Rather than just talk about the issues I want to highlight in the blog, each blog post has an accompanying video that illustrates the ideas being talked about with some practical action.
Each video works a stand-alone production; but to fully understand the depths of what is discussed, you need to read the blog post and follow the references the text provides. Note that videos are made for the main blog posts; the ‘Radical References’ area has an accompanying audio podcast instead of a video.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2021/4, 25th February 2021:
‘An Introduction, with Musical Trees’
In this first part I define what the new blog seeks to cover, and where -- literally -- I'd like to take you. There's a whole world of research around solutions to ecological collapse which involve “having less”; but few will even acknowledge its existence, and why it is the only viable solution.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2021/5, 7th March 2021:
So many times people passing have said to me, “what have you got in that big rucksack”. In this video I outline in detail what it is I carry in ‘my big pack’, and a little about why I take it.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2021/7, 24th March 2021:
‘Wild tea making and the revolt against the machine’
Going outside to brew rosehip tea is a gateway to a lifestyle revolution! Walking, camping, and foraging, are the last ‘natural’ refuges outside technological society – the last ‘commons’ open to all irrespective of wealth; albeit one that’s always under threat.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2021/9, 18th May 2021:
‘Time Without The Machine: No mobile phone, no watch, but I have time’
Many have questioned how I dare wander abroad without the technologies of time measurement and mobile communication. In this post I explain, in reply, my querying of their ‘necessity’.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/5, Imbolic 2022:
‘Ancient Roads and the Wroxton Fingerpost’
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’, 2022/15, 28th April 2022:
Kelly Kettles and the Practise of Zero Carbon Cooking Outdoors
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’, 2022/23, 23rd July 2022:
‘Electric Shock!’ – Technological Complexity and the Modern Lifestyle
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’, 2022/27, 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.
Click here to view the blog post for this video
An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the blog page. You can also download the background music track here.
‘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.
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’, 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?
Click here to view the blog post for this video
An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.