tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25149653.post7102255089081575186..comments2024-03-28T13:36:17.137-06:00Comments on Moneyless World - Free World - Priceless World: Re-GenesisSuelohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13739011165937473840noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25149653.post-7542334475449442312018-01-16T09:09:59.500-07:002018-01-16T09:09:59.500-07:00To look at other species through the lens of our o...To look at other species through the lens of our own senses is specieism. An orchid has no senses of ours, yet it knows, somehow, so well what is happening around it that it has evolved to mimic a certain wasp so that it can lure its males to copulate with its flower and so to pollinate it. verahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06823525858589365541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25149653.post-34619262448103506622014-10-16T18:42:34.055-06:002014-10-16T18:42:34.055-06:00Paying it forward is always the best currency. Paying it forward is always the best currency. Rachelhttp://www.fxcurrencyexchange.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25149653.post-53998586883858924422014-07-23T17:28:01.870-06:002014-07-23T17:28:01.870-06:00Hi there Mr. Suelo.
It's nice to confirm tha...Hi there Mr. Suelo. <br /><br />It's nice to confirm that there are others out there. I have been functionally moneyless for the past year or so, when I went homeless and moved out into the streets, and blissfully moneyless since this past March, after finished with giving the last bit of everything away. I didn't realize it at the time, but this increasing progression towards simplification has been going on over the past 10 years. It would have sounded crazy if someone had told me then that this is where things were headed, but it makes complete sense now. <br /><br />Meanwhile, logic would suppose that there there should be a lot more of us out there, like millions or something, who are also connecting the dots. I was initially thinking that I would casually come across them by just keeping my eyes open as I went about my business, but this sort of thing is turning out to be more of rarity than I had expected. Probably more like searching for extraterrestrial civilization, where they "theoretically" must exist out there somewhere... but lord where are they? <br /><br />It would be nice to correspond, and it sounds on your blog that you are also interested in meeting others as well, but I threw away my cell phone and scrambled my email account password quite some time ago, preferring to keep my attention on local person-to-person/face-to-face interaction. However, I have 2 very like-minded friends who may be sending you an email at some point. Please keep an eye out for it!<br /><br />Regards, <br /><br />Stephen Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25149653.post-70803393790745973932014-06-28T17:19:55.411-06:002014-06-28T17:19:55.411-06:00Splendid post Suelo, simply splendid. I will be p...Splendid post Suelo, simply splendid. I will be printing this out at the library this week and passing it out to friends. Thanks for all you do - ginaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25149653.post-68826245403577881802014-06-28T00:13:56.169-06:002014-06-28T00:13:56.169-06:00The form of persecution I got for practicing your ...The form of persecution I got for practicing your lifestyle was by the psychiatric system. They claim I have a chemical imbalance in the brain, and that I need drugs to correct this. But they won't tell me what the correct balance of chemicals is.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25149653.post-68763837994382831962014-06-27T13:45:13.966-06:002014-06-27T13:45:13.966-06:00I look forward to your more in-depth treatise! The...I look forward to your more in-depth treatise! The post above is already "food" for thought. :) I think when we reach the point that we realize we are ONE with the ALL it is impossible not to see that all matter/energy is interchangeable and simply in various forms of expression. Still, as far as diet is concerned, as Paul says,"'Everything is permissible'--but not everything is beneficial." Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25149653.post-82716584633356945082014-06-26T01:08:42.776-06:002014-06-26T01:08:42.776-06:00It's possible to build an (almost) closed-loop...It's possible to build an (almost) closed-loop aquaponics system. In which case you can grow enough fish and veggies to live on in a very small area - all year round.<br />The main hurdle is food for the fish - so you have 'feed tanks' with no fish in - where you breed daphnia. You have worm-bins for waste, with the worms going to the fish, and the feed to the plants. There are other tricks too.<br />You can filter the (small amount of) input water to remove most toxins (metals, radioactivity etc).<br /><br />I'm not sure that it's valid for us to judge which forms of life are 'more conscious' than others. My feeling is even fruit flies and bacteria are perfectly conscious. I mean, where is the evidence that *consciousness* is related to brain size? Ultimately we should get our sustenance directly from the creator, but because we like to pretend it doesn't exist, we have to eat each other instead...The Veritopianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10023209314813899777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25149653.post-55244192049781308192014-06-25T18:59:08.697-06:002014-06-25T18:59:08.697-06:00I actually agree with Tomas' thoughtful input ...I actually agree with Tomas' thoughtful input above. <br />I intended to write a more in-depth section on veganism & vegetarianism, to clarify my points, but the post was already so long. I've often said that, if I used money, I'd be a vegan. I agree that an organic vegan diet is less destructive than a grain-fed meet diet. But, as Lierre Keith points out, the thing that makes a meat-base diet so destructive is that most cattle are grain-fed - destructive to the cattle, to the environment, and to us. Grass-fed Cattle and other grazers are absolutely necessary for the health of a grass prairie, and they are healthy themselves. To say that they "use up" the land is just as absurd as saying birds use up air and fish use up sea. These animals are the very health of the environment. <br /><br />However, I tend to feel Keith is a bit reactionary against veganism. Her health declined as a vegan. Other people's health increased as vegans. Do veganism wrong: health declines. Do veganism right: health increases. <br /><br />However, again, when we look at the bigger picture, we see that the healthiest cultures with the greatest respect for life and the greatest balance with the environment and the greatest equality and respect among individuals and sexes, have been true hunter-gatherer cultures, such as Bushmen, Hadza, and Pygmies (I'm not talking semi-agricultural groups as found in New Guinea and the Amazon, which also, curiously, practice trade and have great sexism and vindictive violence). The paleolithic hunter-gatherer diet was our diet for millions of years before agriculture, and there was no overpopulation until agriculture.<br /><br />As far as the philosophy of eating organisms with "no" or "less" consciousness goes, again, I say we must look at the big picture and what causes the greatest death and destruction in the world. Our eating of soybeans, if it is grown conventionally, is more destructive to all organisms, including those we consider most "conscious", like ourselves, because it disrupts the entire ecosystem we all depend upon, causing mass extinctions.<br /><br />But let's examine what we regard as "conscious." Please take notice that true hunter-gatherer cultures see not only all living things, but all inanimate things, as full of pure consciousness. In agricultural culture, we become bias toward those like us, and we devalue anybody not like us, thinking them less "conscious" than ourselves. For example, White people of the past generally thought of white people of highest consciousness, and other ethnicities as less conscious or even not conscious! Ironically, it was whites' LACK of consciousness that could not see the consciousness of others! As our consciousness expanded, so we began to see consciousness of other culures. Now we are beginning to see, more and more, the high consciousness of animals. As our consciousness expands even more, we begin to see that all matter is purely imbibed with pure consciousness. Then we are back to the hunter-gatherer highest consciousness, that sees the consciousness of even stones, of the sun, of the moon. Then we begin to see that even our own ancient traditions speak of the consciousness of stones and trees and, even documented in Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist scriptures! Once we get past looking at one tree, we see the forest. Once we get past immature individual sentimentalism, our sight of compassion reaches every particle in the universe. As the scriptures of India point out, the enlightened one sees the Atman in all beings and all things. <br /><br />I hope to publish a more in-depth treatise on consciousness, spirituality, and the ethics of diet. True spirituality is not a sentimental dogma but a symbiosis with all nature. <br /> Suelohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13739011165937473840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25149653.post-76433836955477685162014-06-25T14:38:55.144-06:002014-06-25T14:38:55.144-06:00Thought provoking as usual--and well-explained poi...Thought provoking as usual--and well-explained points. Like others, I think eating an organic vegetarian-based diet is less destructive to the environment but don't believe it is a permanent, sustainable solution just yet. Still, better for the environment than raising animals for killing and eating purposes. I'll be doing some research into permaculture. Thanks for your thoughts.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25149653.post-88409590700084847302014-06-25T10:04:52.361-06:002014-06-25T10:04:52.361-06:00Hopefully what I say here is clear enough but, I t...Hopefully what I say here is clear enough but, I think the main issue with death today is that it's lost its meaning. Many tribal cultures had a place for death and even managed to make it look beautiful through ceremonies. Today, death more is like a factory produced product since its everywhere on the media and has worked its way into our foods because of the fact no one respects the mysterious processes which take place when souls leave bodies anymore. I also think modern culture could find ways of respecting the dead more through art even though artwork has became as much of a commodity as death too.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25149653.post-16604771526208278892014-06-25T08:21:49.211-06:002014-06-25T08:21:49.211-06:00Just because an organism doesn't feel pain doe...Just because an organism doesn't feel pain doesn't mean we should value it less. All organisms perform roles in nature. To try to preserve multi-sense organisms and not single-sense organisms is to negatively affect nature because without their roles, nature would become imbalanced. <br /><br />Since humans rely on nature to perform certain services, known as ecosystem services, we would be negatively affecting ourselves in the process by impairing nature's ability to perform those services.<br />-JAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25149653.post-30920581326944276362014-06-24T20:41:14.402-06:002014-06-24T20:41:14.402-06:00My understanding is that we should refrain from ki...My understanding is that we should refrain from killing higher-sense beings for reasons of conscieness. A cow or a fish clearly feels pain. A single-cell organism or an onion probably does not feel pain. An onion does not have conscience, but a cow does.jbkrangerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02737507688138627745noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25149653.post-8831925929968381832014-06-24T19:41:24.997-06:002014-06-24T19:41:24.997-06:00Hi Suelo,
Just want to preface by saying that I t...Hi Suelo,<br /><br />Just want to preface by saying that I thoroughly enjoy your blog, as well as Sundeen's book - I have learned a lot from you, and look forward to learning more. Many excellent points made in this post, as usual, and I agree that our agricultural system is an extension of our money/barter system and from an inherent fear of the future that pervades religion, education, etc. In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a vegan, and do have some discussion points for your consideration.<br /><br />I respectfully disagree that vegans/vegetarians in some ways are contributing to just as much destruction as those eating factory farm meat. I agree that the factory farm system is highly flawed, and as you point out, it is a good reason for being vegan/vegetarian. However I do think there is a difference between, what I will term, "active" and "passive" killing of animals. By eating meat, especially from conventional, factory-farm sources, we are "actively" raising, imprisoning, and killing, often in very inhumane conditions and methods, animals for the sole purpose of human consumption. By comparison, eating a plant-based diet via conventional/factory-farm agriculture, I certainly grant that animals are displaced, migratory routes disrupted, habitats destroyed, and animals are killed by pesticides, herbicides, and harvesting techniques. I differentiate this type of "passive" killing from "active" killing in that, with the exception of pesticides, the human intent is not to kill the animals specifically. As you say, all life forms can not exist without the death of another. However I think the differentiator is "intent". To further this point, if we consider that 70% of agriculture in the US is dedicated to feed for consumption animals, then to make a fair comparison with a vegetarian/vegan diet, we must add the "passive" killing of agriculture raised for feeding animals for meat consumption to the equation. Therefore a vegan/vegetarian diet, although perhaps equal in its agricultural destruction with a meat diet, eliminates the "active" killing of those animals brought into this world, raised, and then killed for the sole benefit of humans.<br /><br />Now, if we are responsible vegans/vegetarians, and we procure our produce from small, local, organic, and more responsibly-practiced farms, as opposed to factory "mega" farms often found in regular grocery store, then we can move in a direction of improvement. I completely agree with you that the future is in permaculture. I certainly concede that humans evolved as omnivores, many believing the cooking of meat to be responsible for the meteoric rise of human intelligence and evolution, but in my humble opinion, we have the technology now to eliminate the unnecessary killing and consumption of animals. As you say, life cannot exist without death, but we don't have to control the birth and death of animals just for our own benefit. <br /><br />Would love to hear your thoughts on this!<br /><br />Respectfully,<br />Tomas<br />Tomasnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25149653.post-5942073775099143582014-06-24T11:35:32.373-06:002014-06-24T11:35:32.373-06:00Why are multi-sense life forms valued more than si...Why are multi-sense life forms valued more than single-sense life forms?<br />-JAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25149653.post-38090489612184596692014-06-24T05:40:08.854-06:002014-06-24T05:40:08.854-06:00I look at vegetarianism differently. You re correc...I look at vegetarianism differently. You re correct that we can not avoid killing. The Jains classify life by the number of senses that particular life form has. For example, a cow has 5 senses like a human. Bacteria has one sense. The idea is to refrain from killing as many multi-sense life forms as possible.jbkrangerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02737507688138627745noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25149653.post-31269949941325235252014-06-24T04:37:57.273-06:002014-06-24T04:37:57.273-06:00Hi Suelo, This is a brilliant post. Many subjects ...Hi Suelo, This is a brilliant post. Many subjects covered well.<br />I studied permaculture 20 years ago - it's a full solution to the world's practical needs...<br />You might like my blog, some similar topics discussed:<br />http://veritopian.blogspot.co.uk/The Veritopianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10023209314813899777noreply@blogger.com