‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/1, 1st January 2022:
‘Winter Solstice Plus One’
(‘Banburyshire Rambles Journal’, No.2022/1)
Another dawn, another frost, and hence cause for another walk. Except this time there’s an added impetus: The Winter Solstice.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/2, 16th January 2022:
Welcome to Ramblinactivist's YouTube Channel
"You have to do an introductory video", I was told. "Really", I said. "Yes, it's expected", I was told. "Fine", I said. "But as Sid Vicious said sneeringly, I'll do it my way".
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/3, 19th January 2022:
‘The Deep Ecology Movement’, Bill Devall (1980)
(‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.7)
Forty-two years on from its publication, Bill Devall’s paper and its clear critique – now realised in the predicted failure of the movement to make change – deserves a much greater audience.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/4, 1st February 2022:
‘Fuel Poverty, the Cost of Living Crisis, and Climate Change’ – A Data Blog (‘The Meta-Blog’, No.19)
Finding solutions to immediate problems and our future needs requires some difficult decisions, and if not thought-out, short-term thinking might create contradictory responses.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/5, Imbolic 2022:
‘Ancient Roads and the Wroxton Fingerpost’
(Part 5, Long Walks & Anarcho-Primitivism)
There are events and periods of history that are not talked about; they raise difficult, political questions about that history. Viewing how the past has created the world as it is today, with all its perceived faults, can be a journey into that unspoken, ‘taboo history’.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/6, 28th February 2022:
‘The Conquest of Bread’ (1906)
(No.8, ‘A Book in Five Minutes’)
Peter Kropotkin’s 1906 book doesn’t just challenge the power elite. At its core it challenges the general approach of ‘the left’, and the left's infatuation with lofty ideals rather than the basic needs and conditions of the people.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/7, 9th March 2022:
‘Venus, the Crescent Moon, and a Blackthorn Winter’s Dawn’ (‘Banburyshire Rambles Photo’, No.2022/2)
Wednesday is the new ‘Sap Moon’, and right now Venus is the ‘Morning Star’. I decide to get out early as the two should be close together, sitting on the dawn horizon. Leaving the road at Weeping Cross I find the ground crunches beneath my feet – there’s a good frost just to add a little spice to what will be a clear, bright dawn!
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/8, 11th March 2022:
DIY Oat Milk Versus the Eco-geddon of Shop-bought Plant Milk (‘An Anarchist’s Cookbook’, Part 5)
Contemporary ‘consumer’ veganism has an over-packaged/over-priced credibility issue. This is especially true of plant-based milks, and their impact compared to ‘DIY’ options. In this post I explore how you can avoid this by making your own oat milk – cheaply, easily, and with minimal waste.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/9, 16th March 2022:
‘Rebels Against the Future’
(‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.9)
In the late 1990s, on the back of the rising and soon-to-burst dot-com bubble, the media often featured Kirkpatrick Sale. His 1995 book, ‘Rebels Against the Future’, presents a detailed history of the Luddite movement, and what that historic movement represents to our ‘modern’ society today.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/10, 23rd March 2022:
The deeper meaning buried in the data on carbon emissions – A Data Blog (‘The Meta-Blog’, No.20)
Rarely is there such a thing as, ‘just numbers’; too often people see the ‘magnitude’ not the ‘meaning’ that those numbers convey. Here I explain how a graph can show more than just raw numbers, and what that tells us about why change is so hard.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/11, 29th March 2022:
‘My Name Is Chellis and I’m in Recovery from Western Civilization’ (‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.10)
This second in a techno-critical review trilogy might seem unrelated to the previous book on ‘The Luddites’, and yet it provides the same kind of criticism from a completely different angle – that of ecopsychology, and the trauma that the modern lifestyle creates for many of those subject to it.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/12, 8th April 2022:
‘A Frosty April Dawn’ (sunrise & dawn chorus) (‘Banburyshire Rambles’)
A lovely frosty Sunday morning, out on Bretch Hill to the west of Banbury, to watch the sun rising over Crouch Hill; then looping around the woodland near North Newington to hear the dawn chorus in the woods.
Note that there is also a 1-minute YouTube short version available.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Music’, 8th April 2022:
‘A Frosty Dawn Chorus’ (video soundtrack)
Out to greet the frost and the dawn, a wander through the woods to the west of Banbury finds a gentle dawn chorus that signals the arrival of spring.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/13, 13th April 2022:
‘A Short History of Progress’ (2004)
(‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.11)
This is the last in a series of three ‘techno-critical’ reviews, examining the excuse that underpins the whole project of industrialisation: ‘Progress’ – examining Ronald Wright’s 2004 book that, 18 years later, still provides well-observed (if bleak) view of the future.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/14, 18th April 2022:
‘The Awakening Moon’ (sunset & moonrise time-lapse) (‘Banburyshire Rambles Journal’, No.2022/3)
I was uncertain about this one. I made it for myself, but wasn’t sure about sharing. However, having slept on it, perhaps others will find it pleasing too. A time-lapse of the setting sun and the rising ‘Pink’ or ‘Awakening Moon’, Saturday 16th April 2022.
Go to the rambles blog to see the full set of pictures from my walk.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/15, 28th April 2022:
Kelly Kettles and the Practise of Zero Carbon Cooking Outdoors (‘Long Walks & Anarcho-Primitivism’, Part 6)
Metal containers for boiling water are ‘ancient’; but what do you think ancient Greek (their word, ‘kotyle’) or Roman people used to heat their pans? Electricity? Kerosine? Compressed petroleum gas? Heating water is foundational to human society – a technology that defines us. How do we maintain that skill in an increasingly uncertain world?
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/16, 1st May 2022:
Minster Lovell Hall & its ‘Romantic’ Graffiti (‘Banburyshire’s Ancient Sites’)
Minster Lovell Hall has a surreal quality; especially if the weather adds to the atmosphere. It’s a classic ‘ruin’, but at the same time you can see that centuries of less reverent visitors have scrawled graffiti over many parts of it. More then anything, it’s just an ethereally beautiful place to visit.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/17, 6th May 2022:
‘Rules for Radicals’ (1971)
(‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.12)
In this review of ‘Rules for Radicals’ I’m not going to list those ‘rules’. Nor the oft-neglected list of ‘means and ends’. That’s because, if you read the book, that’s not the point of these lists. Alinsky’s philosophy is broader than that.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/18, 19th May 2022 2022:
The ‘Right to Food’ Revisited – The Cost of Living Crisis & the Coming Crash (‘The Metablog’, No.21)
The media is exercised by the ‘cost of living’ crisis; but they’re ignoring the greater structural economic trends that are driving it – and thus the difficult questions that these trends raise for our future.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/19, 24th May 2022:
‘Silent Spring’ (1962) (‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.13)
An historically significant book, its hypothesis proven right, its message undimmed by the passing of six decades – and yet it is so seldomly discussed today.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/20, 31st May 2022:
North of Banbury along the Ironstone ridges (‘Banburyshire Rambles’, No.2022/4)
A route along the narrow ridges formed from the Ironstone slab, up to 160 metres/525 feet above sea level, meaning that the whole circuit gives wonderful views over the local landscape.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/21, 16th June 2022:
‘Food for Free’ (1972) (‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.14)
The 1970s surge in ecological awareness saw many books published on our relationship with the natural world. ‘Food for Free’, by Richard Mabey, was published fifty years ago in 1972.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/22, 15th July 2022:
‘Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism’ (1995) (‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.15)
The problem with the label, ‘anarchist’, is that the moment it is defined, it contradicts the principles it claims to represent. It was this contradiction that Murray Bookchin sought to explore in his 1995 book, in the wake of the complex political transformation that occurred after the 1960s.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/23, 23rd July 2022:
‘Electric Shock!’ – Technological Complexity and the Modern Lifestyle (‘Long Walks and Anarcho-Primitivism’, No.7)
There is a myth, accepted across modern society without question: ‘Technology makes life better’. It’s a proposition treated as a ‘rule’, when in fact it is a ‘function’: A certain level of technology certainly improves human lifestyle; but beyond a certain point technology creates a ‘trap’ – where growing complexity creates a higher risk to our well-being should those systems suddenly fail.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/24, 4th August 2022:
The Great Coffee Economy Con (‘An Anarchist’s Cookbook’, No.6)
Coffee, the addictive obsession of the affluent class, can tell us more about modern society than just retail trends; it is an indicator for how the modern neoliberal system operates, and its current shift toward new economic extremes.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/25, 8th August 2022:
John Woolman and Banbury’s Quaker Meeting House (‘Banburyshire’s Radical History’, 2022/1)
In 1772, a Quaker went on a journey through England, visiting the meeting house in Banbury, to preach about the ills of slavery; a journey that would end with his death in York at the beginning of October. The words he spoke during his life are just as true today, and in the context of today’s materialistic society, are even more revolutionary than when he spoke them over 250 years ago.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/26, 20th August 2022:
‘Stone Age Economics’ (1972)
(‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.16)
Beginning as a presentation in 1966, what Sahlins challenged was the historic prejudice which dismissed the rights and value of ‘undeveloped’ societies and their ‘state of nature’.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/27, 12th September 2022:
Aldous Huxley’s ‘Ultimate Revolution’
(‘Radical References’, No.3)
In 1962, Aldous Huxley, author of ‘Brave New World’, gave a speech to mark thirty years since its publication. Sixty years after that speech, and Huxley’s prognostication of the populous learning to ‘love their servitude’ continues to evolve.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the blog page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Music’, 12th September 2022:
‘Hydrolysis 1’ (music from ‘Aldous Huxley’s ‘Ultimate Revolution’)
“There is no movement without rhythm”, as a wise man once said. The idea for a new video came to me while I was sanding an old door; but it was the door, and the rhythms of physical movement around it, which provided the background music for that video.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/28, 16th September 2022:
The Harried Leisure Class (1970) (‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.17)
Published in 1970 by Swedish economist Steffan Linder, this book examines how society has become ‘time poor’, and therefore has become increasingly trapped in the complex ‘rationalisations’ of the modern economy.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/29, 22nd September 2022:
Why the lights are going out on Britain’s asset-stripped nation (‘The Meta-Blog’, No.22)
Electricity supply, one of the systemic flaws in the UK’s failing economy, looks increasingly like it could fracture this Winter – and without accepting why that model is broken that cannot be avoided.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/30, 4th October 2022:
‘The Hidden Persuaders’ (1957) (‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.18)
From branding to political propaganda, Vance Packard’s book prefigured the use of psychological research and market segregation to more precisely sway public opinion for economic and political ends.
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An audio podcast of this blog post, and link to a free copy of this book, is available on the page.
Ramblinactivist’s Videos, 2022/31, 9th October 2022:
‘A Porch Door in 6/4’ – A musical experiment in ‘rhythmic D-I-Y’ beats
A musical experiment in ‘rhythmic D-I-Y’ beats, set to the video of the couple of weeks taken to restore a Victorian porch door in a Welsh chapel.
Ramblinactivist’s Music, 9th October 2022:
‘A Porch Door in 6/4’ – the soundtrack to the music video
I wrote previously about how manual work inspires rhythm. But as I try to make a video of that piece of work, it doesn’t reflect my true feelings about the piece. Instead, I sample the video soundtracks then throw them all as a bespoke drumkit into Hydrogen, to make something far nearer to my actual experience.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/32, 9th October 2022:
Autumn’s here, but for me the season really starts with the ‘Hunter’s Moon’ – the first full moon after the Autumn Equinox. So I go off for an afternoon to find it.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/33, 26th October 2022:
‘The Shock Doctrine’ (2007)
(‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.19)
Though written 15 years ago, ‘The Shock Doctrine’ still has a lot to tell us about events today. It charts how a radical lobby created the neoliberal economic model which dominates the world; how that model was introduced from the 1970s; and how it was supercharged after the Millennium through natural and deliberately manufactured ‘disasters’.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/34, 29th October 2022:
Thomas Rainsborough and the 375th Anniversary of The Putney Debates (‘Radical References’, No.4)
As British people currently wrestle with the reality that they do not have the power to choose the governing executive – and that their representation is in actuality in name only, and renders little political control – it’s fitting that we celebrate the 375th anniversary of one of the significant events of English history.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/35, 3rdth November 2022:
‘A Blueprint for Survival’ (1972)
(‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.20)
Fifty years ago the editors of The Ecologist published a book that condensed their thinking on ecological problems, and the necessary solutions to them. Five decades on and the book’s prognosis has not only been borne out by experience, but many of the changes it proposed are supported by the latest academic research.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/36, 12th November 2022:
The State’s Monopoly on Hunger
(‘The MetaBlog’, No.23)
Talk about ‘fuel poverty’? Talk about the 'cost of living crisis? No!! I want to talk about the ‘The State’s Monopoly on Hunger’! ‘Fuel poverty’ is a new view of the old issue of deprivation in Britain; and yet it is simply a modern dimension to the issue of well-being and inequality deliberately created by the British state as a matter of ‘choice’ – which many fail to see the significance of.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/37, 17th November 2022:
‘Anarchy – A Graphic Guide’ (1987)
(‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.21)
Published thirty-five years ago, this book is simple, comprehensive, diverse, and more importantly, fun! Based on many different sources, it’s one of the best introductions to the history and theory and anarchism because ditches the often dry academic prose of such guides for an involving narrative.
Click here to view the blog post for this video
An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/38, 23rd November 2022:
‘From Green Lane to Weeping Cross’ (with deep green ‘luddite’ subtitles)
(‘Banburyshire Rambles’, 2022/6)
Not a planned walk: it was ‘now or never’ for the next few days. Dazzlingly bright sun made the Autumn leaves glow; not good for photography as I’ll be struggling between extremes of light and shadow. Then crossing the canal I notice something unusual… most of it wasn’t there!
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/39, 4th December 2022:
George Monbiot’s Multi-Level Marketing of Ecomodernism (‘The Meta-Blog’, No.24)
The environmental debate in Britain is maintained by a few unaccountable figures elevated to the role of eco-gate-keepers – which is why the ecological debate fails to make any real progress.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Music’, 4th December 2022:
‘Deep Woods Dream Rhythm No.1’ (video music track)
I exited the dream almost immediately, with the sensation of crashing-down on my bed. But something had come back from ‘the void’ with me… the music! I get up, turn on my computer and transcribe the sound in my head the best I can.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/40, 10th December 2022:
‘The Utopia of Rules’ (2015)
(‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.22)
What do Extinction Rebellion and Hollywood superheroes have in common? They both uncritically preserve the bureaucratic status quo by breaking the rules of everyday conduct.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/41, 15th December 2022:
‘The North Wind Comes...’
(‘Banburyshire Rambles Journal’, No.2022/7)
For me, having a day outdoors in the frost and cold is obligatory. Now the north wind is blowing, and it promises a lovely walk!
‘Ramblinactivist’s Music’, 15th December 2022:
‘The North Wind Comes...’ (video music track)
“The North Wind do blow, and we shall have snow”. That’s where it started. That old nursery rhyme, buried deep in my consciousness, began to play on a loop the day before, the moment the wind swung north and the temperature dropped. But the phrase itself has a rhythm which has always lent itself to musical illustration.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/42, 28th December 2022:
Running on Emptiness – The Pathology of Civilisation (2002) (‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.23)
All religions have problems with ‘unbelievers’, but that response is insignificant compared to their visceral hatred of ‘apostates’.
Click here to view the blog post for this video
An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.