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There are two reasons why you're here: either you were searching the net and something on this webpage looked like it might be of interest; or you're a friend of mine who I told to check out this page on penalty of death. In the former case, you're probably not interested in my biographical details or in hearing an exhaustive list of my interests and hobbies. And in the latter case, you probably know a good proportion of them already. So, biographical details I've exiled to a separate page where they won't get in anybody's way. If, however, you wish to write my autobiography, this might be a good place to start.
The rest of this page is going to be devoted to two kinds of things: original material (i.e. thoughts of mine) and links. I've grouped these into broad, user-friendly headings like "Politics", "My Religion & Philosophy", and "Language & Culture Stuff".
I am a proud Red, and am happy to say that I've been a socialist for several years now. What this means is that I believe in a democratic economy, as well as a democratic government; in other words an economy owned and operated by the people, for the good of the people.
I also believe that the environment should be preserved and protected, not just for the enjoyment of humans, but in its own right. I guess that makes me an environmentalist.
I believe that as women, blacks, Latinos, gays, non-English speakers, non-Christians, and above all, the poor, are particularly alienated from this society, each of these groups has, potentially, a vitally important role to play in any struggle for social justice and economic equality. For this reason -- and also from my own personal fascination with cultural and social diversity -- I strongly support the black power, women's liberation, and gay rights movements.
Since I believe workers should own and manage the businesses where they work -- under the direction, guidance and regulation of directly democratic communities -- I'm also deeply supportive of the labor movement.
I believe that war is destructive, cruel, blind, futile, inhuman, counterproductive, and ultimately pointless. I guess that probably makes me a pacifist.
And, just in case I haven't given you enough reason to hate me, I am also a Pagan and an atheist.
For those of you who are appalled at each and every word of the foregoing, here's a link to the Republican Party homepage. Bon voyage!
For the rest of you, there's some thoughts of mine here that hopefully you might find of interest, also some links to groups and organizations I sympathize with. I've been a member of the Socialist Party USA since late 1997, after I discovered that their political views were amazingly similar to mine. They have a pretty open-minded and tolerant approach to politics, which you've gotta admire, and they include a variety of workers'-ownership people (like myself), state-ownership people, Marxists, labor activists, feminists, environmentalists, etc, etc. I've never been a Marxist myself, though I've read some bits and pieces of Marx's stuff. It's pretty dry. In my opinion a much better articulator of socialist ideals was Mihail Bakunin, Karl Marx's great rival. Here's a link to a piece of his which I find both characteristic and inspiring. Trouble is, Marx believed socialism was just an inevitable fact, the inexorable product of historical forces thousands of years in the making. He lost the most fundamental and compelling facet of socialist thinking: social revolution as an ethical imperative, on a human level. It's so easy for the individual human being to get lost in all the vast historical forces Marx is always on about. Bakunin has his own faults, of course. He believed in smashing the church, the state, the police, and everything that existed in 'bourgeois' society, before work could begin in building a new society founded upon justice and equity. I can't agree with much of his religious thoughts -- so many socialists have come to the movement through their religious convictions (including the great American socialist leader Norman Thomas); and, as for the state, I believe in an ethic of people-power that aims, not to destroy the state, but to make it irrelevant. When true power is in the hands of the people, the existence or non-existence of the state is incidental.
Personally, I believe in nonviolent revolution as a means of establishing a socialist society. This will have a negative aspect -- merely obstructing or resisting the unjust aspects of neo-liberal society -- but it can also have a positive side too: that of "building the new society within the shell of the old". (That's an expression I took from the IWW, a very high quality, anarcho-syndicalist trade union.) Following the revolution -- and of course, in embryonic form during it -- a socialist society should be characterized by a revolutionary extension of democracy, through direct participation (1) in civil society, via directly democratic communities; (2) in production, through workers' ownership and democratic administration of businesses, and through the supervision of business by and for the community with an aim towards ecological sustainability as well as economic prudence; and (3) in the market, through co-ops and through democratic assessment of what should be produced to serve the society's needs. The state can play a key role in maintaining economic equality through taxing the rich and redistributing their excess wealth in the form of a guaranteed income for all citizens. It also has the duty to provide jobs for the unemployed, and funds (likewise, appropriated from the rich) for people to start their own collective or co-operative enterprises.
I'm a Pagan, but I'm not all insane about it. I believe in what's been called 'the god within': that there's a divine principle inherent in every living being, indeed in everything existent. The gods are merely archetypes; they represent something that is unique and wonderful about beings alive on earth - not in some misty heaven in the clouds.
I believe all that lives is holy, like William Blake said. 'Heaven is not in the sky or in the sea; it is spread out all around you, on the earth.' (The Gospel of St Thomas) In my pantheon, Nature itself is the one great deity, of which the nature of all living things, including human nature, are but subsets. I sometimes personify Nature as 'the Goddess'; it's a useful metaphor. But this is only a trick of language - Nature itself is an abstraction, not a concrete intelligence. That's why I think of myself as an atheist as well as a Pagan. I don't believe in an externally existing deity capable of thinking or knowing, or having a will, or forcing it upon others.
For me there's never really been any conflict between religion and science, at least not since I developed my own religion. Religion consists in getting in touch with a divine principle within yourself, a principle that is common to your nature and to human nature and to Nature at large. (There are a number of such principles I work with, one for each of the elements and directions, Gwydion [East, Air], the holy thief (like Prometheus, essentially); Lleu [South, Fire], the Sacrificial God (like Bacchus or Jesus Christ); Blodeuedd [West, Water], the May Queen, for me a love goddess and also a Sacrificial Goddess in her own right; Aranrhod [North, Earth], goddess of power.) Science, on the other hand, consists in understanding something external - living things as they actually work and interact, or substances and forces found in Nature, or whatever.
This is what I believe. I would never dream of trying to tell anybody else to believe the same thing. Religion is like music; its purpose is to liberate the soul. If a part of your religion does not liberate you, you must discard it, just as you would discard music that fails to liberate you. If an article of your creed has no meaning or significance for you, you must abandon it. And what is meaningful for one person will not be meaningful for another, just like people have different tastes in music.
That's my religion. My philosophy is based on a veneration of all that lives. I'm not a vegetarian though: that would be hypocritical. Plants are holy too. So are fungi. I've actually developed a model which allows me to do what I've always thought the goal of my philosophy should be: to hold a harsher ethical standard against myself than I do against others. According to my schema, there's four main principles that motivate human behavior: (1) emotional attachment/love, (2) ethical concern/sense of justice, (3) enjoyment/pleasure, and (4) self preservation/caution. And these are present within everybody, and everybody has the right to rank or order them as they see fit. Some people give caution the greatest priority, others enjoyment, and so on. And no way is wrong! For my solitary self, I prioritize these four principles in exactly the order that I've listed them: Love first, justice second, enjoyment third, and caution fourth. It just makes the most sense to me. But other schemas will make the most sense for other people, and since there's no standard by which you can judge their decision (the standard is what's under discussion!), you can't judge them for that. That's my philosophy. And it allows me to hold myself personally responsible to act according to an ethic of universal brotherly love, as well as to a sense of right conduct for all, without condemning others for not doing the same. In other words, you can be concerned about others, without getting all sanctimonious about it. That, IMHO, is the great achievement of my philosophy: separating ethics and personal responsibility from the dogma of religion.
Celtic languages and cultures have always fascinated me. I've been learning Welsh since I was eleven or twelve, Cornish since I was fourteen, and Breton since I was fifteen. My dream major would be Celtic Studies, which actually exists at a few schools that are well out of my price range.
Through the study of these languages, I've also gotten onto the whole nationalist scene. I've been a member of Plaid Cymru, Wales' nationalist and vaguely socialist party, for a number of years; more recently I've aligned myself with Mebyon Kernow, a Cornish party partly modelled after Plaid Cymru, and Unvaniezh Demokratel Breizh (Union démocratique bretonne), a leftist Breton nationalist party. Plaid Cymru is fairly well established in Wales; it has a number of members of parliament (namely, four), and presently controls the county council of Gwynedd in northwest Wales. MK and the UDB are much smaller, which is unfortunate.
I'm also including links to a few other European parties, more or less aligned with these three, all representing the smaller or minority nations of Europe: Esquerra Republicana in Catalonia, Herri Batasuna in Euskadi (the Basque Country) [apparently no homepage yet], and the Scottish National Party.
In addition to these national languages, I've also been interested in the possibilities of a neutral international auxiliary. A while ago I became interested in Esperanto, and started using the language for writing and communicating with other Esperantists. Then, at one point, I realized, This is the ugliest-sounding language I've ever used in my life. In grammar it's wonderfully simple, in lexicon it's unambiguous and easy to use, in its majesty and power it is unparallelled. But it just sounds atrocious - and it doesn't have to. A few months after my disillusionment I discovered Ido, which, if anything, is even simpler and more user-friendly (and in some ways more subtle), and, in addition, has an easy, flowing, musical sound to it. This, I thought, was a language I could not only pledge support to, but use. Since then I've made the switch from Esperanto to its young cousin Ido (la linguo internacionala).
Nova! New! For a nice, lengthy sample of Ido in action, klikez hike / click here and see an Ido version of this very same page.
The Young People's Socialist
LeaguePresents:
