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Newsletter editorials

  • Spring 2008
  • Autumn 2008
  • Spring 2009
  • Autumn 2009
  • Spring 2010
  • Autumn 2010
  • Spring 2011
  • Autumn 2011

    Is permaculture a quiet revolution? (Spring 2008)
    I thought this to be a great opportunity to put the record straight. As (Hon) Chair for SLP I must ensure that we embrace the three guiding ethics of permaculture. They are Earth Care, People Care and Fair Shares. As I embark on another year of passionate teaching and inspirational energy, stimulating my fellow colleagues on the do’s and don’ts of sustainable practice, it comes off the back of what might otherwise have been a traumatic year. I had become the brunt of many accusations that left my community allotment project flagging. Instead of fighting off the assault I remained passive, because I wanted to show the undue damage individuals were causing to their environment and community. In the next 10 years we may see a magnified version of this psychological disturbance, a mute point so far in the whole environmental argument. When oil prices, as predicted, really rocket, and people’s affluence really takes a tumble who does one run to? The police? A psychiatrist? Or a Lawyer? Who is going to look after the children when households suffer from overwork and stress in order to continue their prodigious lifestyles? But the real issue that remains un-addressed is this: What about the great social upheaval that will happen when the psychological basis of people’s mentalities begin to break down due to economic unrest and institutional degradation? I have seen the signs already, and the only cure for it are preventative measures. My personal conflicts with the allotment committee has resulted in me taking them to court, but I waited a good year before I did so. That’s because I wanted nature to produce the answer, and to show me when the moment was right. All along I tried to be amicable. In not taking a negative view of the whole procedure I am using the opportunity to educate and stimulate new potential growth. My proposal to the council was to allow SLP to directly sub-rent a part of the allotments where I could continue to run my community events. Only time will tell but in the meanwhile I hope I have blown the dusty cobwebs off the conservative washing line that never seems to change its clothing fast enough. If every allotment does not have a community project by 2010 then you can guarantee that the environmental movement has gone wayward. One should emphasis technology and awareness of critical issues, but the fact that degradation starts in the family means that this is the first place where healing must take place. Governments and institutions obviously have a role to play but your true healer is not the business guru or the politician (bless their cotton socks), but your children. I have said this before and I will say it again. Every adult in this world must become a parent. You know when you are on the right track, because a child will come to you asking.
    MerlynX

    The writing is on the wall: Community challenge (Autumn 2008)
    So much goes on in my life that if I try to keep everything in touch I will end up missing the wood for the trees. The focus must always be the wood, but not so far that I forget my personal integrity, what I refer to as my zone 001 – self-consciousness. A lot has happened since the last editorial and I feel that with the introduction of a host of new members, something of the truth is allowed. Then again, I have always been outspoken and fearless of who I am as a person. Let me say first that I thank all volunteers who have contributed to South London Permaculture in one capacity or another, but there is no point in supporting an organization which is under a pretentious guise. Underneath the hard work and wonderful festival activity is a failure of human culture and morality. Not least is an explanation required as to why there is no website on line yet. I have rewritten the old one and await the natural incentive to upload it. But I need to go back in history a little bit.

    About a year ago the police arrested me and confiscated all my computer equipment on the basis that I had caused indirect harassment because I published some letters I had written both to the police themselves and to a particular family. They requested from the ISP the subsequent removal of my website, and got it despite no legal basis to do so. There is no charge against me. I subsequently cancelled my permaculture conference to Athens because they had inadvertently taken my teaching material and studies, for I am also doing an MA in Ecotheology at Lampeter University. The set back to an international career is incalculable. The subsequent pressure and loss of time has affected my studies, to the detriment of probably failing my degree program, even though it is distance part-time. Not that I haven’t learnt anything from it, which has always been my motive. The 2 letters I wrote to police I had printed because they did not reply to them. Likewise, the letter to the family. To cut a long story short they highlighted corruption, for which proceedings with the IPCC indicate one basic fact: that they operate for the police, by the police or at least from ex-members. Why a small-timer like me should generate such antagonism and an outrageous reaction from them implies that something much larger looms underneath the landscape. In their ‘friendly’ way I was threatened with gang rape and 2 years if I did not accept a caution. Likewise it took 6 officers to arrest and drag out a barefooted half-awake individual at his front door with handcuffs because I constituted a threat. The name of the officer if anyone wants to contribute evidence is Pc Greg Poynter at Brockley police station.

    I always said that SLP will become what people contribute to it, and the groups in question have affected my permaculture lifestyle to the degree that set me on a course of self-destruction. This implicates the destruction of my spirituality and the awareness that I am not British, and refuse to believe that I am. In fact, it has taken me 20 years to realize that I am an anarchist, an indigene. The cowardice of friends to support me at the time and immorality in waiting for me to do something awful leaves a legacy of remaining organizations that I now represent in my work. Truly, I was victimized, to the apparent blindness of the police, and when my friends are ‘threatened’ as to join them in order that we should beat Merlyn up, this only stinks of a protection racket. The local drug dealer by the name of Squiddley represents a group of head-hunters, and still the police sit back. This is what I have become. No wonder our society is in crisis, underneath. But this is about permaculture! So what did I do about it?

  • I observed for a good long time to see where my loyalties lie.
  • On evaluation I took stock of my resources and created a membership scheme and newsletter.
  • I took no notice of the police in the failed attempts to issue both a ROSHO and then subsequently an ASBO.
  • I tested the guilt and shame of my closest compatriots by requesting a written statement in my pursuit for compensation.
  • I have allowed for the damage of my integrity and the general negativity surrounding me, as well as the secrecy of what people think about me by continuing to work despite their objections.

    Negative and positive feedback are essential if system maintenance is to continue. Negative feedback puts the brake on development whilst positive feedback allows for the utilization of free natural energy. That I have been on a high-energy spiritual drive for the last 10 years is apparent in my networking and social infrastructure. What is also apparent is the jealousy of individuals because of their inadequate ability to cope with society at the basic level. Because I can provide something special is not an excuse for parents to deny their children access. What people wrought comes around again, and this is no more apparent than with highly developed spiritual beings – they become sensitive mirrors for karmic reactions.

    My work is with children. If the child has a problem with knives, you teach them how to use them in order to establish a cultural bridge to the “tool” and it subsequently stops being a weapon. If a child has a problem with drugs you educate them as to the long-term effects. You sit amongst them whilst they are smoking and listen to them, for that is when they are most likely to be open, when they are in their own private world. If a child is having underage sex get to know his or her partner; two heads are better than one.

    Most kids act like adults, and parents don’t solve any problems by denying them the things they leave home for. Here is the role of the elder in society, the spiritually inclined person who hasn’t been damaged to that extent. The person who gets on with your kids.
    MerlynX

    If you had a choice between being of British nationality or an indigene which would you chose in the current climate of impending deep recession and increased bureaucratic control? (Spring 2009)
    In my studies I have discovered an extraordinary coincidence. History is repeating itself, and it may well be worthwhile exploring this avenue to see where we go from here. The period I am relating to is the first few centuries after the Roman withdrawal from Britain. Of course, with their legions went their authority and what remained was a legacy of technological achievement. One may call it fortuitous that the Roman Empire was converted to Christianity in the 4th century AD. The Roman influence extending as far as Scotland, but there were certain areas that they couldn’t touch, namely Ireland and the fringes of the Empire. In other words there remained a strong influence of the indigenous values of the Celts. But Christendom went much further, and after the Roman withdrawal the country was held together by a new monastic movement. The monastic movement was extraordinary in that it was fluidic and had structure only as far as it had been developed across the nations. The emerging Celtic Church could have been construed as separatist against Roman Christianity who had brought a diocesan form of rule decreed from Rome itself. The Catholic transition though had exercised a much greater degree of cultural, legal and liturgical pluralism and so allowed for an autonomous bishopric in those areas where the Roman style of urban rule had no influence. In fact Catholicism only really become centralized from the 11th century onwards. The Celtic Church had expressed a more spiritual administration where religious, political, social and cultural sites tended to blend into each other.

    So what am I saying here? Well, we are heading into a recession are we not, and this recession means many things to many types of peoples. For travellers, self-builders, fringe groups like squatters and gypsies, and other intentional communities it is the actualisation of their deepest anxieties; one’s choice of living subsequently means much more in the light of the failed systems which they had rejected anyway. What we may be seeing here are the last years of an empire going through its death throes. This empire I am referring to is not the British Empire – that ceased to exist a while back. I am talking about the high-energy technological exploitation and degradation of the landscape for its resources for which the Romans amongst other empires were highly responsible. Nature eventually rears her ugly head once in a while. In fact, after the Roman withdrawal the land was given rest and the forests returned to Europe only to be exploited again in the agricultural revolution of the 9th century onwards. In that time the monks came to the forefront. The monastic ideal had come from the likes of John Cassian who brought different forms of worship from Egypt and Palestine and explored its use particularly in Gaul and Britain. As such the monastic movement was already under way who’s ascetic values created ‘deserts’ in the forms of islands and forest enclosures. Where buildings were grouped within a boundary wall in a sort of haphazard way this was to become the loosely structured community for which the emergent Celtic monasticism modelled itself on. The Roman concept of anchoring spiritual authority to cities was to differ from the Celtic Church’s sense of “location“. During the 6 and 7th centuries non-territorial allegiances allowed the 'local' church to expand indefinitely.

    This is anarchy. Those Celtic bishops, likened to the druids and called thus, followed their own rules. They travelled the landscape between ‘deserts’ with a nomadic sentiment setting up new communities. They brought with them the skills that allowed the laity to engage in, especially for the production of food in very difficult conditions. Well, one need not look far to realise that this is the emerging pattern today, amongst permaculturalists, low impact developers, and traveller organisations who are setting up their anarchic locales and challenging the law in the wake of the expected receding ‘empire’. These forest dwellers who are practising traditional forms of tree management, and the gardeners who are growing food and bringing peoples together by sharing their skills, who by example are changing public opinion in favour of living more lightly in the land and are thus forcing political decisions, are all saints. Like the Columbas of old they are creating communities in the shadow of an impending worldly ‘disaster’ – the withdrawal of urban life and the dilapidation of the technological infrastructure.

    Well maybe that is a bit hard. Rome did not disappear, it just lost its influence. The cycle of corrupted power-struggles still goes on today as is the legacy of elitism under different guises. If history is repeating itself what great news it would be to see four centuries of woodland regenerate. But I am afraid the speed of development has accelerated also. That means we will soon be going to other planets to mine its ores – a triumph for the technocrats who have always had faith in human invention to come up with the answers. But until that happens let anarchy reign and take care of the people by providing the skills and resources to re-coagulate our “reductionist societies”.

    And this leads me to my final point, that of the reassertion of indigenous rights. One does not have to accept Roman rule; I’d rather be a saint living on the edge. My resurrection is ominous, I am that close to the Kingdom of God. My peregrination will take me to the thin veil between this world and the beyond. Roman London is in decline, the transition has begun. Beware of the Trees!
    MerlynX

    The grass isn’t always greener on the other side! (Autumn 2009)
    In permaculture one talks about levels of intervention with nature that necessitates the most sustainable way forward for long-term stability. There are forms of chemical intervention for instance, followed by mechanical manipulation and then biological controls. One could generalize and say that this is a ladder of cultural evolution. Biological restraints have always been in place and act as a method of species delineation in that it characterizes the behavior of an organism. Mechanics, on the other hand, was pretty much mastered centuries ago but it defines the mastery of machines, for instance the invention of the wheel. And thirdly, chemical use delineates very strongly the current age we live in, not least the use of weaponry and the creation of medicine. Of course, since then we have gone on to split the atom and manipulate genes – a culmination of all our cultural heritage – that requires forms of biological, mechanical and chemical control. At the bottom of this ladder upon which everything rests is the ‘do nothing’ approach. I have generally termed this under a passive approach which grants a certain amount of cultural baggage in our make-up and allows for Unconsciously motivated action. Well, how more passive can I be when I am rudely awoken on a sleeper train in Spain and told to put my shoes and socks on, despite being very smart and clean. It took 2 police officer, 2 security guards and the ticket collector to throw me off without charge. It reminds me of the time I was banned from a top swimming pool in London for not wearing a shirt, despite wearing less in the pool.

    In Granada near the Alhambra I was attacked by 3 security guards for attempting to legally play music, despite being hidden far from the madding crowd in a quiet spot. They called my mother all sorts of names, stamped on my feet, threw my gear in a bin, and then tried to stop me from talking to ANYBODY! And the crowd played on… That’s just fine; I have nothing to prove on an individual level and if the collective can’t see justice and the fact that their sane future depends on it I will just have to take their children from them, because I represent the unconscious motive – God!

    Spain can be a harsh environment but a harsh environment does not make harsh people. Fear makes a fearful people because unlike the environment, it is self-induced. Take away someone’s freedom and then sell it back to them under different protocols and these people relish their new-found responsibilities. It is the same the world over. Coming back to Britain was something of an eye-opener because in Britain everyone was suffering for the chaotic weather going on. There is an environmental crisis everywhere and I would argue that it has been around for a good lot longer then one would give credit for. We have developed an ill culture around it for millennia. Does one go back to the foot of the ladder and do nothing? Permaculture is trying to teach us that natural food systems are at the root of stable societies, in which the distribution of resources is fundamental to everyone receiving their fair shares. I write this piece on the back of a continued attack on my philosophy of free action for the mutual benefit of society – hence there appears to be a legion of authoritative controls that don’t like the foot of the ladder. Not until they take away the ground of being will these monsters come tumbling down. Losing all my community projects here in London was vindicated by millions of pounds of infrastructural damage to the landscape following the heavy rains. It is no wonder I consider myself a prophet. Eventually these insane people will come to realize their mistakes, and then their temple will become history.
    MerlynX

    Viva la Oestre! (Spring 2010)
    Well, another Easter and it will soon be Christmas again. I heard them talking about Easter being celebrated just like Christmas, with cards and gifts. What is the true nature of Easter? This morning I had another revelation, quite a bit in recent time, but so it doesn't put you off the rest of this post I will talk about it at the end which you may prefer to skip. There is lots of mixed news to discuss.

    When we think of Easter one thinks about eggs and rabbits. Others think about the paschal supper and the nature of sacrifice. The Christian sacrifice was an adaptation of the Jewish Passover, the celebration of the liberation of the Israelites and the passing over of God's hand. A lot of us know much more, especially concerning the pagan elements at the root of all religions. We should ask that simple question - Why is the word 'oestrogen' a derivative of the word 'oestre', likewise Easter? For those that doubt my natural lifestyle I need only say that I have just handed in my final essay for my MA in Ecotheology. The title concerned the connection between the royal bloodline of Ireland and Scotland with the assimilation of Christianity who superseded the role of the druids. Hence, the first monks were still very Celtic before they were Romanised. The difference between these two forms of Christianity was mainly the tribal túatha–based affiliation of the Celts versus the centralised, military administration of the Roman church. Other contemporary issues at the time that focused upon the Columban church were not resolved 'til centuries later. This included the calculation of the Easter date and the style of the tonsure. The Columban church took their legacy from St. John, the Roman from St. Peter. My Iona module was a double, i.e. a 40 pointer. It was meant to be a single but I was allowed to write a subjective account of my experiences on the island. When I finished my first essay I thought it was a 'distinction'. I have just learnt it has failed. The poem that formed the basis of this essay can be found on the website. The full essay will be available after the external marker verifies that result. Apparently I was too clever, the material in the footnotes should have been in the main text. In effect I should not have written a subjective piece and this, contrary to what I was told, was not a quick way of getting another 20 credits. The second essay has just gone in and it is a bit of boring prose. This one passed despite being rushed. In the last week of my deadline the laptop decided to crash despite the Linux software. Admittedly the stress of working to finish the essay may have weakened my immune system, but remember, I live a natural lifestyle - variety and passion is the spice and health of life. I never work that hard but I work consistently at things. I got hit with something just before I left for Wales. My connecting train is cancelled, and when I do finally arrive at university on the last day of my degree program, they tell me that they have refused my extension on the basis of having another failed module. (The previous failed module occurred when the police arrested me and confiscated all my computers and files and removed my previous website, without charge.) I appealed and won, so it hopefully means I have time to finish my 60-credit dissertation having written over 25,000 words. What am I dealing with here?

    This is cultural oppression, i.e. culture will use its modus of operations as a way of preserving itself. Anything radical is ground down by the machine. That machine includes people and the extreme use of individuals to inhibit my 'mutant' development. Am I so mutant? What knowledge do I have to offer that is so un-academic? John Allegro one of the chief decipherers of the dead-sea scrolls came up with his theory of sacred mushrooms during the Israelite wanderings in the desert. Some of this stuff was in my draft dissertation. These mushrooms that look like flat bread rise for a period and die. They come in the dew of the morning. They are phallic and represent the increasing male dominance over a matriarchal heritage that lasted over tens of thousands of years. In fact, since the brain boom. The phallic associations are apparent. The looking for eggs in the desert, symbolic of Mother Earth's womb, and the bunny that lives there all represent the life-giving properties of nature as both/neither male and/or female, but androgynous. The paschal bread is a symbol of God's chosen - the 'sacrificial lamb'. The head of my (sacrificed) MA program was sacked for protesting that universities should be run on the Platonic module of scholars, and not on vested interests by organisations outside who dictate what should be taught. I should have took this as a hint. Not in 6 years have I been properly accommodated by Lampeter... until now, that is.

    This obviously coincides with lots of stuff going on around here in my hometown - it is my nature. The nature that I teach permaculture; the nature that I guerrilla garden; the nature of my honesty and search for truth; the nature of my understanding that energy spent in fighting authority is energy lost to gaining real knowledge. It is the nature in which I climb mountains purely out of instinct - try the cycle trip from Aberystwyth to Devil's Bridge and there you will find the tail of the devil. It is the nature in which I reflect your true selves - the hidden part of you. So what was this revelation?

    Simple but true, that human evolution is premised on mastur-bation, and that is what differentiates us from animals. Animals evolve but only because their sexual cycles sometimes become misaligned. This breeds mutants. In the case of human animals it bred those who were rejected by their society. Those lucky enough to wander away and survive found their own gratification - if you get my point. Those who abstained under those conditions, like me, became holy. Being holy is about being passive, i.e. a returning to the source. We stop evolving and fulfil our true cultural potentials, which is why I can do so much. [Actually I have inverted this thinking so that now I consider culture as the repressive context within which we stop evolving. I feel more positive about being an animal.] There are times to mate and times to work, everything for the cohesion of society. When societies were matriarchal the power of the woo-man was overwhelming. Human ego evolved as a mutation, and that is the state of things today. There are many religious sects out there within Islam and Hinduism who know these basic truths. The paedophile accusations aimed at the RC church is reflective of the continued oppression within society to undermine anyone who has access to ('matriarchal') power, that is, power to cohere. But that is not to doubt that "temptation" isn't out there - hence the Fall of man and the desire to copulate out of season. So here is another secret, virginity is premised on mating within season and one loses their virginity as an act of the Fall.My last point is this:
    What drives humanity to copulate out of season is dis-ease. Most disease is caused by mind-body imbalance. As a permaculturist I know for a fact that the environmental movement is grounded in religious experience, but it would be too afraid to call itself that; it is a matriarchal experience but likewise subject to mutant corruption. THAT'S ENOUGH - YOU MAY THINK I AM WRONG!! PLEASE CONVERSE.
    MerlynX

    “Turn the other cheek” (Autumn 2010)
    Like I said, doesn't the equinox always bring heavy rain - a cleansing of the spirit. I now embark on my final academic journey. It will be like taking a plough to the soil. I am about to plant my spiritual seed in Spain.

    The interpretation of life has been a historical dialogue for millennia. The Greeks used rhetoric, philosophy and hermeneutics - all acts of persuasion in one form or another. If anybody has read any of my personal writings I class this under hermeneutics, as in the hero Hermes - messenger. Its a more natural way of writing, but is subject to academic scrutiny and destruction. Ironically, whilst in Lampeter I started thinking about a PhD, which would probably finalise the Romanization of my intellect and the death of the prophet. But then I know how to get back there. So long as I maintain my freedom I venture into the unregulated world without a care towards fines and taxes. They are knocking on my door again, hence I say to you 'Turn the other cheek'.

    I understand something about morality. That is, morality is premised on being honest. It is the very fabric that bonds our community. Without it there is no community. I am in my right now to take an overview of my immediate vicinity. Over the last six years I worked hard to coalesce my neighbours into an environmental awareness. I have had charity items mysteriously left in my garden, not least plants for looking after. I pass on everything, give away much that has no real use, produce home-made foods for distribution, and invite people round for socials. Unfortunately, the only real support I get are from a select few. I don’t convert anybody. That is a good thing, I am averse to consider my self an environmentalist because I am/have removed myself from the Western perspective/understanding of it. I really am indigenous, and it pretty much makes me a “freegan“. That’s why I still eat meat, why occasionally I use chemicals in the gardens, regularly go to the supermarkets to scout out discounted food. Importantly though, when having guests I chose the best products. Not because I want to give a false front to my friends, but because that is where I count as an individual, one who makes an effort.

    On my street I look both sides of me and I realise there is a dichotomy. Those to my left occasionally came to my events. Those to my right avoided them. You wonder if this is an indication of some sort of cultural malaise. If I started at 3 doors down one finds the household who persistently complained of my presence on the railway line growing food. Despite beautifying the area and inviting neighbours down for maybe 2 events a year, this was not good enough for them. One wonders their true motive. At that time when I was beginning to remove the Japanese knotweed and use biological controls, for instance planting Jerusalem artichokes as competition and digging out roots during harvesting, they up-ed the anti so to speak. I later discovered that they were attempting to remove the knotweed from their own gardens but that this would have to be a two-sided job. I had already been in touch with a number of Network Rail workers and all of them turned a blind eye to what I was doing. Quite simply, either side of the project is a rubbish rip from decades of fly-tipping. They all knew I was growing food out there. It was my neighbour 3 doors down who incessantly threw dog crap over the fence but I told them enough is enough when they dumped loads of concrete on top of the vegetable beds. I cannot believe it was jealousy alone that led them to this final action but that they had effectively been corrupted by vicious gossip, maybe the same gossip that ultimately lost me the allotment project.

    My neighbours 2 doors are another example in case. When I started the railway project I fixed all the fencing along the back of our gardens. These heavy iron railings had to be re-dug into the clay, which I joyfully done. In fact, what led me out there in the first place was the fact of my father cultivating for 8 years the blackberries which used to be fence high. My previous neighbours were in favour of it before they left and sold on. Consequently, I re-aligned the fencing and gained up to 6 feet of railway line for us three gardens. Any plantings I had made on the railway in that area was now in my neighbour’s gardens. The new owners 2 doors along bought a five-bedroom house for over half a million. They were planning a family and as yet hadn’t had any kids. They spent a fortune doing the place up. Just recently they ripped out and killed all the apple trees (6) in their garden because of a problem with bees and the new baby. One can make what they want from that response, but they also ripped out all my soft fruit which they gained when I extended the garden lengths. They knew I was a gardener and they did not approach me. In fact, a lot of this stuff happens when I am not around. The simple question is: why buy a five-bedroom house for that amount and then rip out the orchard. The answer is that they simply did it for profit. But the housing market took a dive afterward.

    That leads me to my final neighbour one door down who refuses to contribute to the repair of our fence despite years of friendly relations. And despite gaining 6 feet at the back where I had already extended the fence between us. What does it take to be a decent neighbour? Shame on them all. These people are the purveyors of broken societies because it benefits them. They all waited to see if the police would charge me and when it was obvious that the evidence of the extended garden would not be brought up in court, they decided to develop those areas themselves. In the meantime, I have to live with these people. I say to you, ’Turn the other cheek‘. The whole situation leaves me on a moral high ground. Like my neighbour upstairs who complained about even the small things, until recently that is as if he had gone through some sort of conversion. They hacked at my plants in the garden because they considered them unkempt, and in the process, with the DIY bloke 4 doors down the same side, removed my entire crop of grapes. When I spoke to his son with whom I get on with, and whose friends hang about in the streets, I told him to thank his father for the effort. That’s how it works you see. Nature always comes bouncing back.

    And when they came to the place which is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on the right, and one on the left… “for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (cf. Luke 23: 33)
    MerlynX

    The virgin (Spring 2011)
    Spring brings many things, not least new growth and new beginnings. The completion of my MA brought an unexpected gift - a relationship to a very young girl close approaching 18. She has now reached that golden age, the last I saw of her was celebrating the special day at Stonehenge, but I was not with her. Alastair McIntosh reminds us of the erotica lost to our way of life, not unlike some of the biblical Psalms that bind sex with Creation. This is the true sexuality that communises us all counterpoint to repressive culture that pretends to hide it. (See my poem opposite) It only pretends because popular media is so tunnel-visioned, yet this is changing also. Where internet takes over as the favourite form of visual stimulation TV is left for the outright lazy who have no desire to search too hard and like the idea of being surprised by the mounting crap it elicits. But the world is full of crap; one lifestyle is judged accordingly by his or her ability to find purchase in this world, and to take the best from it. That is what I do, and I am good at it. When things look like they are going to drag me into a deep hole I destroy myself. I am not an escapist but a generator, a moulder of new paths, an example, an energy supply.

    One would think that a New-Age traveller who has never had a formal day’s education in her life would be liberated in her mind. She has her own caravan, cluttered as it is, and I came at that moment in her life when she wanted to escape, from her mother. The lack of fatherly influence is quite obvious. She had all the qualities I wanted, nobility, strength of character, able to develop, and morals. I fell in love. Unfortunately she tried to juggle two relationships at once and she became manipulative. I raised her up and she revelled in the power. I made her happy and that gave her reason to remain selfish. I offered her my life because I thought these were new beginnings, the time when I would put my past woes to boot. I thought she was a gift from God. What happened?

    She was a virgin, locked up and too reluctant to give away her love if it meant sharing. She got used to the idea of being looked after. I lost out to a drug dealer who had a car and gave her a smoke. She was just a kid, intelligent at it, who wanted to keep me as an appendant. There is no doubt that we fell in love together, we were in communication practically everyday for 2 months using Skype, mobile and email. But I didn’t want to be treated as second best. So I laid down an ultimatum: if she wouldn’t chose me as her courtier then she should let me go. But she wouldn’t, and to prove this she slept with me and kissed me. These were the happiest moments of my life, until her other side reared its ugly head. I destroyed my relationship with her by telling her boyfriend about me, which all got messy. I was threatened and I defended myself. She became vile towards me, and where once electronic communications were used for poetic engagements, it became the medium for attack. She turned her love for me into hatred, and went into a state of denial. Like I said, she was just a kid, an intelligent one at that. If only I accepted her offer to remain friends, releasing her from unnecessary pressure, I would still be kissing her…

    So what did I learn? I have been here before. Life for me is about ‘What else does it offer if it goes wrong?’ So during that creative time I wrote a song for her and am now writing a book around the experience. But it enforces my opinion that the Western world is a broken world, people in denial, who think being hurt is the only way forward. Not least it hangs love up on a coat hanger. Love that is better worn amongst indigenous people who put family and tribal bonds first, food security and camaraderie over quick fixes and emotional evacuation. Not everyone is in this rut, the environmental movement is quick to uphold the higher immaterial values that politicians and economists bombastically “literate“. For the first time in my life I held a mobile phone next to me everyday and realised the neurosis that this infectious girl was spreading. Maybe 10 texts a day, so much so that I complained to O2 why they were charging me. I could not believe I had written that many texts – hundreds – all for her. It is neurotic food. It occasionally replaced her crap diet of eating low quality food. It became the panacea for her emotional instability . As I say, she met me on the premise that I would “save” her. Well, I certainly gave her rights of passage. Virgin no more, literally the day she was taken was the catalyst for her hatred towards me. But I still love her and will now follow a life of celibacy because I had my happiest moment with her. She made me complete, and I cannot fight hatred with hatred. She would not admit to it, but she wanted me as her lover, not a boyfriend. Is there nobody safe in this Western world? I needs move on to greener pastures I think and try to bridge the gap to the girl I still love.
    MerlynX

    Britain will only do well when it knows who is sovereign (Autumn 2011)
    It is easy to understand the root of social problems – it is due to lack of true leadership. It is not just one rotten apple in the bunch; they have been allowed to fester amongst the general populace and it is now a real squidgy mess to get out of. The main cause is fear of loss of power and everybody has power to lose. Power belongs primarily to the ecology of relationships and is motivated from sources deep within the bio-survivalist circuitry of the human brain – it is genetic. Good reading around the subject can be found in the books of Richard Anson Wilson.

    The evolution of societies is premised on these power structures. Take away those simple power mechanisms from the people and you get a revolt. There are many ways of exercising this power. For the capitalist it is through consumerism. Purchasing power gives one the sense of freedom to create their own world. I discovered though, that I could become much more powerful than that, simply from stepping out of the system and becoming a free man. One loses their network of associates to a degree, but the structure for support is out there because fundamentally that is where we evolved from, and where I believe we are going back to. The capacity for humanity to socialise and create new self-reliant systems is premised on the basic control of our necessities: food, water and shelter. Everything else is an evolution of it. To set up a truly universal system where everybody is content is a utopian vision, but visions and visionaries are pre-requisite for a successful society. The leaders of those societies must guarantee the general populace that their needs can be met whilst imparting to the people the knowledge and wisdom to maintain the integrity of society at no expense to everybody else’s natural rights, including its leaders. Hence, the leader must provide an example of humility and self-sacrifice and not least, honesty. If they don’t have these qualities societies will dissolve into states of power vying. This is what we can expect in the future and we have already seen the signs of it when, during the London riots, the delinquents quickly gained their sense of power, be they ex-offenders or just generally the down-trodden or inwardly repressed. They did this by stealing others’ power objects. Those who operate on much higher levels of brain circuitry, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and self-actualisation, have a tremendous influence over the people whether they know it or not, conveyed through their power. Power isn’t just granted, it is the mutual exchange between people for role playing in society and the acceptance of responsibilities. The big problem we are facing in society as a whole is the disparity between the visions of those at very high levels of understanding, and those who are content with basic needs. A ruler, tied as she or he is to the land, needs to bridge that disparity and hence must usually be educated in the ways of the people. A ruler unites the people. To know a ruler is to see your future in that person, for the king’s vision is paramount for all other levels of society to operate within. A true sovereignty is much the same as a prophet’s one – some things will only come to be realised in time, and his or her actions are signs of what is to come and thus how things can be dealt with.

    If I said that there is no such thing as a ‘big society’ but rather tolerance of other’s ideals one could imagine that successful societies are better served when they are small. The diversity of creeds and philosophies are also better mitigated through smaller self-reliant systems. A true ruler will bring us to this vision and unite any disparity between them through a mastering of the semantic code. A true ruler will live amongst his or her enemies, hence we have the anecdote that a prophet is never accepted in his or her country. I talk to my enemies; I make enemies of my people for lack of understanding. I live in a rotten society because my vision is too great, hence I am misunderstood. Those living within that society would disagree if their needs are met, regardless if they are dishonest, evil, spiteful, greedy, two-faced, deluded etc. You get my drift. But if I said that good and evil were too sides of a coin with a fine line between them, not unlike the difference between love and hate, then the role of the ruler or prophet is to bring the two perspectives together through understanding. If I told you that members of my immediate community are the biggest cowards on the face of this planet, they would only say that I was the one who is deluded, or spiteful, or vengeful etc. This tension is harmonised when one sees both sides of the story, and this can only happen through tolerance and acceptance. Religious institutions had a term for this – Christianity called it Compassion, Islam called it Submission; both are granted through the understanding that God is all-knowing. In non-religious societies people put their faith in science and rationality. Let me ask you to consider something: why do you kill your prophets? Is it because you don’t understand them? Are you really that guilty? Are you afraid of the future you are creating?
    MerlynX

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