24 June 2010

Social Forum Day 3

Hey,

Interesting day today, lots to talk about. I did some laundry, and had an interesting bike ride a couple miles North from the WSU campus on Woodward. Laundromat was huge, and the machines worked well. The neighborhood was pretty depressed. Woodward was being repaved with some serious concrete slabs. I have to wonder what people are thinking by investing in this infrastructure when we know that our current societal addiction to fossil fuels is harmful and unsustainable and the cause of so much economic and environmental instability and injustice...

I went to an interesting workshop this morning. It was by an organization called Resource Generation (http://www.resourcegeneration.org/home.html), and I have some mixed emotions and (what I think are) deep thoughts about the workshop and some of the ideas that were presented. The workshop was titled, "Class Privilege and Activism." I think the crux of my discomfort related to the lack of analysis about the intrinsic harmful nature of the majority (if not all) of wealth generating activities... Basically, I think it makes the most sense to have a society that is economically egalitarian, because the real ways to happiness are less material than they are spiritual. Real happiness results from health, belonging, community, being part of a meaningful society.

So I was kind of distressed by how these young wealthy people were seemingly justifying or rationalizing their wealth based on fact that they're interested in being philanthropic. Like holding financial power over others, making the decision over who is going to get money and when?

I have more to write about this topic, I took some notes, hopefully I will have more energy to write on it tomorrow.

I saw Climbing PoeTree (http://www.climbingpoetree.com/) perform tonight, and enjoyed their performance. It's really electrifying. I encourage you to check out these talented performers.
Climbing PoeTree at the US Social Forum 2010 in Detroit

Peace,
Berd

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