Necessity

Every aging boomer should have a dog and/or cat.

Of course which to get depends on your personality. If you have low self-esteem and require slavish worship and approval definitely get a dog. If you enjoy serving and being disdained, go for the cat.

Both are good for companionship.

And if you are prone to being broke, choose one that will fit your microwave. Emergency protein...

Giving It Up

Finally, after 62 years of purity, yesterday I lost my Wal-Mart virginity. Yes, I defiled myself by entering the Temple of Mammon. I am cherry no more.

I needed to do this as part of research for a book I am writing.

I bought a fishing licence and some fishing sundries. I then toured the entire edifice.

Sadly, no one greeted me.

But I did see why Americans love the place so much. It's like a giant strip mall under one roof. Also, like much of America, it is an ugly place where you can buy stuff. Stuff is the real religion of consumer brainwashed Americans. Why wouldn't they love it? For them, it's a church.

As for me, no serious damage was done. I came home, removed my hazmat suit, took a shower and went about my day.

By the way, other than specials, I didn't find the prices all that low.

I doubt that I will return. I don't worship in that church.

Still losing it was a good reminder of just what virginity is worth: nothing.

Anarchy/Anarchist

Words, words, words... so many and so few understood.

Take anarchy. This word has come to connote violence, disorder and chaos. Which is exactly why so few anarchists like or use it. When people hear anarchy, they think barbarism.

An anarchist is not someone who espouses violence, disorder and chaos. An anarchist is simply a person who insists on his own right to freedom and happiness, to not be coerced.

As Ursula K. Le Guin said: An anarchist is someone who chooses, and having chosen, takes responsibility for his choice.

Anarchism is not a system, political or otherwise. It is simply free individuals trying to achieve happiness by living according to their own best interests. They may do this alone or through mutual aid, but it has no reality except in the free, individual human mind.

We are at a historical crossroads. Our bloated systems are destroying us and our world. Only we - as individuals - can save ourselves. The plutocrats and oligarchs will do whatever they can to preserve their own money and power. They own the government so expect no help from it. Quite the contrary.

But quietly, like an antibody, anarchists resist the corruption of this diseased civilization. While there is no guarantee, there is a chance they may heal it. A chance worth taking.

We shall see.

Running?

When I was young, I ran six miles three times a week and ten miles once. No shit.

I just got back from my first run in decades. One block. One. No shit.

It felt terrible. And long.

You can't really even call it running. Running involves a stride. I don't stride. I hobble.

And yet I shall persevere. Anything this miserable must be healthy.

Fatigue

I just finished a four hour shift at the garden center where I work part-time. Four hours. Nothing hard, just moving plants and watering. I am exhausted. My feet and back are killing me.

Just ten years ago I worked at another nursery doing hard labor: digging up and transplanting large trees and shrubs, etc. I not only enjoyed it, it made me stronger.

What has changed? Ten years, that's what. Decrepitude, like rust, never sleeps. And it is cumulative.

I think this is my last year in this business.

Time passes, things change. And not always for the better.

Aging is basically the build-up of error: error at the genetic level, error at the cellular level. Cells normally repair themselves; that's why you heal when you get a cut. But even the mechanism of repair eventually falls apart.

Michio Kaku

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/aging_2.html#ef0GPJ8o2zSLPVMt.99

Aging is basically the build-up of error: error at the genetic level, error at the cellular level. Cells normally repair themselves; that's why you heal when you get a cut. But even the mechanism of repair eventually falls apart.

Michio Kaku

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/aging_2.html#ef0GPJ8o2zSLPVMt.99

Aging is basically the build-up of error: error at the genetic level, error at the cellular level. Cells normally repair themselves; that's why you heal when you get a cut. But even the mechanism of repair eventually falls apart.

Michio Kaku

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/aging_2.html#ef0GPJ8o2zSLPVMt.99

Aging is basically the build-up of error: error at the genetic level, error at the cellular level. Cells normally repair themselves; that's why you heal when you get a cut. But even the mechanism of repair eventually falls apart.

Michio Kaku

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/aging_2.html#ef0GPJ8o2zSLPVMt.99

Why I Am Not A Prepper

A prepper is someone who busies herself preparing for the coming global economic, commercial, cultural collapse. He does this by hoarding goods and making plans against that inevitable day.

If you really don't believe this is inevitable you might read, The Five Stages of Collapse by Dmitry Orlov, or any number of other such tomes. They rarely agree on matters of timing, but they all agree that it is a matter of when, not if. Or, you can just ignore the whole thing, which is what most people do.

Preppers come in all varieties. Some are political, some are not. Some are racists, some are not. They can be right or left wing. Some are violent, some are not. What they have in common is the belief that if they just take the right steps, the will survive.

Of course, on this point, they are all wrong. Some might survive longer than others, but none will survive the long term alone.

They believe in hoarding guns, ammo, explosives, food and everything else you can imagine. This will allow them to defend themselves and eat.

Alas, when the collapse occurs, there will be far too many others, both private and governmental, who also have guns, etc. who will want to take their stuff, and will.

Oddly, few preppers have any military training. They read Soldier of Fortune and think they are trained. They are not.

As Napoleon pointed out: God fights on the side with the heaviest artillery. They won't have it.

As for me, I know I won't survive. I'm 62 and not really in fighting shape. I am also a published critic of the government. I expect the government will perform its paybacks very quickly. An AK-47 isn't going to change that.

What should you do? Not for me to say. But trained, organized, well armed soldiers and police will always defeat untrained, disorganized, poorly armed civilians.

And even if the authorities disappear, the famished masses of survivors will be eyeing you hungrily. I'm told human tastes like pork. I don't intend to find out.

I will live in a civilized society or I don't care to live at all.

And, Jesus, I didn't even mention zombies...

Thanks

Thanks to all who have chosen to view this blog. Why anyone should care what one more ageing boomer should have to say about anything eludes me. God knows there are more than enough of us out there babbling than needs be.

If you enjoy this, check back from time to time. I do not intend to limit myself in any way. This is for me. If I choose to rant, observe, report, quote, or just chat, I will.

I doubt you will agree with all I have to say. I am, after all, a rational anarchist and as such hold some strong, unorthodox views.

Hope you return soon.

Mike

PS: Comments make a blog fun. Please leave any you feel like. I will appreciate them.

Summer Bucket List

Just a few modest goals during my period of freedom from June to August. No doubt they will change, as everything does.

• A few brief road trips - perhaps one to TN.
• Write an ebook on minimalism and ageing.
• Try vertical gardening.
• Quit smoking.
• Practice living on just Social Security.
• Fish.
• Walk.
• Eat well.
• Revel in never having to teach again!
• Practice contentment.

Modest, I know, but mine.

Geezer Time

More and more, I find myself waking early in the morning. Four AM; geezer time.

Time to be alone in the world. Time to remember dead friends and lost loves. Time to consider what went wrong and right and how I came to be here. Time to remember the scars of war and peace.

Time for the blues:

"Nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jiving too."
"Nobody loves you when your down and out."
"My brother's in Korea and my sister's down in New Orleans."
"The thrill is gone."

Time to write and think.

Geezer time. All that's left. All the time in my world.

Sadly

“We are
Born like this
Into this
Into these carefully mad wars
Into the sight of broken factory windows of emptiness
Into bars where people no longer speak to each other
Into fist fights that end as shootings and knifings
Born into this
Into hospitals which are so expensive that it’s cheaper to die
Into lawyers who charge so much it’s cheaper to plead guilty
Into a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closed
Into a place where the masses elevate fools into rich heroes”
― Charles Bukowski

Why?

Why write this blog? After all, it isn't political or literary, as my others have been. Moreover, I don't plan, past a few friends, to advertise it.

Well, this is my personal diary of what it's like to live alone and be ageing in America. It is a reflective blog; whatever I feel like reflecting upon. Will it be of interest to anyone else? It doesn't matter. This is for me.

There are still things I have to say and I won't feel I've said them until they are written down. That's my generational bias towards print.

Perhaps they are banal things, but they matter to me. There are also topics I'd like to explore. Again I won't feel that accomplished except through writing.

Anything goes. Any idea or topic is fair game. All that matters is that I want to do it. If you enjoy it too, so much the better.

School

I am going to have a lot to say about school in this blog. After all, I've spent a good deal of my life in school as a student, teacher and professor. Obviously, I've read and thought a good deal about this. Most of what I have to say will be negative because most of my experience has been negative.

For now let me quote one of the great thinkers ever, Ivan Illich: "School is the advertising agency which makes you believe that you need the society as it is." - Deschooling Society.

The truth is, you don't.

Minimalism

David Foster Wallace told a tale of three fish. A large old fish and two young fish were swimming toward each other. When they met, the old fish said to the young fish, "How's the water. They swan on. Finally one little fish said to the other, "What's water?"

 This is as important a parable as Jesus ever uttered.

While none of the fish can escape the water, the crucial thing is to be aware of it. So neither can we escape the water of usury founded capitalist consumerism. But, we can become aware of it and change how we swim.

Minimalism is a way of saying fuck you to the water. It is a way of saying. I may have to swim here, but I will consciously choose how I swim. That's huge.

A minimalist says I will live on as little as possible. I will participate in proletarianized labour as little as possible. He says to the usurers, I will not feed you through debt. He chooses to live (well) on the cast-offs of consumer society. He says I will not watch your lies on TV. I will avoid the State as much as I can. I will fly (as much as still possible) under the radar. I will live my life. I will live my truths. I will be me.

This cannot be done perfectly. It can be done in many ways and to many degrees. The trick is to realize how it suits you and then do it. Learn to swim as you wish. Be your own fish.

Anarchism

One of the best definitions of an anarchist comes from Ursula K Le Guin:

"One who, choosing, accepts the responsibility of choice."

When was the last time you chose, regardless of the propaganda of the state or any other hierarchy, to ignore a stupid rule and accepted the responsibility for your choice? That's when you were an anarchist, whether you knew it or not. The more often you do it, the more of an anarchist you become.

Another comes from Robert Heinlein:

"I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do" 

TANSTAAFL!

Minimalism

Minimalism is just a word describing frugality as a lifestyle. It is how I survive and continue to survive.

It is also the only anarchist way to live well in the capitalist money economy while participating in it as little as possible. I love that.

What is it? Well, if you are living in the usurious money economy you have two choices. The normal way is to try desperately to make and borrow more money to feed your debt and buy more stuff..  The other is to make as little as possible, have no debt and acquire no extraneous stuff.

By adapting the latter, I have lived a good life for the past ten years with a minimal amount of pain, a maximal amount of satisfaction while never earning more than 30K per year and usually no more than 25K.

Is it just another word for poor? Absolutely not. Poor means having no choices; minimalism means consciously making them. I will discuss this at length in later posts and provide resources for those interested.

The Joys of Geezerhood

I am now a sexagenarian. I like that word. It sounds sexier and more distinguished than living fossil. Living in a country that violently recoils from, repudiates and denies ageing, I think it might be fun to some up with some good things about getting old. So here is a short list. I'll add to it from time to time under the same heading. Feel free to leave a comment if you have one or more you would like to have added.

• You can't die young.
• You know what comes next - not much.
• You might discover the important difference between loneliness and solitude.
• Odds are, you don't have a mortgage and no one is going to give you another.
• You get tired of stuff and accumulating it.
• As all the news is about the same as 40 years ago (just new names and places), you no longer have to care about current events.
• You don't have to care much how you look because old people are invisible in America.
• Lifetime warranties are shorter than ever.
• You can say anything you like and then claim not to remember and maybe not even be lying.
• No one expects much from you.
• You no longer have to worry about getting old.

More?

Reading

Today I read Ursula Le Guin's marvellous rendition of the Tao Te Ching. I have read many renditions of this book over the years. I consider it the root wisdom text from which all others flow or derive.

In addition, it is consummately anarchistic. You can see that much of Le Guin's excellent work, especially The Left Hand of Darkness, The Lathe of Heaven and The Dispossessed are heavily influence by it.

Why don't more so-called feminists know these works? Oh, because they are too busy reading Kate Chopin and Virginia Woolf because they require no thought. Oops, how not PC of me.

Not Again

So many abandoned blogs; why begin another? Well, just to have a place to speak out. Topics? Unlimited. Thoughts? Uncensored. Goal? At least one post per day. This is today's.