I was talking with a friend in the pub this evening.  He never uses the internet and cast aspertions...unwarranted negativities!...upon the multi-brained head of wikipedia.

So, my first question.  Do you believe in wikipedia?

I quote it a lot, and my assumption is: If it's wrong, go change it!

My second assumption is: in key subjects thus it happeneth.

So, re-tooling.

This is our major task.  Melo's excellent diary reminds us that we already have the technological know-how to reshape our and our children's futures for the better.

So...how to re-tool?

Capitalism

One might think that capitalism will re-tool us.  Maybe it will.  We live in a capitalist age, so all renewable-energy projects live under its shadow--or within the health-giving beams of its sun.

Re-tooling

I note that typing in "retooling wikipedia" gives me...no relevant wikipedia pages that I can see.  "Re-tooling" has google asking me if I'd like to re-spell that.

Which brings us to English, the language.  Do we want English to be the ipso facto default of non-local communication?  I already speak an olde version of english.  I would have to moderate it--I speak a dialect, I mean.  

And I enjoy speaking a dialect.  It is as flexible as the concepts I wish to convey and the pleasures I wish to...be pleasured by.

So, I can also speak italian.  And I reckon, give me a year and I could speak some spanish.

I have a friend who is learning korean.  Can anyone guess why?

I also know a bloke married to a japanese woman.  His japanese hasn't come on much.

Ditto my friend married to a russian.

But we were talking about re-tooling.

So.  What does a company (in this capitalist system) need to re-tool?  Money.  A new direction.  Contracts.  Business partners.

Busy ness.  The ness of busy.

Renewable Energy

Wouldn't that be a great legacy to leave our kids and their kids and beyond?

"Who built that wind turbine?"

"Well, that one was put up by EUROCORE, and it replaced the older model that was put up by CO-PRESIDE...there have been lots, but the original wind farm was set up by a man named Gerald From Patagonia, I think.  It was a foreign name."

The point being: renewable energy!  We have the technological capabilities now.  What is holding us back--and by "us" I mean those who would like to reduce their

MONEY EXPENDITURE

a.k.a. "Capitalists need you to spend money in order for them to make money."

So...renewable energy.

Tell me I have to work one day a week towards the development of renewable energy in the area where I live.

A five year plan that makes sense!

So...politics.

Not from wikipedia...and how can one trust any sources these days?

Why the urge to braininess, and yet the counter urge to ignorance?

Why do so many scientists each such crap food?

Or do they?

The Death of the Nation State

The nation state, sez me, is as redundant--as a concept--as the idea of different "races" with their inherent differences.

All is culture.  Culture is human activity over time, accreted as memories and customs.

Boundaries were drawn on maps after violence.

Those boundaries define nation states.

I think "politics" comes from "polis" the town, the city state, the people--and their slaves!

We need to move our minds, but we think it is easier to move...something else.

Next Monday they ban smoking in english pubs.

Smoking is to be banned indoors because it is a public health risk.

There is no word about the imminent ban on cars.

To ban cars is to ban Capitalism with a capital "Acquire!"

Yet it is clear that, a collapse of society notwithstanding...

Heh heh!

You ban the car, you ban modern methods of acquisition!

"The car is a labour saving device."

Great!  Now why the car and not the trike?

We are stuck in old ways of thinking.

Our fear is that "our enemy" is an old-style, slash and burn barbarian.

But who, these days, practices slash and burn?

And for what reasons?

May I recommend Terry Jones' Barbarians?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Jones'_Barbarians

Viking Heritage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkcxBIbdm5E

Is that a racist movie, an attempt--a move by racists towards a greater understanding?  If I had been born in Tajikistan would I have a whole different view point?

For those who haven't watched the video, the following will not make sense.

1. What is "white"?  When does white become beige, and who's to say?

2. Who is to self-identify as white?  Should they do it by staring at their arm, their nose, their hair, or their physique?

And so

re-tooling

Who wants to put new tools in the hands of eejits?

And who is an eejit?

And how do tools affect behaviour?

(Are you an internet addict, the definition being that you feel physical symptoms if deprived for more than twelve hours?  Or thinking you're cool for waiting fourteen hours and then splurging for eight.)

Not that the internet and cocaine have anything in common, hoh no!

So...re-tooling.

Our societies need to re-tool.  The question is not "To what end?"

Start with "For our survival" and work from there.

The question is: "How?"

And the answer seems simple: those who're rich enough had better start re-tooling, and (your optimistic teacher will tell you) a pulse is a good sign that you have the necessary (but not sufficient) tools to...re-tool.

And treat death as a disease.

And learn a physical revulsion--like an electric shock, and...as long as you have it you're okay!--yes, a physical revulsion to thinking expressed in words that add up to "the death of the other."

When we are all repulsed by "the death of the other", in the first instance:

We will have no more death by human hand.

And who needs a second instance?

When we learn to love ourselves...and then our duty is..no, there is no duty.  Our desires for immortality can be realised in grand gestures towards the future.  They will, I swear!...

Yes, it has been known.

Yadda yadda!