‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/19, 24th May 2022:
‘Silent Spring’ (1962) (‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.13)
An historically significant book, its hypothesis proven right, its message undimmed by the passing of six decades – and yet it is so seldomly discussed today.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/18, 19th May 2022 2022:
The ‘Right to Food’ Revisited – The Cost of Living Crisis & the Coming Crash (‘The Metablog’, No.21)
The media is exercised by the ‘cost of living’ crisis; but they’re ignoring the greater structural economic trends that are driving it – and thus the difficult questions that these trends raise for our future.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/17, 6th May 2022:
‘Rules for Radicals’ (1971)
(‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.12)
In this review of ‘Rules for Radicals’ I’m not going to list those ‘rules’. Nor the oft-neglected list of ‘means and ends’. That’s because, if you read the book, that’s not the point of these lists. Alinsky’s philosophy is broader than that.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/16, 1st May 2022:
Minster Lovell Hall & its ‘Romantic’ Graffiti (‘Banburyshire’s Ancient Sites’)
Minster Lovell Hall has a surreal quality; especially if the weather adds to the atmosphere. It’s a classic ‘ruin’, but at the same time you can see that centuries of less reverent visitors have scrawled graffiti over many parts of it. More then anything, it’s just an ethereally beautiful place to visit.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/15, 28th April 2022:
Kelly Kettles and the Practise of Zero Carbon Cooking Outdoors (‘Long Walks & Anarcho-Primitivism’, Part 6)
Metal containers for boiling water are ‘ancient’; but what do you think ancient Greek (their word, ‘kotyle’) or Roman people used to heat their pans? Electricity? Kerosine? Compressed petroleum gas? Heating water is foundational to human society – a technology that defines us. How do we maintain that skill in an increasingly uncertain world?
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/14, 18th April 2022:
‘The Awakening Moon’ (sunset & moonrise time-lapse) (‘Banburyshire Rambles Journal’, No.2022/3)
I was uncertain about this one. I made it for myself, but wasn’t sure about sharing. However, having slept on it, perhaps others will find it pleasing too. A time-lapse of the setting sun and the rising ‘Pink’ or ‘Awakening Moon’, Saturday 16th April 2022.
Go to the rambles blog to see the full set of pictures from my walk.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/13, 13th April 2022:
‘A Short History of Progress’ (2004)
(‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.11)
This is the last in a series of three ‘techno-critical’ reviews, examining the excuse that underpins the whole project of industrialisation: ‘Progress’ – examining Ronald Wright’s 2004 book that, 18 years later, still provides well-observed (if bleak) view of the future.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/12, 8th April 2022:
‘A Frosty April Dawn’ (sunrise & dawn chorus) (‘Banburyshire Rambles’)
A lovely frosty Sunday morning, out on Bretch Hill to the west of Banbury, to watch the sun rising over Crouch Hill; then looping around the woodland near North Newington to hear the dawn chorus in the woods.
Note that there is also a 1-minute YouTube short version available.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/11, 29th March 2022:
‘My Name Is Chellis and I’m in Recovery from Western Civilization’ (‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.10)
This second in a techno-critical review trilogy might seem unrelated to the previous book on ‘The Luddites’, and yet it provides the same kind of criticism from a completely different angle – that of ecopsychology, and the trauma that the modern lifestyle creates for many of those subject to it.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/10, 23rd March 2022:
The deeper meaning buried in the data on carbon emissions – A Data Blog (‘The Meta-Blog’, No.20)
Rarely is there such a thing as, ‘just numbers’; too often people see the ‘magnitude’ not the ‘meaning’ that those numbers convey. Here I explain how a graph can show more than just raw numbers, and what that tells us about why change is so hard.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/9, 16th March 2022:
‘Rebels Against the Future’
(‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.9)
In the late 1990s, on the back of the rising and soon-to-burst dot-com bubble, the media often featured Kirkpatrick Sale. His 1995 book, ‘Rebels Against the Future’, presents a detailed history of the Luddite movement, and what that historic movement represents to our ‘modern’ society today.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/8, 11th March 2022:
DIY Oat Milk Versus the Eco-geddon of Shop-bought Plant Milk (‘An Anarchist’s Cookbook’, Part 5)
Contemporary ‘consumer’ veganism has an over-packaged/over-priced credibility issue. This is especially true of plant-based milks, and their impact compared to ‘DIY’ options. In this post I explore how you can avoid this by making your own oat milk – cheaply, easily, and with minimal waste.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/7, 9th March 2022:
‘Venus, the Crescent Moon, and a Blackthorn Winter’s Dawn’ (‘Banburyshire Rambles Photo’, No.2022/2)
Wednesday is the new ‘Sap Moon’, and right now Venus is the ‘Morning Star’. I decide to get out early as the two should be close together, sitting on the dawn horizon. Leaving the road at Weeping Cross I find the ground crunches beneath my feet – there’s a good frost just to add a little spice to what will be a clear, bright dawn!
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/6, 28th February 2022:
‘The Conquest of Bread’ (1906)
(No.8, ‘A Book in Five Minutes’)
Peter Kropotkin’s 1906 book doesn’t just challenge the power elite. At its core it challenges the general approach of ‘the left’, and the left's infatuation with lofty ideals rather than the basic needs and conditions of the people.
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An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/5, Imbolic 2022:
‘Ancient Roads and the Wroxton Fingerpost’
(Part 5, Long Walks & Anarcho-Primitivism)
There are events and periods of history that are not talked about; they raise difficult, political questions about that history. Viewing how the past has created the world as it is today, with all its perceived faults, can be a journey into that unspoken, ‘taboo history’.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/4, 1st February 2022:
‘Fuel Poverty, the Cost of Living Crisis, and Climate Change’ – A Data Blog (‘The Meta-Blog’, No.19)
Finding solutions to immediate problems and our future needs requires some difficult decisions, and if not thought-out, short-term thinking might create contradictory responses.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/3, 19th January 2022:
‘The Deep Ecology Movement’, Bill Devall (1980)
(‘A Book in Five Minutes’, No.7)
Forty-two years on from its publication, Bill Devall’s paper and its clear critique – now realised in the predicted failure of the movement to make change – deserves a much greater audience.
Click here to view the blog post for this video
An audio podcast of this blog post is available on the page.
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/2, 16th January 2022:
Welcome to Ramblinactivist's YouTube Channel
"You have to do an introductory video", I was told. "Really", I said. "Yes, it's expected", I was told. "Fine", I said. "But as Sid Vicious said sneeringly, I'll do it my way".
‘Ramblinactivist’s Videos’, 2022/1, 1st January 2022:
‘Winter Solstice Plus One’
(‘Banburyshire Rambles Journal’, No.2022/1)
Another dawn, another frost, and hence cause for another walk. Except this time there’s an added impetus: The Winter Solstice.