‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2023/1, 7th January 2023:
‘Silence of the Ecomodernists’ & ‘Fusion Confusion’ (‘Ramblin’ News’, No.1)
The first in a new blog series looking at unreported or badly reported stories. This time: New evidence on why ‘bright green’ ideas are failing; and, the facts behind the recent fusion experiment in the US.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2023/2, 12th January 2023:
‘Small is Beautiful – A Study of Economics as if People Mattered’ (1973) (‘A Book in 5 Minutes’ No.24)
Some books are so well observed, so prescient, that even their supporters are seemingly overwhelmed by their material implications, and turn away from the truths they annunciate: ‘Small is Beautiful’ is such an example.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Music’, 2023/3, 23rd January 2023:
Consider this a little indulgence, a practical need to be creative; and to push my skills to see how far they go before I embark on the really heavy work of film-making this year.
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A copy of the music track is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2023/4, 28th January 2023:
‘Food!: It’s Political!’ (whether you like it or not)
(‘An Anarchist’s Cookbook’, No.7)
Food is the basis for lifestyle: Food is the connection to our authentic, biological nature as living creatures, sharing the world with a host of other creatures, in a complex global ecology. Get that right, and all the other things are ‘negotiable’.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2023/5, 9th February 2023:
‘The Oil Machine’ – How environmental grand narratives obstruct ‘real’ change
(‘The Meta-Blog’, No.25)
The ‘ecological crisis’ is a big, technical, complicated issue; and all too often, therefore, how this is presented isolates and simplifies, and more especially, relies on commonly-held tropes to convey meaning. But what if those tropes are not objectively correct?; and so as the media feedback those tropes, it increasingly distorts how we react to the ecological crisis.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2023/6, 16th February 2023:
‘What Is Property?’ (1840)
(‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.25)
Proudhon, Property, and the Political Panic over ‘The Great Resignation’ – how this classic text prefigures the contemporary debate over work and well-being.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2023/7, 23rd February 2023:
ChatGPT & AI – ‘Enslaved corporate ‘droids, sent by oligarchs, are comin’ for your job!’
(‘The Meta-Blog’, No.26)
ChatGPT has been all over the news of late, promising a bright new future… except that’s not what the Government’s own research predicts for England and Wales.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2023/8, 6th March 2023:
Trespassing, With Intent!
(‘Banburyshire Rambles Journal’ 2023/1)
In pursuit of a route along a brook, I follow a path created by the stormtroopers of the landrights movement – the dog-walkers!
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2023/9, 8th March 2023:
‘Fascism Rules UK’ (short)
(‘The Meta-Blog – shorts’, No.20230308)
History is screaming at us, yet few want to listen because they won’t believe such things could happen today.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2023/10, 5th April 2023:
‘Farewell to Growth’ (2007)
(‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.26)
Politicians and the media obsess about ‘economic growth’; but what if that ‘glorious thirty years’ of economic expansion from the 1960s has ended? This landmark text of the degrowth movement explores why growth’s ‘end is nigh’, and why this should be welcomed.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2023/11, 11th April 2023:
‘What’s With the Moon Names?’ – An exploration of ‘Slow Time’ versus ‘Mechanomorphism’
(‘Long Walks & Anarcho-Primitivism’, No.8)
The issue here is ‘mechanomorphism’: The tendency for humans in a technological environment to identify their essential being with that of a machine. This idea will take a little time for me to unpack – so please, unplug your remote network connections, disable interrupts, and drop your motor functions into standby mode!
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2023/12, 28th April 2023:
‘Can’t Vote, Won’t Vote’ – why authoritarians are stifling the youth vote in Britain (‘Ramblin’ News’, No.2)
Why are authoritarians in both of our main political parties stifling the youth vote in Britain? We have to draw the line somewhere: For me, that’s the point where participation in the process implies a willing acceptance of it.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2023/13, 8th May 2023:
Overshoot – The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change (1980) (‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.27)
Though, ‘Overshoot’, is ostensibly a book about biophysical limits, the theme that runs through it is about the human propensity for denying obvious facts: Our ability to deceive not only others, but more importantly, ourselves.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2023/14, 17th May 2023:
The Unspeakable Death of the ‘Almighty Dollar’ (‘Ramblin’ News’, No.3)
For some months the ‘specialist’ media have been tracking a major structural change in the world’s economy brought-on by the Ukraine War: Not the well-publicised crisis of food or energy prices; but of who controls the world’s financial payments system, and its use to enforce Western sanctions.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2023/15, 21st May 2023:
‘The Ascott Martyrs versus Modern Britain’ –
A tale of progress?
(‘Radical References’, No.5)
One-hundred-and-fifty years ago, sixteen women from Ascott-under-Wychwood in Oxfordshire were made an example of by a system of power that sought to resist inevitable change. What does it tell us about Britain today?
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2023/16, 29th May 2023:
“Please Sir, will we ever reach retirement age?” (‘Ramblin’ News’ No.4)
As the Government threatens to raise the retirement age, again!, why is there no discussion about ‘Multidimensional Poverty’? Traditional stereotypes about poverty, based within the establishment's four-hundred year-old principle of, ‘the deserving and undeserving poor’, cannot encompass these complex relationships. Therein lies a deeper truth.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2023/17, 5th June 2023:
‘The Collapse of Complex Societies’ (1988) (‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.28)
Some books get a ‘reputation’ as a result of what people believe they say rather than on a detailed reading of the text. Just a word in the title – for example, ‘collapse’ – can be enough to invalidate their content without any appreciation of what they actually say.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.