Wow, that was beautiful.

I'm actually in Calafou right now; just arrived so I haven't had a chance
to explore it too much, but from what I've heard from other people it's
really interesting. Looking forward to seeing more.

On Thu, Jun 27, 2013 at 9:10 PM, Amir Taaki <genjix@???> wrote:

> > I'm not often reading political books or fiction. Mostly it's science
> text books or computer manuals. I don't have much respect for the
> leading sentences and weasel words that is so often prevalent in
> political reasoning.
>
> My perspective is based more on practical experience from being around
> different communities over the years. Mike told me his views are more
> from deep thought and reasoning. We arrived at the same conclusion
> from different vantage points. I see this happening around me with
> everyone arriving at the same position.
>
> I want to simplify the political discourse. I believe it's been too
> weighted down by dogmatism and complex visions tenuously drawn out
> from unproven first principles. The truth is simpler. We don't need to
> complicate what we know.
>
> Our society is not natural, and this is now the way people are meant
> to live. It's isolating and degrading meagre living that preys on
> people to shoehorn them into wage work and debt slavery. The more we
> look to gangsters to protect us, the more people will be preyed on.
> You will always be outside that closed circle begging for higher
> wages, shorter hours or better working conditions. Concessions are
> buying your compliance and obedience.
>
> The environment is fucked and we're facing an ecological crisis. The
> system is becoming overbearing and draconian surveillance is
> exponentiating. Mass protest movements from the tea party, Occupy,
> middle east, Brazil, Spain and Turkey are evidence of a balkanising
> world. It's rapidly becoming chaotic, and the only way for governments
> to maintain unity is growing fascism.
>
> When you live in a community (especially political ones), it's obvious
> how the system hates competition. There is always a legal this or that
> to halt any challenges to established order and hierarchy. If there
> isn't, then the agents of the system make something up. Police are
> wilfully corrupt _regularly_. It is not a rare occurrence. They steal
> evidence, instigate violence (and arrest people for assault) and twist
> laws to carry out protectionist action. Am I supposed to like
> gangsters because it's 'their job', or am I just meant to dislike the
> ones that love their job and go way beyond the line of duty (acting
> outside the law).
>
> Right now, I'm convinced it's all sliding downwards anyway. I'm not
> bothered to fight against that. Neither is it worth my time to try to
> convince others to leave. What does feel constructive is building up
> spaces for our people and leaving doorways open.
>
> I really like this project in Barcelona called Calafou. It's a
> techno-industrial ecovillage. They own the land with ~60 apartments on
> there and lots of space. It's a community of people working on various
> projects. They source electricity from the local dam and are
> researching renewable energy sources. You can pay ~150 EUR a month (in
> Bitcoin) for an apartment but it is only "pay for use" - if you leave,
> you get all the money back. But this isn't necessary as you can live
> for free.
>
> The collective administrating it, is called La Integral Cooperativa
> Catalan which helps manage economy. If you want to make money, you can
> do jobs like making marmalade which they buy off you and then sell on
> the market. If you want to start a business, they provide a legal
> interface to the bureaucracy which does things like balance incoming
> and outgoing taxes from all businesses (so you don't have to pay much).
>
> One of the people (Enric Duran) who helped found this borrowed 500k
> EUR from various Spanish banks which he donated to social movements
> then didn't give back to the banks. I favour this idea of taxation.
> Stop complaining about banking criminality, and start re-appropriating
> stolen goods on behalf of the people.
>
> They use the word "post-capitalist" lots, but it's misleading to read
> into that too much. What many Bitcoiners imagine as capitalism is not
> what most people conceptualise. The word is problematic and dividing.
> We would probably term the concept as corporatism. It's not communist
> or socialist to dislike corporations, and favour individuals and small
> businesses.
>
> I see the role of an entrepreneur as a person looking into a community
> or market, getting into the minds of those people and trying to
> satisfy a need. The business is simply a vehicle for sustaining the
> work. It isn't about trying to offer the minimal work for the maximum
> pay scamming off everyone around you. It's about building
> infrastructure, and supporting good people around you to improve the
> lives of people. I like Bitcoin because it empowers this group of
> people (artists, small business, any service).
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