DiscoStu Posted July 25, 2014 the capitalist net getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent ... getting your wage paying your bills paying your rent and then you die ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DiscoStu Posted July 25, 2014 in a capitalist society, everything needs value, the only things which matter are those which can turn a profit, and it's bullshit, what are you doing working? why are you working? who are you working for? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DiscoStu Posted July 25, 2014 i had a long rant about america and how capitulating to the two party system and not voting for independents is doing you more harm than good but i didn't want to tell you how to do your politics Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DiscoStu Posted July 25, 2014 ok, i'm going to wade into american politics for a bit forgive me if i'm wrong (and persecute me as you wish): lots of people complain that "democrats and republicans are the same" and yes they are, but only %50 of your voting population vote, so that means only the most partisan people vote and so the establishment remains get the other %50 voting, and not voting for democrat or republican, start local political movements, start a new political party i've seen plenty of avenues for new political parties in your country, but the peoples seem to always tie themselves to the old style 2PS repubs o demos the reason australia is working (and yes, it looks like a mess but it's working, because there are many small groups representing the broad spectrum of australian society, and that couldn't have happened without compulsory voting, IMO) is because everyone votes, when everyone votes there is a mess of a parliament but is is at least a little representative, when only a small section of the population get to decide the parliament/congress then that is where the elite will soon get their hooks in Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
solaritea Posted July 25, 2014 The Jobholder by David Ignatow I stand in the rain waiting for my bus and in the bus I wait for my stop. I get let off and go to work where I wait for the day to end and then go home, waiting for the bus, of course, and my stop. And at home I read and wait for my hour to go to bed and I wait for the day I can retire and wait for my turn to die. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bℓσωηG Posted July 25, 2014 i once felt trapped , but then i quit my job and stopped paying rent , still not completely free but ,easy peazy lemon squeezy, Thoughts of a homeless man I’ve been homeless for ten years. I made some mistakes and I paid for them, but I lost all my friends, and my family refused to ever see me again. Jobs are scarce; I have no skills of value to anyone. But like Siddhartha in the Hesse novel, I can think, I can wait, I can fast. Many days I go hungry. But I have infinite patience. And I can think, but usually think myself into a self-righteous and ethical stalemate. I decided to give up trying to make it, you know, to give up trying to be a square peg — or is it round? It was just too hard: trying to pay rent or a mortgage, trying to pay insurance and debts, trying to guess what pleases people. I imagine average people would say that it is my fault, that I am dysfunctional. But wasn’t it Freud who said, “Who wants to be functional in a dysfunctional society?” Not just dysfunctional — modern society is basically sick. All the values are upside down. What is celebrated is greed, exploitation, violence. What is scorned is simplicity, nature, the slow, and the quiet. Being homeless, I know this firsthand. Homelessness is being criminalized. Simplicity is being criminalized. The Native people of this continent didn’t have property deeds and legal documents, so everything was stolen from them, and when they insisted that this was their home and that everybody had free access to the water, the land, the forest — well, they were pushed out of the way, or were killed outright. Today it’s average people, the poor people. The simple people. And many just don’t see how they are being abused by society. Homeless people are society’s front line, the soldiers that were put on the front line to die first. The average people, the wage slaves that carry on, they don’t realize what society has done to them. They don’t resent or understand, they just admire those who abuse them. They want to be rich, and they think the next lotto ticket is their pass to that stairway to heaven. John Steinbeck, the writer, called them “embarrassed millionaires.” That’s what they are, still groveling for a chance to sit at the boardroom table. Of course, homeless people have a bad reputation. It’s true that many are alcoholics, addicts, mentally ill. They smell bad, wear ragged clothes, talk loudly to themselves. They scare me plenty of times when I’m out there. But that’s the difference: I don’t drink, smoke, do drugs. I have no behavior problems, travel with a clean kit, bathe and groom, and get clean thrift shop clothes when I need to. I stay in shelters and missions when I need to eat and rest, but I prefer being outdoors and on the road. I dumpster-dive for most food and sleep under the stars when I can, which is why I tend to stay in climates where there are beaches and woodlands. I don’t like to panhandle because then you immediately lose respect, and self-respect. I have money for small things because I will do odd jobs, though most people are suspicious of me. Many towns have centers where men gather waiting for a job. Once in a while I will get something, enough to keep me going, but I avoid groups. They can be dangerous to a peaceable person like me. My health has been good. Maybe that’s because I eat very little, walk a lot, get fresh air. If I was religious I could be a wandering preacher. Jesus was a wandering preacher. Doesn’t the Gospel say that birds have their nests and foxes their dens but that he was homeless? Don’t people realize what that means, about God taking care of the flowers and birds? I think Jesus was homeless in every sense: no property, no relations, no friends or kin, no career. And that’s how he figured out everything, how he became wise. There isn’t any other path for a solitary. You make no demands on life, if only because you aren’t around long enough to see the conclusion. Yet sometimes there is something that bubbles up inside of me, that you want to tell people, even shout to people, something like: “Don’t you know that you can be free? That if you could open up to everyone, you won’t need all this fear, this terror, insecurity. That all this control is a grand charade, a phantasmagoria to fool you into never going your own way, never daring to, never learning what life is all about. Isn’t that what Jesus might have said, and Buddha, and probably everybody else you would call wise? So, you know, the town to where I am heading next is poor but has water and lots of trees. I’ve been there years ago. But every day is new. I feel like a deer or a bear or a turtle. Every day I have to find food, get some sleep, wash myself, protect myself. At least I don’t have anyone. It’s an odd blessing, though, or a curse of sorts: sometimes I get very lonely and wonder if it’s all wrong. Successful people don’t think that way, they just assume it’s all just right, just the way it should be, themselves, the world, the universe, it’s just dandy because they do what they want and nobody stops them, so therefore the universe favors the arrogant and the sociopath and the fittest. That’s the thinking of the mind serving the body and calling it success. But I don’t think like that. I think like the deer, and the bear, and the turtle. Life is tough but they are free. It’s probably better not to think. Everything I know is from my intuition, my wits, my gut feeling. Not from thinking. Better not to think, really, because then what you know comes naturally, you come into knowing that is more natural instead of just assuming things because someone told you or because everybody else thinks that way, or because your life is ordered just so. In that way, my mind becomes very settled, very peaceful. It’s like finishing a journey that went well: you might remember and regret losing the good of it, but you are ready to finish and rest, satisfied weariness. That’s how I want to go, really, when that day catches up. But no rest yet, no end yet. Say, I’d best be going on. Thanks for listening to me. http://www.hermitary.com/thatch/?p=1478 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shortly Posted July 25, 2014 I once knew a bloke who through no fault of his own (well perhaps it was partly his fault ) ended up living in his car for a maybe 20 months or so. Any ways he was still employed a a commonwealth public servant all the while but since he was a new recruit the pay was kinda crap & he had child maintenance to pay. So unless he was going to start taking brown paper bags there was no way he was going to be able to afford rent anywhere near the brisbane airport park. Now keep in mind that he was actually quite good at his job, well as good as the system will allow. He was always neat & always had clean ironed uniforms. Which is more than could be said of others who looked like they had rolled on the floor within 15 min of arriving at werk ;) Anyways the department got wind about his living conditions and acted by giving him 28 days to secure permanent lodgings but did not offer a penny in assistance, if not they would take action under the APS code of conduct ( the security provisions?). But after attempting couch surfing with a couple of work mates as a solution for a while he was informed that this was not acceptable & he needed to have his name on a lease or rates notice etc etc etc. Needless to say the poor bugger finished up soon after. Which illustrates how "homelessness" is viewed in the halls of power. In hind sight i think it is because it is perceived by bureaucrats that these people are shifty (literally moving around) and are not properly regulated and even when there are laws covering their actions they tend to ignore the law anyway. They tend to just do as they please & do not fully contribute to the functioning of government. Which is enough to give a bureaucrat a minor stroke from the stress of it all. I wont say here what became of him (last i heard) but it is almost the complete antithesis of what he was doing when i knew him. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
-YT- Posted July 25, 2014 Yeah i dunno we voted at the last election, and they still want to go ahead with huge social changes mostly against public opinion, so i guess we will see how representative it really is Last i checked and im probably wrong so please look for yourself but i think the statistics from the 2010 election showed 3million non voters in oz not quite the disparity of the states but worth noting. Auxin made a great post about the two party system and in many ways ours is pretty much the same We had this homeless guy when i lived up north in the country, he had been there for years and would drink metho and generally ramble to himself. He was never any harm to others that i had seen or heard just mostly to himself. The overall attitude was basically one of he was invisible i never really saw anyone talk to him beyond the police when moving him on etc He was of his own making and most just left him too such devices as his own. A gross visual representation of those who fail in society. I always wondered why he lived like that or what circumstances lead him to such. Later i heard a story that his wife had died in his arms in a park and he fell into drink mostly living in parks. The idea behind the charity thread i started was basically rooted within our society and how well it works and or doesn't. The separation of the haves and have nots is fairly tedious as the GFC proved many average hard working people lost everything. Even when the circumstances are outside ones control we seem to have this notion as a society that well they failed to "make it". The Hobo/vagabond sub culture is an interesting social adaptation the continuation of the wanderer. I really like the hobo road signs outside towns etc detailing in symbols what can be expected in that particular town. Even have the hobo ethical code. Not sure how feasible it is to jump rail carts these days, remember seeing that guy in into the wild getting caught and copping an ass kicking for doing it Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rigger Posted July 26, 2014 Yeah I can understand the feeling. I used to look up communes during my lunch break and despite how bad I knew they would be I didn't care. One thing I do know is since getting a bit of money (and a lone) behind me to run my own business I feel a bit better. Don't get me wrong your still stuck in the same cycle but I can accept it a little better. I also feel I have a bit more control over it even though in some ways I have less control. At the end of the day even if nothing has really changed if I feel better about it then that's a good thing. Anyway my (quite unobvious) point is if your feeling this way you may get re energized by changing something probably work wise. For myself I know doing anything for longer than 5 years starts to really drain me if my heart isn't in it. Sometimes it doesn't seem smart or responsible to leave something that is secure but I guess sometimes you have to take a chance on things for your own happiness. I know if my business failed tomorrow and I had to start from scratch again I would have no regrets. While I might have to go back to having nothing I can appreciate what I have more as it's a new experience again. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bℓσωηG Posted July 26, 2014 fuck it i say, life's too short to worry whether your TV is big enough or your car fast enough , none of that trivial shit will matter when your on your death bed... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dreamwalker. Posted August 3, 2014 I found this really scary Abbott and co want to remove the skills ofcritical thinking from school curriculum! dumb down the drones... (nothing like having a competitive population ) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Planthunter Posted August 5, 2014 When I worked for British Telecommunications I became a member of the trade union, they helped me out when the company first tried to squeeze me out without a payout. A few years later, they paid me off but not nearly as much as they should have given me. Still, it was an important lesson for me.. There is now no such thing, unless you are self employed or run your own business, such a thing as a career or a safe job... They had this picture hanging on the wall with all sorts of anti capitalist stuff that made me think... Its a bit out dated now although the "principles" are just the same... http://www.iww.org/about/official Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
