A series of in-depth written conversations that I recently enjoyed with Crow Qu’appelle is now available as a 90-page pdf booklet produced jointly by Nevermore Media and Winter Oak Press.
If those ideologies cited above had been part of a sermon, I might've found solace in theology.
"Thus, many anarchists began to absorb a spiritual perspective by osmosis."
It's a bit crazy how a scamdemic revealed so much about our society, but especially about those we personally know as well as the local apparatchiks who brazenly surfaced and seized so much power. I personally think, that prior to the scam most Leftist organizations had already been co-opted and a virus was the hill they chose to die on. This was the crisis they were going to use as a pretext to advance a very "insidious" agenda. But we can only blame ourselves for being shocked as many hints were given along the way as well as the shameless and brazen "published accounts" of their future agenda. It's just that most were not cognizant of what they "really meant" when they said: We're in this together." We soon learned "together" meant take the experimental jab, throw a mask over your lips, and comply.
That thinking certainly didn't bring to mind the Leftists of past generations who would've said fuck you to big pharma and laughed at anyone who mentioned wearing a mask, let alone lockdowns.
After all, Woodstock was held during a pandemic while thousands of young folks were jammed into a farm field for days listening to rock music. But back then, medicine hadn't been totally weaponized and the US public school system did not abandon teaching critical thinking skills.
There's one other point, I don't think we can just forgive and forget although for some they might find that type of mentality spiritually satisfying. Too many lives have been permanently destroyed by this COVID money-grabbing stunt and there needs to be accountability before moving on to that spiritually renewing plateau.
I agree. To me the more you live in fear, the greater your desire to control everything...that is the cult of leftism as well as many other isms. Because humans are psychologically asleep, there is the constant search for the latest or newest this or that that will save them from their inner demons which are nothing more than their lack of awareness of the thoughts that give those demons life.
Good point, too many look for answers to their problems by believing in political or theological charlatans who are more interested in their own
self-obsessed needs. That being said, it's easy for even the most savy from being fooled from "clever spiels" which are usually very appealing. As I've said in previous comments on other threads, do your own research and most importantly go with your gut instincts.
Thank you for the lovely book reference. Loving kindness is The Withway and the Tao. It has enormous power whether applied to an individual or a community. Other lifeforms practice it naturally and their example is all around us if we know how to look for it and learn from its wisdom.
For a few years from 2004 I lived off-grid on a fruit farm in central Spain. People would ask me if I felt lonely and afraid, living in isolation in the foothills of the Sierra de Gredos. It was odd, but I felt more lonely in the village than I ever did on my farm where nature was teeming, constantly demanding my attention and wonder. I never viewed it as anarchism at the time but, looking back on that sublime experience, I guess it was the most ancient and natural form of anarchy that we can hope to experience in the modern materialism.
Tonight I discovered you. We are brothers in spirit and understanding. I have lived much of what you write about and continue doing so. Can we correspond? Or perhaps you might like to visit the mostly latino-artist ecocommunity that I founded in 2012 in Vilcabamba, Ecuador (chambalabamba.org).
I am a long time radical anarchist activist and currently have some very ambitious strategies in process for Ecuador. I am also someone who always loves to be surrounded by beauty. I am promoting Horizontal Governance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oilxI6Dgoy8&t=5s). I am also in touch with Matt Ehret and have done 2 interviews with him (https://www.bitchute.com/video/5DrvLtht9nNw/). I don't always agree with everything he says, but I respect his and Cynthia's scholarship.
I am someone who questions everything, and am skeptical, not attached to beliefs, and open to all possibilities.
I could say a lot more, but I would like to mention that I am and was a "spiritual" anarchist activist right from the beginning. To ignore the injustices and atrocities that are a part of modern life, is what makes a "spiritual" person a hypocrite.
Hi. Yes, please do get in touch via cudenec@riseup.net. As far as visiting goes, maybe that is better aimed at Crow, who is vaguely in the same part of the world! But who knows, one day...
Apr 30, 2023·edited Apr 30, 2023Liked by Paul Cudenec
Despite twenty-plus years of activism on the one hand and grassroots efforts to co-create alternatives on the other--often in sympathy with anarchist principles--I've never really delved into the essence of anarchist thought. I'm so grateful for this post pointing me towards "The New Anarchy" and "The Withway," both of which I'll now read with interest.
Having left the U.S. for Mexico in mid-2020, and having left Mexico for the Sat Yoga ashram (satyoga.org) in Costa Rica this past December, I'm now wrestling with theological/philosophical/political questions of free will and loving-kindness in the context of modern science and non-dualism. At what level are we free to make choices of any kind in a phenomenal world that's nothing but collapsed qualium and quantum wave functions? If Consciousness is all there is, and the phenomenal world is an illusion, what do we make of the corruption, exploitation, and suffering that we see around us? And if the cosmos is coming to an end now in Kali Yuga, what's to be done about anything in the world as we know it?
Even as I grapple with the teachings of Sat Yoga, I can't stop following events in the "outside" world or feeling some responsibility for addressing them in collaboration with others who are similarly awake to what's happening. I'm beyond grateful for the heroic truth-tellers I've discovered and followed here on Substack--kindred spirits and teachers from all over the world whom I seek to support and work with in common cause.
I hope to write more after I've read Paul's book, but I just wanted to express my appreciation in the meantime. Blessings to you, Paul, and to all your subscribers for so thoughtfully addressing the issues of our time.
I wonder what societies have valued and lived with truth and wisdom over the last 5,000 years? The world has constantly been at war. Governments, religions and people (societies) all trying to enforce their will upon another. It's the ultimate arrogance of mankind to think that one is more important than another.
Hugely relieved to discover that although you embrace the concept of Withness with Nature, you reject outright the fake environmentalism of the Green crony capitalists pretending to save the planet from an imaginary 'climate crisis'. There is a fundamental, apparent contradiction between science and technology and the indisputable benefits of industrialism which have vastly improved the lives and well-being of billions of people on the one hand and the growing disconnect with nature and our own humanity which industrialisation and modern living has foisted upon us on the other hand. I don't know how we resolve this conflict. I sense that we cannot just go back to being nomadic tribes, living in harmony with nature and the environment. That is not our destiny. We are, above all, rational beings, guided by science and logic, accepting of its bounty, yet gifted with intuition, spirituality and inner knowledge; but equally, by default, compassionate beings, not dispassionate machines. From the earth we came, but our path lies ahead there in the stars because we are ultimately children of the greater cosmos.
The "benefits" of industrialism are far from being "indisputable" but you are right to say that there is a human progress to be made - one, I would insist, that has nothing to do with the fake "progress" of exploitation and destruction through technology. Above all, we need to progress in our awareness of who we are and what we are part of.
I see it differently I'm afraid. Not all exploitation of resources is necessarily destructive, science and technology are not per se 'bad' and yes, the Industrial Revolution did eventually lift billions of people out of extreme poverty.
Was it "extreme poverty" to live simply and happily close to the land, in small cohesive communities, and then some kind of richness to work for wages in a factory for the profit of the bosses? You're right that we disagree with our view of this!
If those ideologies cited above had been part of a sermon, I might've found solace in theology.
"Thus, many anarchists began to absorb a spiritual perspective by osmosis."
It's a bit crazy how a scamdemic revealed so much about our society, but especially about those we personally know as well as the local apparatchiks who brazenly surfaced and seized so much power. I personally think, that prior to the scam most Leftist organizations had already been co-opted and a virus was the hill they chose to die on. This was the crisis they were going to use as a pretext to advance a very "insidious" agenda. But we can only blame ourselves for being shocked as many hints were given along the way as well as the shameless and brazen "published accounts" of their future agenda. It's just that most were not cognizant of what they "really meant" when they said: We're in this together." We soon learned "together" meant take the experimental jab, throw a mask over your lips, and comply.
That thinking certainly didn't bring to mind the Leftists of past generations who would've said fuck you to big pharma and laughed at anyone who mentioned wearing a mask, let alone lockdowns.
After all, Woodstock was held during a pandemic while thousands of young folks were jammed into a farm field for days listening to rock music. But back then, medicine hadn't been totally weaponized and the US public school system did not abandon teaching critical thinking skills.
There's one other point, I don't think we can just forgive and forget although for some they might find that type of mentality spiritually satisfying. Too many lives have been permanently destroyed by this COVID money-grabbing stunt and there needs to be accountability before moving on to that spiritually renewing plateau.
I agree. To me the more you live in fear, the greater your desire to control everything...that is the cult of leftism as well as many other isms. Because humans are psychologically asleep, there is the constant search for the latest or newest this or that that will save them from their inner demons which are nothing more than their lack of awareness of the thoughts that give those demons life.
Good point, too many look for answers to their problems by believing in political or theological charlatans who are more interested in their own
self-obsessed needs. That being said, it's easy for even the most savy from being fooled from "clever spiels" which are usually very appealing. As I've said in previous comments on other threads, do your own research and most importantly go with your gut instincts.
Thank you for the lovely book reference. Loving kindness is The Withway and the Tao. It has enormous power whether applied to an individual or a community. Other lifeforms practice it naturally and their example is all around us if we know how to look for it and learn from its wisdom.
For a few years from 2004 I lived off-grid on a fruit farm in central Spain. People would ask me if I felt lonely and afraid, living in isolation in the foothills of the Sierra de Gredos. It was odd, but I felt more lonely in the village than I ever did on my farm where nature was teeming, constantly demanding my attention and wonder. I never viewed it as anarchism at the time but, looking back on that sublime experience, I guess it was the most ancient and natural form of anarchy that we can hope to experience in the modern materialism.
Tonight I discovered you. We are brothers in spirit and understanding. I have lived much of what you write about and continue doing so. Can we correspond? Or perhaps you might like to visit the mostly latino-artist ecocommunity that I founded in 2012 in Vilcabamba, Ecuador (chambalabamba.org).
I am a long time radical anarchist activist and currently have some very ambitious strategies in process for Ecuador. I am also someone who always loves to be surrounded by beauty. I am promoting Horizontal Governance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oilxI6Dgoy8&t=5s). I am also in touch with Matt Ehret and have done 2 interviews with him (https://www.bitchute.com/video/5DrvLtht9nNw/). I don't always agree with everything he says, but I respect his and Cynthia's scholarship.
I am someone who questions everything, and am skeptical, not attached to beliefs, and open to all possibilities.
I could say a lot more, but I would like to mention that I am and was a "spiritual" anarchist activist right from the beginning. To ignore the injustices and atrocities that are a part of modern life, is what makes a "spiritual" person a hypocrite.
Hi. Yes, please do get in touch via cudenec@riseup.net. As far as visiting goes, maybe that is better aimed at Crow, who is vaguely in the same part of the world! But who knows, one day...
Despite twenty-plus years of activism on the one hand and grassroots efforts to co-create alternatives on the other--often in sympathy with anarchist principles--I've never really delved into the essence of anarchist thought. I'm so grateful for this post pointing me towards "The New Anarchy" and "The Withway," both of which I'll now read with interest.
Having left the U.S. for Mexico in mid-2020, and having left Mexico for the Sat Yoga ashram (satyoga.org) in Costa Rica this past December, I'm now wrestling with theological/philosophical/political questions of free will and loving-kindness in the context of modern science and non-dualism. At what level are we free to make choices of any kind in a phenomenal world that's nothing but collapsed qualium and quantum wave functions? If Consciousness is all there is, and the phenomenal world is an illusion, what do we make of the corruption, exploitation, and suffering that we see around us? And if the cosmos is coming to an end now in Kali Yuga, what's to be done about anything in the world as we know it?
Even as I grapple with the teachings of Sat Yoga, I can't stop following events in the "outside" world or feeling some responsibility for addressing them in collaboration with others who are similarly awake to what's happening. I'm beyond grateful for the heroic truth-tellers I've discovered and followed here on Substack--kindred spirits and teachers from all over the world whom I seek to support and work with in common cause.
I hope to write more after I've read Paul's book, but I just wanted to express my appreciation in the meantime. Blessings to you, Paul, and to all your subscribers for so thoughtfully addressing the issues of our time.
Another current and great anarchist writer also on Substack is Darren Allen. Certainly worth a look. https://expressiveegg.substack.com/
Yes, Darren's work is definitely worth reading. It is important.
Thank you.
I'm saving that to read later.
I think I already showed you this, but here it is, just in case.
https://courageouslion380.substack.com/p/standing-militarys-are-a-threat-to
I wonder what societies have valued and lived with truth and wisdom over the last 5,000 years? The world has constantly been at war. Governments, religions and people (societies) all trying to enforce their will upon another. It's the ultimate arrogance of mankind to think that one is more important than another.
Hugely relieved to discover that although you embrace the concept of Withness with Nature, you reject outright the fake environmentalism of the Green crony capitalists pretending to save the planet from an imaginary 'climate crisis'. There is a fundamental, apparent contradiction between science and technology and the indisputable benefits of industrialism which have vastly improved the lives and well-being of billions of people on the one hand and the growing disconnect with nature and our own humanity which industrialisation and modern living has foisted upon us on the other hand. I don't know how we resolve this conflict. I sense that we cannot just go back to being nomadic tribes, living in harmony with nature and the environment. That is not our destiny. We are, above all, rational beings, guided by science and logic, accepting of its bounty, yet gifted with intuition, spirituality and inner knowledge; but equally, by default, compassionate beings, not dispassionate machines. From the earth we came, but our path lies ahead there in the stars because we are ultimately children of the greater cosmos.
The "benefits" of industrialism are far from being "indisputable" but you are right to say that there is a human progress to be made - one, I would insist, that has nothing to do with the fake "progress" of exploitation and destruction through technology. Above all, we need to progress in our awareness of who we are and what we are part of.
I see it differently I'm afraid. Not all exploitation of resources is necessarily destructive, science and technology are not per se 'bad' and yes, the Industrial Revolution did eventually lift billions of people out of extreme poverty.
Was it "extreme poverty" to live simply and happily close to the land, in small cohesive communities, and then some kind of richness to work for wages in a factory for the profit of the bosses? You're right that we disagree with our view of this!
I would argue that you have a somewhat romantic notion of pre-industrial pastoral living.
Yes, I am a romantic anti-capitalist at heart. I have a strong aversion to the modern industrial world and its empire of artifice and hypocrisy.