Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
"This culture is killing the planet"
I recommended Derrick Jensen to the local health practitioners.
“Those wise eyes are ours. We share those eyes. We could see through them together, if only we would look together.” Tom Atlee
What does that mean?
“We can do together, much easier than by ourself”
Help...!
“Us and them, us against them” Divided,isolated, static
Why do we stay addicted to this? But look at external addictions such as smoking, eating, mechanical routines, drugs and on? Are we truly aware of ourselves...Or only how we feel about external things?
Posted by joe of maine on from 09/04 at 08:55 AMthanks for the link mickey. relevant to your post and to the new site is the following story, which is some of the thinking and the reasoning for the new site....
There is a story I heard when I was young, which bothered me because I couldn’t understand it.
It was many years before I discovered it to be the story of the ‘Sybylline Books’. By that time all the details of the story had rewritten themselves in my mind but the essentials were still the same.
---continued next post----
Posted by michael on from scotland 09/04 at 12:59 PMAfter a year of exploring some of the endangered environments of the world I think I finally understand it.
It concerns an ancient city - it doesn’t matter where it was or what it was called. It was a thriving prosperous city, set in the middle of a large plain.
One summer, while the people of the city were busy thriving and prospering away, a strange old beggar woman arrived at the gates of the city carrying 12 large books which she offered to sell to them. She said that the books contained all the knowledge and all the wisdom of the world and that she would let the city have all twelve of them in return for a single sack of gold.
The people of the city thought that this was a very funny idea. They said that she obviously had no conception of the value of gold and that probably the best thing was for her to go away again.
This, she agreed to do. But first she said she was going to destroy half of the books in front of them. She built a small bonfire, burnt six of the books of all knowledge and all wisdom in the sight of the people of the city and then went on her way.
Winter came and went, a hard winter but the city just about managed to flourish through it. And then the following summer the old woman was back. “Oh, you again” said the people of the city. “How is the knowledge and wisdom going?”, “Six books”, she said “just six left, half of all the knowledge and wisdom in the world. Once again I am offering to sell them to you”.
“Oh yes,” sniggered the people of the city.
“Only the price has changed.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“Two sacks of gold.”
“What?”
“Two sacks of gold, for the six remaining books of knowledge and wisdom. Take it or leave it.”
“It seems to us,” said the people of the city, “that you can’t be very knowledgeable or wise yourself or you would realise that you can’t just go round quadrupling an already outrageous price in a buyers market. If thats the sort of knowledge and wisdom you are peddling then frankly, you can keep it at any price.”
“Do you want them or not?”
“No”
“Very well, I will trouble you for a little firewood”.
She built another bonfire and burnt three of the remaining books in front of them and then set off back across the plain.
That night, one or two curious people from the city sneaked out and sifted through the embers to see if they could salvage the odd page or two but the fire had burnt very thoroughly and the old woman had raked the ashes. There was nothing.
Another hard winter took its toll on the city and they had a little trouble with famine and disease but trade was good and they were in reasonable good shape again by the following summer when, once again, the old woman appeared.
“Your early this year,” they said to her.
“Less to carry,” she explained, showing them the three books she was still carrying.
“A quarter of all the knowledge and wisdom in the world, do you want it?”
“What’s the price?”
“Four sacks of gold”
“Your completely mad old woman. Apart from anything else our economy is going through a bit of a sticky patch at the moment - sacks of gold are completely out of the question”.
“Firewood, please”.
“Now wait a minute,” said the people of the city, “this isn’t doing anybody any good.” we’ve been thinking about this and we have put together a small committee to have a look at these books of yours, evaluate them for a few months, see if their worth anything to us and perhaps when you come back next year we can put in some sort of kind of a reasonable offer - we are not talking sacks of gold here!”
The old woman shook her head. “No,” she said “bring me the firewood.”
“It’ll cost you.”
“No matter,” said the old woman with a shrug, “the books will burn quite well by themselves.”
So saying, she set about shredding two of the books into pieces, which then burnt easily. She set off swiftly across the plain and left the people of the city to face another year.
She was back in the late spring.
“Just one left,” she said, putting it down on the ground in front of her “so I was able to bring my own firewood.”
“How much?” said the people of the city.
“Sixteen sacks of gold.”
“We’d only budgeted for eight.”
“Take it or leave it.”
“Wait here.”
The people of the city went off into a huddle and returned later.
“Sixteen sacks is all we’ve got left, times are hard, you must leave us with something.”
The old woman just hummed to herself as she started to pile the kindling together.
“Alright!” they cried at last. They opened up the gates of the city and led out two ox-carts each laden with eight sacks of gold “but it had better be good.”
“Thank you” she said. “It is. And you should have seen the rest of it.”
Posted by michael on from scotland 09/04 at 01:16 PMHello Expendables. The weather here is once again gorgeous.
How are you, Joe?
Thanks for the story, Michael. As I’ve said before, we had our chance and we got it all wrong.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/04 at 02:09 PMI sometimes go from the back to the front. At least one small group of scientists thought Whales, and perhaps all Cetaceans are the most intelligent creatures.
If so, someone asked, why could they not avoid human slaughter. It was also suggested, violence and all the related mechanical stuff was not in Whales consciousness. They are beyond all this.?
Posted by joe of maine on from 09/04 at 05:29 PMThanks, Mickey. It would be an honor to be your running mate.
Good story there, Michael.
joe...I think you have reached a higher moral plane than I have. Sometimes I think it IS “us” against “them”.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/04 at 07:19 PMRMJ, I’m posting the campaign article here tomorrow. So please spread the word. Let’s get this place rocking again.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/04 at 07:24 PMRMJ..6..Sure it can feel like us against them...it doesn’t have to though, but superficially, that’s what’s happening.
So the warriors and rapist won’t come around...and we don’t need them anyway.
Mickey..7..Yeah Mickey...in fact I was just listening to some speed metal...same feeling I get when I listen to a pipe organ. I recommend Simon Preston...a hell of a keyboardist...capable of fast, sustained riffs. He’s got great feet for the base pedals as well.
Posted by joe of maine on from 09/04 at 09:13 PMHi y’all. Have you managed to find any interviews of yourself yet Mickey? I had a dream I met you. You were growing a plant called jerusalem sage and there were bees buzzing everywhere. They gave you cups of honey. What does that mean? Live interviews of Mickey Z is what we need to see. Is Mickey Z real? Or is he made up? “oh Mickey you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind. Hey Mickey”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Live interview request. Yeh boy.
Posted by Bob on from New York 09/04 at 09:54 PMVote for me and I’ll set you free…
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/05 at 04:32 AMJoe #1; speaking of addictions, how about food, shelter, clothing? With all due respect Joe, I’m so sick of this piousness about “smoking,” and “ingesting” this or that or no. I think Mark Twain said it best: “It’s true drinking coffee is a vice. It’s true that smoking is a vice. But I don’t trust anybody who doesn’t have one or two petty redeeming vices.”
Michael #3; Nice story. I’m a stickler for the spelling of these words: “Your” is a possessive; “you’re” is a contraction for “you are.” “Their” is a possessive. “They’re” is a contraction of “they are.” “There” is, “in that place.”
Acknowledging gratitude for this website…
Posted by Tracy McLellan on from Chicago 09/27 at 10:19 AM
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