Have we ever lived outside of a system of pseudo-feudalism with peasantry, slavery, or the working poor labouring for the benefit of Kings, land barons, or factory owners? One perspective of the past thousand years or so might go something like this: Peasants lived on the King’s land, first for
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A Puff of Absurdity: Mask Up for Measles!!
The WHO put out this reminder about measles, which is hitting Europe and the UK hard and starting to be seen more in Canada too: I re-did it to bring more attention to the pandemic we’re currently swimming in: And a few people commented things along the lines of measles
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Money: It’s Value & Nature In A Time Of Collapse
Larning more about the nature and history of money, we eventually realize that money is simply a promissary note, valuable only because we agree it is valuable, a useful social fiction, or token system, useful for exchange of real goods or services, or possibly for savings (minus inflation, hyper-inflation and
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Realistic Faith: Strength for Those Who Look
It can be hard to keep working to show people that N95s and cleaning air will actually significantly reduce the number of sick, disabled, and dying in our communities. Here are some words of solace to keep your fires stoked this winter: Sue J. from Cleaner Air Collective wrote a
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Hearing Others
Louis Cozolino’s beautifully written book on neuroscience has an explanation near the end about our necessary interconnectedness. Communication from one body part to anther happens when messages throughout our body are transmitted by neurons, but the transmission doesn’t happen inside the neurons but between them, in the synaptic gap that separates the
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Imagining A Post Capitalist World
This is not meant to be a comprehensive analysis but an imagining of some of the features of a post capitalist world. OK lets get this over with first. The first thing we will notice is the numbers we use to measure the success of a capitalist economy, GDP, GNP
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Cultural Differences of ASD
I was once introduced to a new colleague who made very direct, sustained eye contact, and I thought to myself as I spoke with him: he’s on track to be in admin. He just seemed the type to make connections and get ahead and would likely end up at the board
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: A Return to Social Cohesion
Bill McKibben wrote about being asked Where Should I Live to avoid the climate change issues. He outlined the problems with many places that might seem ideal, and concluded that we’re best off staying where we are if possible, but working on building social cohesion: “Get to work building that
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Depending on One Another
A.H. Reaume, disabled from a brain injury, wrote about how dramatically her life changed with some help once in a relationship. Her partner does the household chores and makes sure she eats well and regularly. “Being in my disabled body feels different with him than without him in my life.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Intersecting Crises: The Winning Mindset
An article from a year ago came my way, about how the super-rich ‘preppers’ are planning to save themselves from the apocalypse. Douglas Rushkoff was hired by some über rich men to field questions about, basically, what they need to do to survive in a bunker. One of their biggest
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Should We Bring Back The Lord’s Day Act
No I am not going all religious on you This would be more of a Day for Humanity, a day that would not belong to the billionaires and millionaires but to the common people and the community. This would be a day where all profit making activities would be banned
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Chris Hedges on Our Current State of Paralysis
Hedges writes on Substack now, if you haven’t been able to find him lately, and his piece today is excellent. He starts by pointing out the growing rich-poor divide that is seeing the top earnings increase by almost 90% in the last decease in the states, while the lowest struggle
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Left, Right or Centre – Explainer
In today’s age of populism, with ideology apparently dead, how do you now if you are on the left or right or in the centre. There are indeed some basic philosophical positions that determine if you are on the right, left or in the centre. If you are on the
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Personal Troubles and Public Issues
“People do not usually define the troubles they endure in terms of historical change and institutional contradiction.” Developing a sociological imagination is necessary so that, “By such means the personal uneasiness of individuals is focused upon explicit troubles and the indifference of publics is transformed into involvement with public issues….To
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Intuitive Lessons from The Pandemic – A Fantasy
This post is not based on comprehensive research or particular expertise on my part. Rather it is more what we would have called “common sense” before Mike Harris completely destroyed the meaning of the phrase. We start off with the most obvious. We need a public health care system that
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: BELONGING WHILE CAREGIVING: WHERE DO WE BELONG?
Photo by Geoffroy Hauwen on Unsplash In the trenches of caregiving, we can feel very, very alone. We may never experience a sense of belonging except in that tiny world of our loved one’s bedside (and possibly not even there). How can we feel belonging when our caring lives become
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Build a Better City – The Ultimate Reality Show
The worlds biggest reality challenge – two groups of 10,000 workers in 100 groups of 100 each face of to see who can build the better city on two separate plots of virgin land. The first group has each team of 100 competing with the other teams each trying to
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Happy New Years
Community My New Years Resolution for our society is to no longer worship at the twin altars of individualism and technology but rather to embrace the saviour of community. From the industrial revolution to the high tech revolution we have deluded ourselves that technology would solve all our problems. While
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Can America Be Saved
I am writing this as a citizen of a world that no matter where we live are strongly impacted by whatever America does and whatever happens in America America is celebrating but it will take a lot more than the end of the Trump presidency to save America. Trump promoted
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Thoughts on the police
This post does not claim to have all the answers, or any answers, nor to be a comprehensive, or any kind of analysis, but is simply some thoughts on a subject that our society has finally been forced to deal with. One’s attitude to the police is clearly shaped by
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