Creating society for unified action

Philosophy Forums Society, Government, and Economics
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It is nice to hear that your town has a community orchard. There is something similar being tried in a few towns in Sweden as a kind of experiment. There are benefits and drawbacks to a community orchard within a system of greater enclosure but I think it is a positive step. Does that orchard allow residents to plant new crops as well? I think there might be a lack of incentive for one to plant a lot when all that is planted is owned communally (that is the system here) but it might help newcomers find unused space more easily. But planting certain diversities of plants can contribute to the growth of the others within that ecosystem. That you have access to those trees and fruits also gives the opportunities to make cuttings which, if correctly done, can plant new trees from the source, or even plant from seeds, though that might need a green house and extra care unless it was done on a large scale.

I think that if spaces like this expanded it would have a positive influence, or even if these crops with more often planted in yards and gardens. We have also been inspired by ‘victory gardening’ which was done during the war.

We feel that the problem is money as well. Though money is only a representation of our labour and the products thereof. That is why we want to rally certain of the productive industries (mainly the trades, which would be useful in agricultural work as well as construction, maintenance and so on).

What feels unfortunate to us is that some people may be able to have the benefits much more readily than others, because of course with a lot of money things can be done quickly. We have had a positive feedback so far. We have considered that if the idea of the forest garden spreads long enough, it might not be necessary for us to physically spread them to you. As strange as it sounds, we can use nature to spread the forest garden, as that is how vegetation spreads through the environment already. Birds, deers and other animals will ultimately spread seeds of various plants, we are incorporating bee-keeping into our designs which will also help with polination.

Of course, forests are rather being torn down than planted and when they are planted it is generally just one tree which does not help with biodiversity and can even cause diseases in the plants themselves. The plans are just not sustainable. Despite my caring for the environment, I don’t see political solutions as promoting healthy and liveable lifestyles.

We support ourselves with agricultural work, including the sale of our own produce here in Sweden as well as doing various kinds of artwork. Gardening and agriculture have been lifelong passions for us.

22

The “tragedy of the commons” is all too immanent.
But whilst most people consider that fruit picking and jam making far more fuss than paying a quid at the local Lidl then only those that are really keen on quality (myslef) or really money poor and time rich will take on the benefits of a free resource.
I mae jam of such quality that cannot be bought. Time consuming though. But I have to say that most of the fruit goes uncollected.
The future would have to be to turn the world into a garden of diversity. Sadly whilst we are driven by the filthy cash monoculture with its cycle of rape and pillage are going to be the norm. I see no way out of this tragedy.

23

As part of our outreach, if we had access to unharvested fruits we could pluck and distribute them. Ultimately, they will return to the earth as compost and help the land they are on stay fertile, which is good as well. We have also not been good at composting collectively. Of course the packaging and transportation of food products impacts the environment (even formally).

I think that it is difficult when the resources are few and local can be distant for many people. We also want to introduce physical events here, though that would of course be local again. At them we would advocate things like potlock, do free teaching about gardening and growing, as well as harvest holidays. A closer relationship with nature brings back the sense of meaning that many people lack, when you see the fruits of the earth which one’s own hand has cultivated feed one’s loved one’s, oneself, and the nature alive all around us, one feels again the beauty of existence that I think many lack when they live in cities so cut off from a world which is growing and alive from within.

Sometimes we are unsure how to express our political opinions. For example, we believe that one issue is that bank loans trap a lot of people in so that they seek any job, regardless if they like what that job does or stands for. Also, banks effectively own one’s land or business until one can pay back a loan and this causes profiteering behaviour by necessity of survival. Nonetheless, such a position would strike many as highly radical today, though all we wish to do is free them from debt.

We also would like to help people harvest and prepare different forms of preserves, as well as use green energy and natural water sources, which with clean lifestyles can also be self-replentishing. In this way we can cut down on outside expenses and become self-sufficient. That is why the network which we create is important, because if those who produce foods and those who do other forms of work benefit each other mutually, rather than for example turning to factory farms or wholesale warehouses, then the system can reproduce itself.

One of the problems is local vs. international production. It is more cost efficient to produce on mass industrial scales in agriculture and ship them to processing plants. It is also often cheaper as a consumer to purchase from these sources. This is why we feel that the best solution would be international. Forest gardens originally developed in East Asia, but were refined in England to suit a more temperate climate.

Of course another issue is that much production actually relates to mining which is not rather for tools but weapons production. I do not feel like that is within our scope. Each can work from a local position. We don’t think that everyone we engage with will produce forest gardens, which is why we wish to use the university to help integrate different lifestyles and skillsets into our ideas, as well as free up natural space.

24

Having done a little research it appears that the first forest garden in the UK was set up at Wenlock Edge in Shropshire. Not sure if that still exists though. There is, however, something called the Agroforestry Research Trust, which runs a forest garden in Devon.

agroforestry.co.uk/

All very good ideas I think, and I definitely like the idea of a return to more natural ways of doing things, including farming. I would hesitate, however, to believe that our entire food production system could be run along these lines, although it is clearly unsustainable in its present industrialised form. Perhaps a mixed system is probably best.

Schools, and education, are also things that I’m interested in, and indeed, I was part of a group that was trying to set up a free homeschool for its members’ kids, and those of others who were interested, to be held in exclusively outdoor settings and run completely by volunteers from the local Pagan community, and others that they could get in to help. Nothing came of that in the end, but it’s an idea I’d be happy to revisit if enough people were interested.

25

It was a model from the UK that I learned about forest gardening. I think that it will ultimately have a good impact on the environment in the UK. I am also inspired by the 17th century writer John Beale’s work on Orchards of Herefordshire.

We would definitely be more than happy to work with you on developing education programs that can be used by people practically both here and around the world. My girlfriend and I have many ideas and are working on a number of methods both for implementation in practice and texts to be used as guides and to pass down across generations. I think designing these kinds of methods and texts with others is essential, because education is at the heart a social activity, the transmission of our knowledge to others. It is also central to our philosophy that we take consideration of other learning styles and diverse goals in life and try to harmonise them with other people, with our environment, and our personal well-being physically and mentally.

We would also be happy to host any art or texts that people would want to display or sell and would ask for no commission, only that you do honest trading if you use our platforms. We would be more than happy to collaborate with others on artistic, philosophical, or even practical projects if our proximity and resources make it possible.

I also want to offer our forum to any members that would like to join. Our intention is not to steal members from this forum, as we believe that multiple ecosystems is healthy, particularly regarding philosophy. Our forum is designed particularly to facilitate group activities of various sorts. We could, for example, exchange collaborative texts which we would intentionally use for different projects online or jointly. From both our forum, and we could make space on our website, you could host your own websites as well and that way broaden your own network through our own. Our ultimate intention is to get various tradesmen and collaborators involved with active projects and land.

Right now, there is a website called https://www.workaway.info/ where you can host or join other people’s cooperative or volunteer projects. To tie these kinds of projects as well as other non-profit endeavours as well as enterprises with good intentions and practices into a space where you have access to and will enable your ability to act effectively in your world.

Here is the like to our forum for those who would like to view it and join: waderbyorchard.freeforums.net/

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This post was originally written and posted on our blog as a response to the time war: https://waderbyorchard.wordpress.com/2021/07/07/introduction-to-the-time-war/

The not so Secret Language of our not so Secret Society

Some of the symbols drawn: https://waderbyorchard.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/symbols.jpg

When we communicate with each other, it is important that we have a common language. Language does not only entail categories such as English, Swedish, German, Italian, French, and so on. How we use language, and our personal-cultural baggage will affect what any word means to us.

We often group around certain myths and popular culture which we discuss and they become surrogates for our own emotions, experiences, and goals.

Language is a tool, we use it to make a designation, like a signal which we can transmit to one another. In order that we be a society, it is important that we have a common language, mode of communicating and even recognising one another as part of a conscious community. We have developed the beginnings of a language which we can work on together. Feel free to contribute further or discuss them here or at our forum.

These symbols are not exhaustive and come in no particular order:

The Explorer or Traveller is a symbol for our natural existential state. We arrive in this cosmos without a clear notion of what it is, who we are, or how any of it works. We are mobile creatures, always moving about and engaging in activity, and finding ourselves in new situations. In this sense, we are also witnesses.

All of the universe is a Labyrinth, but so are our cities and streets, and the country roads, and forests. Our minds are also labyrinths, as is the great mountain of information existing on the internet, in the libraries and bookstores. We are always wading our way through the labyrinth, but are we finding our ways out of the labyrinth or making ourselves accommodated to it?

Gravity or Black Holes and Whirlpools are inherent in everything. Things gain gravity by having a mass. They attract other things, particular humans. We are attracted by the sight, the smell, the sound of things. We are attracted by the activities and emotions of people, and drawn into their sphere. But though the centre of gravity pulls inward, it is an accumulation of such an extent of energy that the greater the degree of energy which the gravity field pulls in, the more it radiates ripples of energy outward to other mass in the field.

Squidding is a process that humans other objects and beings engage in constantly. The squid communicates on the face of itself, and for that reason must sometimes cloud the waters with ink to hide itself. But like the octopus, with its eight arms, it can grasp at various objects and pull them into its orbit. One can be insquidded by other people, tasks, and distractions. There can be a mutual squidding, when signals are replicated and two beings squid one another into a common orbit.

Shuffling is a technique adopted by a being when faced with the info-glut. We sift through the terrain of our labyrinths and the piles of objects. projects, and information existing all around us. Shuffling returns to importance in cases when we have learned,

Weaving is a visionary process. We must know what we are weaving in order to even begin picking up the threads. To one who does not know the weaving process, when it begins, it looks like a mess of random threads, but as the weaving commences, they become intricate patterns. It is up to the weaver’s skill to be able to weave different forms, and whether those forms become more or less harmonious depends on the weaver’s skill. The weaver must know what material she or he is working with and for what end, and which mode of threading will produce a harmonious effect and which will not. To one who has learned to shuffle, the process of weaving can take on much more intricate forms as new objects, patterns, and dimensions are squidded in.

Symbiosis is a core concept, tied to but not the same as compatibility, consonance, and the like. Symbiosis occurs when compatibility is discovered through consonance. Consonance is the mutual agreement between two forms or beings. It takes place on the level of wave lengths, emotional, intentional, physical, sensory, aesthetic, and so on. The symbiosis occurs as a kind of mutual benefit, which is the expression of not only the nature of our drives, but our capacity to perceive levels of consonance and flow with them harmoniously.

Cultivation is the root of the word culture. We learn cultivation because we want to keep up these states of harmony and consonance. We want harmony with other people, peace, and friendship. With ourselves, inner-serenity, with nature that it be rich and clean and thriving, as it is from our natural environment that we obtain our drinking water and our foods. Our cultures are our processes of cultivation. How we cultivate ourselves, each other, and our natural environment. Our art is our skill.

When we understand the principles of cultivation, then we can enjoy the beauty of the blossom. Our blossoming is an expression of our potential in harmony with ourselves and the world around us. The life cycle of the plant, like that of a human, is a wonderous thing. We can trace its life from a seed to a sprout and a sapling, we can see it bud and bloom and give fruit, and like us they also get old and wither and die. When they return to the Earth, they decompose and give nutrients back to the soil and new forms of life grow. This is the cosmic process of the universe.

The process of nestling our culture in the soil is the process of foundation. It is part of our life’s path to be founders of our culture by creating an ecosystem in harmony with the earth and the greater system of the cosmos.

But now we have our garden and it seems that there should be peace, but instead we discover that there are lions in the garden. The lion is a symbol for all danger and hardship. The garden is but another labyrinth, and in the labyrinth lurks monsters and trails. That is why, the wise understand that this cosmos is not all friendly, but rather we must find a way to tame the lion, in ourselves and in the world around us. We need not make war with the lion, but rather play music to it soothingly. The lions in all their forms are part of our trials in life, but our ultimate goal is a greater harmony and symbiosis with nature and the cosmos.

When we are wandering in our garden, we might stumble upon some record. If it is unfamiliar, it might seem like a riddle, akin to a treasure map. It might even be something as blatant as a sign or signal. Often these records have some effect, perhaps less on us but somewhere and sometime they have been part of the swirling vortex. Maybe now they are trying to pull us in, propel us away, they put us onto certain wave-lengths.

The mirror is a difficult concept. The world mirrors our actions with its response, and we in turn mirror the world with ours. The mirror is also our self-understanding, yet the mirror is also only a replication, and not the original. To think of it another way, the reflection is not the object it is reflect, but its own object. This realisation is akin to the zen parable that the finger that points at the moon is not the moon. If we look into the mirror, being a mirror ourselves, we only reflect back a mirror. Anyone who has every held two mirrors in front of each other will know that the refraction goes on endlessly. It is actually in difference, and not in the mirror, that life takes place. To take a literal example, the screens of computers and televisions are constructed using mirrors.

When we work with others to cultivate, we realize that cooperation makes our tasks easier and go more smoothly. In our cooperation, we discuss our plans and visions and negotiate a common mode of realising our vision, and for this we make our intellectual society.

The Silk Road is the network of connections between all of the locations of our resources and those who work along the silk road to produce the goods which we need to survive, work, and flourish.

Festivities and Holidays are central to us. They mark important dates on the calendar central to how we live our lives and the things which are meaningful to us. When we grow our own crops, then the times of harvest gain a special significance, as does the winter solstice, heralding the return of the sun and the gradual approach towards summer. We celebrate our ability to bring light and warmth in the cold and the darkness, our family, our friends, and those who have come before us and given the inspiration which has allowed us to prosper.

We would like to share our language and our experiences with you. Come and speak to us on our forum and consider being a part of our future plans to spread forest gardens across the world and help each other live a more connected ecological future: https://waderbyorchard.freeforums.net/

27

I like your analogy.

After reading several of your links - I realized that when you say “society” you mean something different than when I think “society”. That is why I thought you might be interested in the architecture concern - it was - as you say - a language issue. :smiley:

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Differences can be destructive, though. Get a bit of antimatter and you get an explosion. Human antimatter like Martin Luther causes a schizm and there follow wars and suffering.
Protestant/Catholic; Sunni/Shia; Socialism/Greed. Opressed “republican” vassals of the King of Norway piss off and found Iceland.
Pissed off slave owners divide from the USA and found the Confederacy.
on and on it goes.

29

I have sometimes considered how I call the project an “intellectual society” and think how we lack an intellectual society. I think that universities are a bit of ivory towers. I say this as someone who was going into academia but wanted my ideas to spread outside. It would be great to tackle that divide. Maybe that is why I think of conceiving a new form of education. If our projects can help yours then feel free to apply or share your ideas with anyone who may come to be part of Wäderby. We are going to be like an arc travelling to different ports both online and offline, and those who want to get on board are free. We hope to keep that arc afloat as long as we can and fill it with garden and skilled and inspired people.

30

I agree. That is why my goal is to bring harmony between things, rather than trying to change them. We have tried to base Wäderby on certain fundamental common grounds of all people, like the need of food and housing and the desire for a beautiful environment to live in, more opportunities, access to people and community for group projects.

31

When I think “society” - I am thinking laws, governance, policies, politics, corruption, power struggles, and the actual real purpose of life (usually being totally left out). I don’t think you would be interested in social structural issues until they became a serious problem - and probably too late to adjust. That is the way most commune type efforts go. Nobody sees the need for a concrete basement until the tornado rips down their house.

The world is in the midst of a soft, soon to be hard, global war. Planting turnips in the forest just doesn’t seem a high priority to me. :smiley:

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Of course we are interested in politics, but we must act by our means within our current means. If you have priorities to deter global war then we will support your efforts wholeheartedly. Of course these wars are funded and manned by those working and consuming within the current military-industrial complex. It will be necessary to create systems outside of that complex in order to transition out of it.

33

Having now reviewed quite a bit of your postings here and on your blog/forum - I must say - you have eloquently written a great deal about a great many worthy topics (your “library”). It would take a while to get through it all but at least it is easy reading (James’ works can get pretty straining).

I keep feeling like I want to say something to you - but I can’t seem to figure out what that is. :-k

From your World as Art piece - I was reminded of this little piece-

Sin in the Eye in the Sky - an Appeal to Gesamtkunstwerk
[list]Aspiring to the sky
A thousand arrows fly
Target pierced throughout
Ne’er one found the eye

Billions not listening
Fearful still hissing
World struggles evermore
Guidance still missing
[/list:u]
It is that feeling that after all is so eloquently explained - something is still missing - specific guidance - the “bully pulpit”.

And seeing how well you lay out issues and priorities, I wonder if you could do a piece on The Pillars of Social Momentum (might take a little deep thought first). I feel confident that would lead to help fill that “something still missing” sensation I keep getting as I review. I’m sure I would have comment afterward - so expect that if you take that road. :smiley:

34

There is no “attraction.” That is an illusion like the illusion of the sun orbiting the earth once per day. You wake up every morning and the sun is “rising.” You watch it move across the sky as the day progresses, until it “sets” in the west below the horizon and all becomes dark again. You’ve seen this every day of your life so you are certain that the sun goes around the earth once per day. You’ve taken pictures to prove it. You’ve denoted times, and positions very accurately. You are absolutely sure that the sun goes around the earth once per day. That is a fact!

No, that is your illusion!

Same as gravity. Gravity is not an attraction. What you are observing is the ILLUSION of attraction.

The sun FORCES the earth to move away from it. The Earth FORCES the moon to get further away.

There is force, that causes things to move away. There is no such thing as “negative force” which you call “attraction.”

Even in the loosest sense of the term, if you are “attracted” to a pretty girl, it is YOU that moves towards her. She doesn’t pull you in, that is an ILLUSION.

35

James resolved how and why gravity works. He referred to it as a gradient induced “migration” - “Forces are farces”. There is no pushing or pulling - but the end effect is that the masses migrate toward each other as if there was a force pulling them or attracting them together.

So I agree that the force is an illusion, but the end effect is still the same as an attraction.

Socially it makes sense that the same happens. People migrate into larger crowds - for a reason. There is no force as such pulling people toward the greater gathering but it is as if there is. We call something “attractive” when our impulse is to get closer to it - regardless of why.

36

James was wrong! I can measure force by standing on a bathroom scale. Force is measured in units of Pounds. it is POUNDS OF FORCE. We measure force with scales, and we have units for those scales.

You can push a hole in a wall with force. You can not attract a hole in a wall.

37

I can see the criticism you’re making, Motor Daddy. It is of course linguistic, but I do think that our words can be misleading and it might be better to choose different ones.

The overall fable in the gravity analogy wouldn’t change in itself, but changing the terminology could deliver to the mind a better understanding of forces. I have some other work at the moment but editting the framework would be worthwhile.

38

I could take that into consideration, but I will always be fallible. People have to realise that their mind is not the same as their sensory capacities but is rather the continuum of consciousness which creates and has access to stored interpretations through memory and cultural transmission. On this level, symbols contain information in an artification manner, as signs which point us forward. You can debate the idea of good and evil forever, but in the end we will have to live the experience of such concepts and battle with them. If I tell people “do seek to know only the good and the beautiful, turn your back on evil and give it none of your energy” they must come to conclusions in their daily lives about what evil and good entail, which options are open to them. One might say, imagine if your moral code was spoken in the mouths of others and acted on, even if it is one of deception, what kind of world do you yourself live in then?

I believe that the reason I have not written such a text is that I feel that this kind of moral questioning, examining the cosmos and universe we live in, is part of a personal journey rather than a dogma. I do not take that to mean that good and evil have no meaning, because we can feel evil done to us and to others. If someone sees evil done and denies its importance then it is become a quality of that mind and its journey.

Make your way by the candle, and know that the good is that which lights your way, and that which is akin to the darkness blends with all that which lives in the shadows.

39

And you can measure the force of pull with a magnet.

You don’t know why forces exist. You don’t know their make. You don’t know where they came from. James did. And he showed why masses attract and why charge polarities both attract and repel and just about every “why” question concerning such things you can come up with. He showed that masses come together due to a subtle migration - and why they do. People gather for very similar reasons. Economies rise for similar reasons. Traffic jams occur for similar reasons. I imagine that when not artificial, every gathering occurs for similar reasons.

It wasn’t about morality. It was about the lack of leadership, mentorship, or guidance. “Sin” - shooting an arrow but missing the mark - making the effort but not quite accomplishing the intent - sin in the eye of the visionary.

40

Magnets don’t “pull” a force. A magnet can’t do work. A magnet projects lines of force in the magnetic field, that form loops that circle around. The “force” of a magnet is not an “attraction”, it is a FORCE, than can be measured.

There is no such animal as a “negative force.” A force is always positive. It can be directional, but that is not negative.

In a tug of war, the rope has people forcing the rope away from the center. Just because the people on both sides are facing the center of the rope doesn’t mean one side is being attracted towards the center. If one side forces the rope away from the center more than the other side does, then they are FORCING the rope to go away from the center, and the people on the other end of the rope, that are getting closer to the center, are being FORCED towards the center. They are not being “attracted” to the center.

Same in gravity. There is no such thing as “negative” force. There is force, that’s it!