You should put good things in your brain

This started out as a shorter post, but hopefully the message remains simple. For the first time in my life since infancy I find myself without obligations to any institution of learning or wage earning. I have almost complete control over what goes into and out of my brain, and I'm trying to be more conscientious of what I put in it in particular. So far, it's going medicore (I am trying to get better!), but it's blown my mind how little I've thought about this in the past.

If you want it, you can actually take near complete control over what goes into and out of your cranium. You can be personally responsible for it, and you can make your head healthier. If your mind is filled with crap thoughts and largely empty experiences, it's because that's all you are putting in there.

There are probably three brain-gears you can shift into as you move through your environment:

(1) Passive. Akin to eating the cookie someone else baked and handed to you, it's the easiest level of intake. When you let (note the passive verb) information, emotions, and experiences into your head at this level a very specific group of people are the only ones taking the time to feed it to you. Really meditate on this - who would bother forming ideas and then working their asses off to find and deliver them to a passive shlup? What is their motivation?

I have answers to this but I'd rather you think about it and come up with an answer yourself.

Now how scary are those possibilities. And they might not even be possibilities, it might be happening to your brain. Right now.

(2) Dependent Active. This is the type of intake that requires our active participation, but not full responsibility for the direction taken. You are entrusting the reigns of your head to another who will hopefully guide it well, and then you bust your hump to get the most out of the journey. Your basic classroom setting with a syllabus fits here, so does a workplace. Sure, you are putting in your own sweat, and you might even be thinking critically about the tasks in front of you. A lot of value can come from this situation, especially if the person you've entrusted your brain's direction to (the teacher or boss) is wiser than you and focuses on things of value. But it is still incredibly difficult to have an autonymous brain in this situation. The teacher or boss still chooses what is important to think about, and what is not by omission.

(3) Autonymous Active. Here you take complete responsibility for and exercise near complete control over what you feed your mind. You have to determine what knowledge is important, and how you go about getting it. You are completely free to read, watch, and otherwise spend time with what you desire and value. You must also face the dull terror of this absolute responsibility and scrap together decent brain food out of the immense and anarchic sea of emotion, information, and experience that confronts you. Conversely, if your mind gets fat and lazy on reality TV, it's your own damned fault. Now what a tragedy it is to voluntarily give control of perhaps your most precious asset over to the small and disturbing group of people from #1 who would want it. Dictators, exploiters, profiteers, megalomaniacs...

As a human rights/social justice activist I spend plenty of time worried about people who don't have the freedom to control their speech, religion, conditions of survival, and other aspects of their economic, social and cultural environment. We call these things violations of human rights or human dignities. But perhaps the most fundamental is control over our own brains. That so many people give up this fundamental freedom voluntarily, and refuse to take any significant measure of responsibility for it, is profoundly disturbing and saddening.

[I do realize that one must be in a certain economic/social/political position to liberate their brain and take responsibility for everything going into it. But if a free mind is anything like a human right, it is co-dependant and interlinked with other rights. So the more you free your head, the more you can work for the realization of other rights, the more you can free your head, and so on...]

This is as much a pep-talk for myself as for anyone reading. So take as much control of your mind as you possibly can right this instant, and don't let go.

Corvallis DIO (doin' it ourselves!)

So I didn't know what to expect tonight. I sent a message to a few listserves I'm on: the organic grower's club, Ten Rivers Food Web, the Hours Trader (alternative local currency), some friends from school and posted flyers in a couple coffee shops and a few places around campus. That's all. More than 30 people showed up for the first meeting of the Corvallis DIY/DIO Collective and another 15 sent me emails saying they wish they could have made it, but were already occupied. We were all on the same page, or at least seemingly so. The Corvisivallians are down with organic gardening, bicycle cooperatives, sprouting, a tool share, and crafty awesomeness (e.g. dyeing fabrics, knitting, crochet, sewing). The inter-generational vibes were wonderful. People of all ages with similar goals wanting to get shit done now! The plan is to meet once a month for a Food Not Bombs style potluck to stimulate community and get in touch with each other informally based on our interests to work on projects. We have a tentative weekend-long skillshare planned for the fall. So much great energy! Any way I'm feeling good.

recommended by Charlene

The Nowhere Man

The transcontinental tribe of wanderers is growing, global souls for whom home is everywhere and nowhere. Pico Iyer, one of the privileged homeless, considers the new kind of person being created by a new kind of life

By Pico Iyer

Check it out at http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=4639. It took up too much space here:(

Bienvenido

If you were recently invited to be part of this blog, welcome. I am new to the interactive blog world besides a vain stint with livejournal some years ago. If you find this group of people exciting, I hope you post. This blog comes from a few places of inspiration: a suggestion from lilli, a need for a continued sense of place, keeping Cbus urban farming dreams alive, and a search for understanding that I feel only comes from interactions with others. I've organized on one issue or another or perhaps just mulled over some of my deeper thoughts with most of you. Please invite others.

P.S. If there are any snags with posting, let me know.

Let's read

A smattering of university courses in business management, calculus, linear programming, and a handful of international studies and environmental economics courses still leave much to be desired for the knowledge I seek. Recently, I have been re-educating myself on the many isms (e.g. capitalism, feminism, racism, sexism) that I’ve only poked at in the past. In my quest for a deeper and useful understanding of oppression, the following titles have been enlightening in one aspect or another. I would love to hear what everyone has been reading and what has been inspiring you. Please add to the list!

Books and authors:

bell hooks

Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards

Winona LaDuke

South End Press (publisher)

Queerly Classed

The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-profit Industrial Complex by Incite! Women of Color Against Violence

I am: graduate student radical wannabe foodie truth seeker ambitious hungry practical loving honest needy observant community driven hardworking lazy discouraged enthusiastic

Being so many things at once makes it hard to be sure if you’re spending your time right. Should I plant some garlic, memorize microeconomic proofs, research rural poverty in forestry dependent communities, clean my house, have sex, watch awful tv shows online, make breakfast/lunch/dinner/desert/snack, go on a bike ride, have a drink with a friend, do yoga, study econometrics, or chase after the chickens in the back yard?

A few of those items take up more time than I would like. I’ll let you guess which ones those are. But I’m in it for the long haul right? I want real social change. I want my friends and neighbors to feel empowered and excited about the lives they lead, whether that may be knitting your child a scarf or playing in a punk rock band. My vision for this blog is to create a community space to bounce off awesome ideas and inspire each other to take on creative projects that better our relationships and society at large.

***OTHER VISIONS WELCOME!***