relationship? Overlap them? Or do
you take space and time for yourself in between each relationship to
reflect on the relationship and your role in it? Do you know how to be
alone? How to be single?

26. Do you cheat on your partners?

27. If your girlfriend gets on your case for patriarchal behavior or
wants to try to work on the issues of patriarchy in your relationship,
do you creak up with her or cheat on her and find another woman who
will put up with your shit?

28. Do you agree to romantic commitment and responsibility and then
back out of these situations?

29. Do you understand menstruation?

30. Do you make fun of women or write them off as “PMS-ING?”

Friendship Questions :

31. Do you tend to set the standard and plans for fun or do you work
with the others in the group, including women to see what they want to
do?

32. Do you talk to your female friends about things you don’t talk to
your male friends about especially emotional issues?

33. Do you constantly fall in love with your female friends Are you
friends with women until you find out that they are not in love with you too
and then end the friendships? Are you only friends with women who are
in monogamous or committed relationships with other people?

34. Do you come on to your female friends even jokingly?

35. Do you only talk to your female friends (and not your male friends)
about your romantic relationships or problems in those relationships?

36. Do you find yourself only attracted to “Anarcho-Crusty Punk
Barbie”, Alterna-Grrrl Barbie,” or Hardcore-Grrrl Barbie?” (The idea here being
that the only women you arc attracted to fit mainstream beauty
standards but just dress and do their hair alternatively and maybe have piercings
and tattoos) Do you question and challenge your internalized ideals of
mainstream beauty ideals for women?

37. Have you ever heard of or discussed “sizeism” and do you think it
is low on the oppression scale?

38. Are you aware of the fact that ALL WOMEN, even women in radical
communities, live under the CONSTANT PRESSURE and OPPRESSION of mainstream
patriarchal beauty standards?

39. Are you aware of the fact that many women in radical communities
have had and are currently dealing with eating disorders?

40. Do you make fun of “model-types” or “mainstream” women for their
appearance?

Domestic/Household Questions :

41. When was the last time you walked into your house, noticed that
something was misplaced/dirty/etc. AND did something about it (didn’t just walk
by it, over it, away from it or leave a nasty note about it) even if
it wasn’t your chore or responsibility?

42. Are you constantly amazed by the magical “food fairy” who
mysteriously acquires food, brings it home, puts it away, prepares it in meal form
and then cleans up afterwards?

43. Do you contribute equally to domestic life and work?

44. How many of the following activities do you contribute to in your
home (this is a partal list of what it takes to run a household):
A: Sweep and mop floors and clean carpets
B: Wash and put away dishes
C: Clean stove, countertops, sinks and appliances if they are messy and
each time after you have prepared food
D: Collect money, do food shopping, put away food and make meals for
people you live with
E: Do house laundry (kitchen towels, bathroom hand towels, washable
rugs, etc.)
F: Clean up common room spaces, even if it’s not your chore
G: Pick up other’s slack
H: Deal with garbage, recycling, and compost
I: Take care of bills, rent, utilities
J: Deal with the landscaping and gardening
K: Clean bathrooms and make sure bathroom is clean after you use it
L: Feed, clean up after, and take care of housepets

Children & Childcare :

45. Do you spend time with kids? If you do, do you spend time with
children (yours or anyone’s) in a way that is gendered? (do certain things with
boys and other things with girls?

46. If you are a father, do you CO-parent your children? (Spend equal
time AND energy AND effort AND money to raise them)?

47. Do you make childcare a priority? (at both activist events and in
daily life)

48. Do you help make the lives of single mothers in your life and
community easier by finding out if and how you can assist?

49. Have you politicized your ideas about child rearing and parenthood
radical communities? Do you believe that individuals who are in the
movement have children or that the movement has children?

Multi-Category Questions:

50. When was the last time you showed a woman how to do a task rather
than doing it for her and assuming she couldn’t do it?

51. When was the last time you asked a woman to show you how to do a
task?

52. Do you get emotional needs met by other women, whether or not you
are in a romantic relationship with them? Or do you cultivate caring,
nurturing relationships with other men in which you can discuss your
feelings and get your needs met by them?

53. If a woman discusses with you or calls you out on your patriarchy,
do you make an effort to be emotionally present? Listen? Not
emotionally shut down? Not get defensive? Think about what she said? Admit you
fucked up? Take responsibility/make reparations for the mistakes you made?
Discuss your feelings and ideas with her? Apologize? Work harder on your own
shit to make sure that you don’t make the same mistakes again with her
or other women?

54. Do you look inside yourself to find out why you fucked up in these
relationships and work to both change your behavior and be a better
anti-patriarchy ally in the future?

55. Do you organize regular house meetings or activist meetings to
resolve conflict in the house/group?

56. Do you use intimidation, yelling, getting in someone’s physical space, threatsor violence to get your point across?
Do you create and atmosphere or violence around women or others to threaten them (i.e.: throw
things, break things, yell and scream, threaten, attack, tease or terrorize the
animals or pets of women in your life)?

57. Do you physically, psychologically, or emotionally abuse women?

58. Do the women in your life (mothers, sisters, partners, housemates,
friends, etc.) have to “remind” you or “nag” you or “yell” at you in
order for you to get off your ass and take care of your
responsibilities?

59. Do you talk to other men about patriarchy and your part in it?

60. When was the last time you thought about or talked about any of
these issues other than after reading this questionnaire?

Scoring: ALL MEN need to work on issues of patriarchy, sexism and
misogyny. However, this questionnaire may point out to you areas of particular
focus or concentration for your own anti-patriarchal/sexist/misogynist
process and development.

Copied from: http://www.anarcha.org/sallydarity/AreyouaManarchist.htm

Alternative Medicine/Herbology

Below is a profile I did on Joseph Carringer who works out of Portsmouth. I think it is important for us to remember that medicine can be defined extremely broadly and there are so many different ways one can go about healing themselves and others. Didgeridoo Sound Therapy is one of these options! -L

“Fourteen years ago Joseph Carringer sat straight up in bed in the middle of the night with his eyes wide open. His girlfriend at the time curiously looked up at him from underneath the covers. “I’m going to play the didgeridoo,” said Joseph to no one in particular. He had no idea what he had been dreaming about or what a didgeridoo was; yet something had compelled him to make the statement. The rest is history.
Growing up in a military family, Joseph moved from place to place before spending most of his childhood in Nashua, New Hampshire. In his adult life, he has kept that nomadic pattern and explored much of the eastern side of the United States. His experiences vary from working with hemp textiles in D.C. and in the garment district of New York City, to helping run bars, doing landscaping, and playing music with DJ’s in Jersey City and Portland Maine, to name a few. But nothing could prepare him for the change in direction that would take place after that profound dream and ultimately lead him to a career in Didgeridoo Sound Therapy.
During an outing in Portsmouth about 6 months after his dream, Joseph found himself in Macroscopic, a boutique in the downtown area. There in front of him lay a basket of Didgeridoos and intuitively he picked one up and blew into the hollowed out piece of wood.
“The women who was working looked from around the corner and said, ‘Do you play the Didge?’ and I said, ‘no’ and she looked straight at me and said, ‘yes, you do’.” said Joseph.
The Didgeridoo is an ancient Aboriginal Australian instrument said to be at least 15,000 years old (40K-80K years old). By vibrating the lips, the instrument creates a drone like sound and can be played continuously by a technique called circular breathing. This is done by breathing in the nose at the same time as breathing out the mouth. The technique usually takes people many months of practice but for Joseph it was only a week and a half. At the time he was bar manager of a blues club in Merrimack called Stormy Mondays and one night was pulled up on stage with his Didge to play with the band.
“It was great, I learned to play rhythmically just from hanging with the players,” said Joseph.
When Joseph first started playing it was all about the music, but he soon realized there was an inner peace that the Didgeridoo brought to him.
“I lived near a river, and I would go sit with my dog and meditate, not realizing I was meditating, but just listening to the wind and birds and play and play and play,” said Joseph.
After doing some research Joseph came across an article that a doctor had written about the side effects of someone playing a didgeridoo over someone else. The list seemed endless; relief of muscle spasms, relief of muscle tension, stress reduction, relief of insomnia etc. From there he asked friends, parents, and community members to let him test out his own stress reduction system on them.
“I found out it was helping [them] with muscle tension and stress reduction and I got to thinking, there must be something to this,” said Joseph.
After doing extensive research and speaking with numerous alternative medicine practitioners in the area, Joseph started doing combinational work with traditional Chinese medicine, Shamanism, Acupuncture, Reiki, and Massage Therapy.
Joseph opened DidgeTherapy.com out of Portsmouth in 2004 and learned just how important his work could be for people. This therapy can be broken into three integrative parts which, combined, benefit people in many different ways.
First, “It’s a sound massage,” said Joseph. “That’s the easiest way to explain it to people.”
The vibrations of the Didgeridoo work in a similar way to an ultra sound. The sound waves can go down to zero hertz and “at that low of a frequency range you can snuff out a candle.”  These vibrations warm the muscles from the inside creating relaxation throughout whatever is tender or strained.
Second, is energetically. It’s very similar to Reiki or Chi-gong, but “like a power washer”. Reiki and Chi-gong are similar in practice. Both philosophies involve the transferring of a universal life force or spiritual energy through the master into the person who is receiving the energy, which induces a healing effect. Unlike Reiki, which needs both the master and the receiver to work together to remove energy blockages, the sound waves of the didgeridoo literally forces blockages of energy out of the body.
Joseph integrates the Chakra theory into his therapy. Chakras initially were discovered in several eastern traditions and describe whorls of energy permeating out of the physical body. There are seven major Chakras in the body and each is attached to different organs and emotional states.
The seven different keys a didgeridoo can be played in match up to the energy waves of the seven Chakras. Joseph plays the entire energetic system of a person and tries to align or balance each persons specific Chakras with the different keys. Energetic stagnation and emotional stagnation that resides in the body are typically in specific organs. The Didgeridoo helps remove these stagnations by realigning the Chakras.
“Avedic medicine for 3500 years has known the underlying tones of energetic system line up just like a scale. When you hear something in tune why does it sound in tune? It’s because there is a universal hum,” said Joseph.
The third and final way the Didgeridoo works is meditatively.
“The first two things are really nice but meaningless if a person cannot connect with their own delta brain waves and actually heal themselves,” said Joseph. “[One] needs a mind-body connection”.
He explained that as a culture we are constantly on the go. When we wake up in the morning the first thing we think about is all the things we have to do that day and when were done the first thing we do is turn on the T.V. This constant “plugged” feeling makes our brain constantly run on overtime and does not give our mind or consciousness a time to relax and connect itself with our physical bodies. This makes for a build up of tension, anxiety, and stress, with no time to just release it.
“My job is to teach people that it’s ok to say no to the media, no to feeling like they have to work 24/7, no to going to the mall, and yes to doing something for themselves—that something being nothing,” said Joseph. “When you look at all the wonderful things western advancements have brought to people, the question still arises of what does the average person do for themselves?”
Still through out all his work, Joseph insists he is not a healer.”

Joseph Carringer works out of his home office in Portsmouth and more information on his work can be obtained at DidgeTherapy.com

(CriticalConstant.blogspot.Com)

THE MAD FARMER LIBERATION FRONT

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

You are a teacup

You are a teacup that is hooked into a billion other teacups.

In every moment we choose what we fill ourselves with.

Domination. Violence. Fear. Separation. Love. Hope. Strength.

We must choose to empty ourselves of the fear of our lives in order to be full of love and strength and hope. We must empty ourselves of the negative in order to find peace within ourselves- there’s only so much room in the cup.

If we fill our lives with the illusion that we are individuals unique unto ourselves, we forget that we are connected. If we can break down the idea that we are autonomous, we begin to see how we affect each other. When we recognize our connectedness, we see that we must stand in solidarity in order to liberate ourselves. If I try to break out of a system of injustice without recognizing that we’re connected, I’m just going to pull you through the mud: we’ve got to stand up together.

Fill your cup with love. Empty yourself of the fear. It is an illusion, a distraction from the knowledge that it has been obscuring the entire time. You know who you are, but the fear is obscuring your vision by telling you who you “ought” to be.

Empty yourself of the fear and you will find the strength to know yourself.

There is nothing to fear.

b

Seminar One

Hi all, and welcome to unschool.

First Seminar: Congratulations, you have engaged resistance already.  Something brought you here, and in this action, you have defied the constructs of all you have been raised into.  You are beginning to experience the effects of this deconstruction. Although you may have felt that change cannot happen, a simple engagement of your mind IS the change.

It changes exponentially because the more conscious you are, the more you become.

In this, you naturally attract others to question things. A simple, proven way to fix things is to identify the cause. Only when you identify the cause  can you fix the problem. Looking at the system now, society may identify ways to fix something without finding the cause. This mindset is flawed, in the sense that even if these things  do get fixed, the problem manifests itself in yet another form.

That is because we’re still within the boundaries of this system.

If the way to fixing things IS identifying the problem, than what would we find to be the problem? The problem is ourselves. War, Oppression, Racism, Hate, Spite, and Greed will all persist if we don’t fix ourselves.  Fortunately for us, this problem is fixed instantly. All it takes is a choice between fear and love. I’ll explain:

As humans, we are sentient, and conscious. As humans, we have unlimited potential. The same way the body evolves, the mind evolves as well. What we  are now witnessing is  a new evolution of the human mind. This evolution is based off of a core principle:

The only thing stopping you from evolving is fear of expanding yourself.

Therefore, fear is objective to oneself. There is no fear unless you think there is. Even then, its an illusion.

I have felt the disparity of letting the logical self let fear take over. The feelings may go one way while the mind doubts the feelings, and you trust the mind. I tell you this: your feelings have not been pointless. They are linked to the natural urge towards expansion of the self. The feelings come first as a designator, and the mind follows to give you free will on what to do with those feelings.

That is where you choose  either fear or love. Its simple, you have the choice.  Always.