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| Whole Earth Catalog |
Well there I was reading the Guardian this morning and came across this article of Nicholas Saunders an entrepreneur in the 1960s and probable founder of Neal's Yard in London, where you will often find two of my grandchildren. The time when we were young and optimistic and ready to change the world. Where the capitalism of the young was enervating and seeking a better life for everyone. Self sufficiency reared its head and we were off. Sadly we ended up in today's society, miserable at the failure of this society to actually give anything palpably enterprising or encouraging, with the fat cats helping themselves to anything going!
But it triggered a memory, 'The Whole Earth' magazine with its 'Blue Earth' frontispiece. As I read through this Wiki article, names jumped out at me, people I had read, eager to share their knowledge.
Children we knew about systems way before Steve Jobs came on the scene, the books were there as the young tried to create a different world to the tragedy left by war and incompetent men, for women were still to make the scene as entrepreneurs. So 'Whole Earth' started out as a tool magazine but also encompassed a philosophy, a Western one of course, that seems so at odds today with what is happening.
"We are as gods and might as well get good at it. So far, remotely done power and glory—as via government, big business, formal education, church—has succeeded to the point where gross defects obscure actual gains. In response to this dilemma and to these gains a realm of intimate, personal power is developing—power of the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested. Tools that aid this process are sought and promoted by the WHOLE EARTH CATALOG.
I am still optimistic, still read 'Resurgence' and 'Permaculture' magazines because there have been doomsters ever since time began. We should speak out against the things that happen today, even such things as the terrible genocide in Palestine. Even if it does not fit in with the views of our world leaders. We tear our world apart for profit and seemingly for war.
I agree totally with your last paragraph Thelma. I am in the so far slow process of leaving this world and it does grieve me to be leaving it in such a mess with so much hatred and killing. J suppose it has always been so but we have 'progressed' to deadly weapons and such world-wide media coverage that we all know about it in such graphic detail. As to Palestine - I find it impossible to remove the image of those women, children, elderly, people whose whole world has been destroyed. Such hatred and the total destruction is just fanning the flames of that hatred; So many grieving people with no food, nio water, no medicines and I am sure not a shred of hope.
ReplyDeletePat I reckon the world has always been in a mess, its just that now we have constant media attention, and not always necessarily correct. Netanyahu according to the young around me, is just letting this terrible time go on because it keeps him in office. The plight of the Israeli hostages is terrible and not helped by this man.
DeleteI remember the Whole Earth catalogue very well. I never bought it, I just read other people's copies. In retrospect, it was the forerunner of the W.W.W. The world was taken over by Bread-Heads two generations ago.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough my son at Uni doing his computer course had to read an American architect called Christopher Alexander for his books on human design. (A bit like phenomenology) He was also one of the writers in Whole Earth. So in fact system design did peter through on these environmentalists.
DeleteAs John Lennon sang, "You may say I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one..." What Netanyahu is doing is wicked, short-sighted and ultimately stupid. There has to be a way forward for the Palestinian people and that cannot involve Israeli soldiers policing Palestinians. I fear for any Palestinian who is rounded up and incarcerated in The West Bank. Out of sight, what kind of treatment do they receive?
ReplyDeleteDaily I read of operations on Palestinian children having their limbs removed with no anesthetics. It is not only Netanyahu but our own leaders who will not condemn starving people to death. The N.G.Os seem to swarm through my F/B crying out for money but they need more than that.
DeleteI still have my Whole Earth Catalog, it is quietly disintegrating on the bookshelf, I loved reading it, though never did finish the story on the side bars.
ReplyDeleteI remember it as large and unwieldy full of stuff that was strange, it was American format I suppose and didn't last long.
DeleteMy go-to books were John Seymour's Self Sufficiency, and one called Country Bizarre, which I get off my bookshelf regularly. One called The Tightwad's Gazette too. I never saw a copy of the Whole Earth Catalogue though I'd heard of it.
ReplyDeleteJohn Seymour's book seduced you into self-sufficency Jennie, but it was his wife's illustrations that sold the deal.
DeleteThe Backpacker's Handbook did it for me. A week's self-sufficiency in a rucksack.
ReplyDeleteA week is not long enough Tasker, and you can't pack a seed drill and hoe into a backpack.
DeleteAh, Whole Earth. Self sufficiency on a five acre plot. We planned and planned, but it never materialized.
ReplyDeleteNow you would only need an acre plot Joanne, that is of course if you are only growing vegetables Joanne and not animals.
ReplyDeleteChange seems so slow when we are trying to move in the more environmental direction. Probably, because it means that someone loses money.
ReplyDeletePerhaps one lifetime is not quite enough for any big change Tabor.
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