Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

UG#646 - Much Is Learned By Being Lazy (Knowing Who We Are, Life in Monongahela)

Robin Upton | 08.06.2013 20:54 | Analysis | Ecology | Education | Sheffield | World

Another philosophical episode this week, featuring a range of reflections from the wise on what life has taught them, and how (and why) the world has changed since their youth. Our main readings are books by Wendell Berry, John Taylor Gatto and Henry David Thoreau.

ug646-hour1mix.mp3 - mp3 27M

ug646-hour2mix.mp3 - mp3 27M


We begin with "Transcendental Striptease", a short talk by Professor Ann Woodlief, a commentary on her favorite work, Henry David Thoreau's Walden. We then resume out reading of Walden, where we left of in episode 644. Thoreau 'strips' reality down to try to discover its true nature, mercilessly exposing the tenuous nature of the connection that most adults have to reality. He regrets that he is not as wise as the day he was born.

Next we hear a reading of chapter 4 of The Unsettling Of America, of which we read chapter 1 in episode 585. This chapter, "The Agricultural Crisis as a Crisis of Culture", Wendell Berry recalls the America of his boyhood in Kentucky. This sets the stage for a comparison of old style family farming with modern agribusiness. The chapter is full of enlightening connections between culture and agriculture, from the loss of personal morals as indendent and skilled farmers were replaced by subserviant salary men to the false dichotomy between persuing quantity and persuing quality -- in fact, as Berry notes, the very skills needed to pursue excellence in farming are the ones which are also needed to ensure quantity, and exactly those which the modern oil-dependent, chemical-soaked agribusiness model threatens to eradicate.

We conclude the first hour with a reading from John Taylor Gatto's Underground History of American Education. Just as Berry summarises several decades of change in agriculture, so Gatto recalls with affection and sensitivity the characters and places of his boyhood as a contrast with the childhood which so many modern children are served up as a part of the modern regime of standardised test driven, forced schooling.

We begin our second hour with another affectionate recollection of a friend from a bygone era, The Saw-Playing Musician by Utah Phillips. Next we start reading Sounds, chapter 4 of Walden, in which Thoreau effectively champions the cause of what might be called 'laziness', evocatively describing his well hours of reflection in the woods, steeped in the Nature which was the source of his transcendental insights.

Next we return to Gatto's boyhood in 1940s USA. His child's perspective of the tumultuous events going on around him helps us understand how he became possessed of such an outstanding mind. Gatto details that day in early 3rd grade, when he experienced "the greatest intellectual event of [his] life". To conclude we start out on chapter 5 of Thoreau's insights, culminating in his casting doubt on the idea of the idea of what Charles Eisenstein refers to as "the illusion of the discrete and separate self".

This week's is a complex and reflective episode which may require re-listening. It is dedicated to Tom, who taught me the value of laziness.

The previous chapter of The Unsettling of America was read in episode 591.

Robin Upton
- e-mail: unwelcome [At] unwelcome Guests [d0t] net
- Homepage: www.unwelcomeguests.net/646

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech