Assange, radicalism and democracy

Here's a question that plagues me from time to time: what good are our 'democratic rights' if nobody uses them?  Is free speech actually worth anything if everyone is too afraid to speak up?  Here's an interesting response from Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, in a Rolling Stone interview:

When people talk about your childhood, the two main words used to describe you are "nomadic" and "hacker." You first got into trouble when you were 17 for hacking into Pentagon networks, as well as several Australian sites. It seems in some ways that you've been engaged in a lifelong campaign against authority.

Julian Assange: I haven't had a lifelong campaign against authority.  Legitimate authority is important.  All human systems require authority, but authority must be granted as a result of the informed consent of the governed.  Presently, the consent, if there is any, is not informed, and therefore it's not legitimate.  To communicate knowledge, we must protect people's privacy - and so I have been, for 20 years, developing systems and policy and ideals to protect people's rights to communicate privately without government interference, without government surveillance.  The right to communicate without government surveillance is important, because surveillance is another form of censorship.  When people are frightened that what they are saying may be overheard by a power that has the ability to lock people up, then they adjust what they're saying.  They start to self-censor.

------------------------------------------ It's amazing to me that a concept like "consent of the governed" now seems so quaint as to be utterly ignorable, should a government choose to ignore it.  I think Assange is right when he says self-censorship is a form of control.

The icebox cometh

Went to visit some friends yesterday - they had just taken their 40+ chickens to be slaughtered.  Feast day is Monday.  Got a call from my farmer a few minutes ago.  We are due for 100 lbs. of pork (1/2 of a pig), 6 chickens and a turkey sometime around the Labour Day weekend.

Food seems to be a common topic of conversation at gatherings these days - how long chickens take to grow, how much they eat, how much meat do you actually need to get through the winter?

We also got a 1/4 side of beef from Nick's family farm a couple of weeks ago, so we're almost set.  We'll have some 'special' cuts to set aside - our first locally grown turkey (Thanksgiving), a brine-smoked ham (Christmas or Easter), and those lovely roast chickens for family dinners when the snow has returned.

Here's what we will get from our half of a pig - give or take a bit depending on the actual weight at slaughtering:

7-8 packages (1lb. each) deliciously smoked bacon (the best I've ever eaten, no joke)
3-4 shoulder roasts (approx. 3lbs each)
2-3 hind end roasts
1 ham (from the hind end, with small bone)
1 loin roast
10 pkgs. pork chops (from the loin, 2 per pkg.)
1 pkg. long pork ribs (party food!)
sausage - from the leftovers.

I've asked the butcher to leave a bit more fat on this time - this seals in the flavours while it cooks and will give me some nice lard to work with for the occasional biscuits or pies.  It's so nice to hear from the people who grow your food, and be able to ask the butcher to leave in the bones and more fat, so that the food will taste delicious and be more nourishing.  I know winter is long but with a store like this I think I can make it through.

I might add that the wholesale price we pay for hamburger is nearly half of what they charge at the corporate grocery store.  And I know there's no pink slime in this beef.  Happy eating!

A "poor" choice of words

Great article in today's New York Times about poverty.  Apparently the US now has more poor people than it did in President Johnson's days (and one in 5 Canadian children is being raised in poverty).

And yet, somehow, nobody will say the word "poor" in public.  Occasionally, people will exclaim "I'm too poor for that," but they're usually not too serious.  And nobody ever, ever, utters the words "poor people" during an election campaign.

Even Jack Layton, champion of the little guy, was always talking about "working families" or "ordinary Canadians."  Which is too bad, because you know what makes some Canadians ordinary?  The fact that they are poor - they don't make enough money to meet their basic needs for food, shelter, clothing and education.

But Barack Obama won't say "poor," and neither will any other politician.  It's a real shame poverty has fallen off the political agenda, given the fact that children are all equal at birth, it's society that makes them unequal.

My sister, Tracy, wrote a great song called "High Class, Low Class," about people who don't get any respect for the work they do.  One of the lines is "You might be on the bottom, and they say that money talks."

Our friends have a twoyear old daughter.  Her older sister was listening to Tracy's cd around the house.  The two year old looked up at her mother and asked "why Mommy? why some people on bottom."  Imagine trying to answer that question.

Time changes all things

Time marches on, and when you aren't paying attention, you turn look up suddenly to find the scenery has changed.  Lately I don't have much patience for speculation or verbiage, so I've been contemplating letting this blog go.  But I'll give it a couple more posts and maybe a redesign and see how that goes.


Today is my first day off in 41 days.  It's been an exhausting, wonderful and productive summer, at the end of a difficult, emotional year (for personal reasons that I am not getting into).  When I have time to reflect on my life, I can't believe the things I've accomplished, on my own, and with friends.  

Consequently, it doesn't give me much patience for people who whine and complain.  It is possible to make change.  It is possible to achieve your dreams.  It is possible to live out the vision you have in mind.  But it will never be easy, nor should it be.  Sacrifice sets us apart.

A man I grew up with, whose opinions I truly respect, told me once that patience was "the willingness to suffer" while you wait for your desired result.  I think when I was younger, I was not very willing.  I was very impatient, and to some degrees I still am.  Although, now that I'm older, I see that good things do come to those who wait - as long as they work while they wait!

I have a real hunger lately for ideas, deep conversation, meaningful collaborations, and incremental progress.  Time is so precious, and it moves so quickly.  And yet, we can do so much to reach our fullness as human beings if we wade into that river, slow it down and let things take shape.

It's hard to say what this fall will bring.  So many things on the list.  But I know we are capable of meeting the challenges, with deep breaths, laughter, tears and a lot of help from our loved ones.