People who want to make money, love addicted and/or obsessed customers. McDonald's calls them "heavy users." Do a Google search on the words: "temptation in every bite," and you will see, for example, that Garden of Eden, the NYC "gourmet" grocery store, has legally designated the phrase a registered trademark. Other corporations use similar phrases to assuage your guilt, meanwhile padding their coffers.
But, just imagine: having a life free from such manipulating forces. This is what a Spartanista Vegan seeks. We are vegans so we've already taken a huge step toward personal liberty. We've pealed away quite a few layers of the onion by now; we've decided, we can think for ourselves! We're willing to believe—and most people are in denial about this—that someone or something out there is trying to feed us a pack of lies, and we're not going to buy it.
Indeed, we've given up meat. But many of us are still encumbered with the self-inflicted wounds of cravings and addictions, which drag us down, way down.
We are here together to support one another, so we can cast off those demons. Ultimately, we seek a Zen state of un-need. And here at the Spartanista Vegans blog we are ultimately here to come together, one by one, to achieve that goal.
For starters, each of us needs to ask: what are our encumbrances? They may have been fostered by corporate (commercial) forces, but in the end it is up to each one of us to shed the power of those forces. For each Spartanista Vegan the answer is different. Are bready, fatty, salty, sugary, savory, caffeinated drinks and foods a problem? Are we in love with our collections (books, shoes, beer glasses)? Do we gain comfort from our archives (papers, CDs, greeting cards)? Are we literally dependent on addictive drink, drugs, sex, or gambling? What about the guy who was addicted to Red Cross rescue missions. He volunteered regularly to be flown from one to the next, essentially completely abandoning his family responsibilities. Some obsessions appear to be good ones but are just manifestations of a workaholic. In any case all addictions, cravings, and obsessions are "crutches" that harmful though they may give us momentary comfort. But each drags us down and keeps us from the job at hand: to discover a new strategy for transforming ourselves so we can transform the world for the better.
Let me say it again: the people who want to take us for all we've got love us to have us debilitated by our cravings and addictions.
Intellectually, each of us knows what is most important. A clear mind and a healthy body. So, first things first. Clean up your own mess (your cluttered, flabby, undisciplined self) before telling the world what it needs to do.
Assignment: Each Spartanista Vegan must today make a list of what he or she must do to free up. What are your addictions? Oh, yes, be honest. The first step is acknowledgment.
Spartanista Vegans: Simplicity, then strength, then power, then control.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
The best resource, so far: TalkingStickTV.org
Our Spartanista Vegans blog is here to inspire. It is here to offer a framework, a plan, a campaign. But before we get to that, we need to spell out our goals. This blog will do that in great detail in posts to come. For now, and in fact in the spirit of simplicity—a virtue for which we hold in highest regard—we offer one single Web address. It will forever be a guiding light:
Talking Stick TV
We hope to add other Web sites to our list to spur us to transformation. For now, this one acts as the most complete. Talking Stick TV best describes the most important issues of our day, brought to us by a vast array of primary-source reporters and actvists. The Web site is massive collection of YouTube videos of people giving lectures and interviews from a boots-on-the ground perspective. The owner of Spartanista Vegans (blog), Pamela Rice, considers Talking Stick TV to be the most comprehensive Web site on the Internet. It is comprehensive in its scope: that is, types of issues. And it is comprehensive in presentation: each linked video is at least a half-hour long, giving the presenter more than half a chance to properly give his or her point of view.
There are over 500 YouTube videos in the Talking Stick TV collection, and Pamela Rice has watched nearly all of them! And because of this effort, Pamela is fond of saying that she possesses the equivalent of a Ph.D. in political science. Pamela could have gone to college for for a "real" Ph.D. But, without augmenting that tour of study with sojourns to the Talking Stick TV Web site, she would contend, she probably would not be as smart—or smart at all.
So, Spartanista Vegans blog subscribers: Share Pamela's passion for Talking Stick TV. Go there. And bathe yourself in knowledge and understanding. Follow Pamela's lead: deeply familiarize yourself with Talking Stick TV. If you retain any addiction at all (and we don't like addictions here at the Spartanista Vegans blog), regularly visit and view the videos at the Talking Stick TV Web site.
Talking Stick TV
We hope to add other Web sites to our list to spur us to transformation. For now, this one acts as the most complete. Talking Stick TV best describes the most important issues of our day, brought to us by a vast array of primary-source reporters and actvists. The Web site is massive collection of YouTube videos of people giving lectures and interviews from a boots-on-the ground perspective. The owner of Spartanista Vegans (blog), Pamela Rice, considers Talking Stick TV to be the most comprehensive Web site on the Internet. It is comprehensive in its scope: that is, types of issues. And it is comprehensive in presentation: each linked video is at least a half-hour long, giving the presenter more than half a chance to properly give his or her point of view.
There are over 500 YouTube videos in the Talking Stick TV collection, and Pamela Rice has watched nearly all of them! And because of this effort, Pamela is fond of saying that she possesses the equivalent of a Ph.D. in political science. Pamela could have gone to college for for a "real" Ph.D. But, without augmenting that tour of study with sojourns to the Talking Stick TV Web site, she would contend, she probably would not be as smart—or smart at all.
So, Spartanista Vegans blog subscribers: Share Pamela's passion for Talking Stick TV. Go there. And bathe yourself in knowledge and understanding. Follow Pamela's lead: deeply familiarize yourself with Talking Stick TV. If you retain any addiction at all (and we don't like addictions here at the Spartanista Vegans blog), regularly visit and view the videos at the Talking Stick TV Web site.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Spartanisa Vegans launches
Who out there is deeply saddened by the greed and injustice all around us? Who out there laments the rape of our natural world? Who out there abhors the chronic cruelty perpetrated against animals in the name of commerce? Who out there is essentially tortured daily by the way the news media cover, rather ignore, the truly important issues of our day? Who out there is confounded by the grid lock in Washington? Why is it that perpetual war is tolerated by us citizens—we, the people? How is it that the crooks, thieves, and bad guys of all stripes have the upper hand in everything there is? Did Obama, our president, actually offer us hope and change and then bring us more of the George W. same old same old?
Why is it that so many people these days (our youth, most perplexingly) are so oblivious and accepting of the corporatocracy that rules our lives? Why are giant billboards advertising national brands in our neighborhoods not regularly defaced with paint?
It's time for a paradigm transformation, people. It's time to look back into history for guidance. Help me out here. The time to capitulate is not now...not now, my friends. It's time for the long view. Time for an overhaul.
If you can count yourself, as I do, as a student of history, you know that terrible eras—such as the one in which we are now yoked—do not last forever. There is hope. But, in order to turn this ugly state of affairs around, we do have work to do...Are you ready? Kiss that lazy ass good-bye. No more hiding in the fox hole.
Which side of the barricade will you be on?
Pamela Rice
Spartanista Vegan #1
Why is it that so many people these days (our youth, most perplexingly) are so oblivious and accepting of the corporatocracy that rules our lives? Why are giant billboards advertising national brands in our neighborhoods not regularly defaced with paint?
It's time for a paradigm transformation, people. It's time to look back into history for guidance. Help me out here. The time to capitulate is not now...not now, my friends. It's time for the long view. Time for an overhaul.
If you can count yourself, as I do, as a student of history, you know that terrible eras—such as the one in which we are now yoked—do not last forever. There is hope. But, in order to turn this ugly state of affairs around, we do have work to do...Are you ready? Kiss that lazy ass good-bye. No more hiding in the fox hole.
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."—Thomas Edison
"The good Earth, we could have saved it, but we were too damn cheap and lazy."Are you with me? Are we going to raise "honor" to its rightful place again? Are you ready to join our fighting force—the Spartanista Vegan Army?
Which side of the barricade will you be on?
Pamela Rice
Spartanista Vegan #1
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