'consume, be silent, die' ... or convert 'the system' to a better idea: your choice...___________ a site premised on the key Enlightenment epiphany, that the pencil is far mightier than the sword...

 "The polis ... was made up of hundreds or even thousands of independent peasant households, which neither paid impersonal dues to a centralised government, nor depended on the state for the means of life.... The equation of the polis with the whole citizen body, even if governmental functions were often reserved to a smaller group, marks it off from other ancient states. All citizens had a share in the polis..."

[From Ian Morris, "The early polis as city and state," in John Rich and Andrew Wallace-Hadrill eds., City and Country in the Ancient World, (London, 1991), p.26]


the objective of this site is to:

1)    offer an annotated discussion & debating forum re. structural pathological/exploitative 'norms', in how 'the system' delivers the inescapable necessities of life:

  • ♦food, 
  • ♦clothing
  • ♦shelter;

2)   promote the broad concept of 'ecopolis,' as the optimal alternative...

  • internal linkI  food forum
    The highest purpose of industrial food-processing is to lower the cost of food. The increasingly impoverished '99%' of consumers are forced to seek cheaper food; so food companies compete to find new ways to lower costs. Just like computer software or cars or any other industrial product sold in the competitive marketplace, there has been constant innovation in industrial food processing to drive down costs. Lower cost is achieved by 'optimizing' absolutely every aspect of food manufacturing, including seeds, soil, farm equipment, harvest schedules, trucks, factories, additives, processes, packaging and more. Another strategy for lowering costs is to offshore the production and processing of foods to China or other countries with low production costs and lax food-safety regulations, or simply buy the ingredients from Chinese companies. 

Beacause this kills you & yours slowly (usually), you tend not to notice ... until its all too late.  

    A sweatshop is a factory where workers are subject to extreme exploitation, including super-low wages, no benefits, filthy or dangerous working conditions, denial of their worker and human rights. Workers in sweatshops typically work long hours for around .25-.60 cents an hour. They are frequently not paid for overtime. When they try to organize unions to demand better conditions, they are often threatened, beaten, and fired instantly. Sweatshops also frequently include other worker abuses such as child labor, dangerous or toxic working conditions, unreasonably long working hours, sexual abuse, beatings and humiliation for mistakes. Most of the clothing and footwear --- and a significant portion of many other products --- that we buy are made in sweatshops in third world countries.
  •  
  • Because this does not kill you & yours physically, you tend to ignore it.
  •  
  • internal linkI  shelter forum
  • "The Australian housing market is a Government run Ponzi scheme set up to advantage governments, banks, developers and the real estate industry at the expense of ordinary Australians."
  • David Donovan  [ the creator and managing editor of Independent Australia]

The life-long crushing mortgage may not kill you physically - but it will destroy your soul.