A new society is being created as we speak.

Thanks, I will look that up

 

Outside of the commercial morass there is certainly a thriving intillectual/cultural community alive and well. I believe we are looking at the throes of our humanities collective unconscious surfacing to conscience in a way we've never seen before. While it is something felt slightly below being able to put a real finger on it, it's becoming clearer that we must cross borders and become one tribe of humanity, the tribe of earth.

Strive for greatness and also prepare for the worst.

Here's a couple of links to add to the list towards both of these ends.

http://www.imaginify.org/index.php

http://www.transparency.org/

.... and hey Revo, note they're both org

 

This is all true. Many of my clothes are Salvation Army or home made(not all of them), and my school(Waldorf) has a day every month when we don't buy anything from large businesses. It's easier where I live because of all the organic shops and hemp stores. But thanks for the links.

Peace

 

Hi everyone, this is my first post here.... yeah, so.... hi.
Anyhow, In a month or so I will be permanently leaving my home in Ottawa, Canada to travel about North America, sleeping in a tent, hitchhiking, and surviving by my own wit and skill... I've been planning this out for months, it is basically what I would have as an ideal lifestyle in our world, a back-to-nature vagabond / anarchist sort of thing, except without all of the scary destructive anarchist tripe.
I have a dream (wait, I'm sure someone else said that already) of a world where people get along because of love and the "common good" rather than laws and all that sort of thing.
My plan is to travel across Canada to see my Grandparents in BC and then attend a hitchhiker happening in the Yukon in the middle of this summer, and then once I turn 18 in September, I'll be heading into the states to spend the colder seasons.
Anyhow, the point of this post is, if any of you actually want to start living a somewhat more humaine and natural lifestyle (albeit a nomadic one, at least for the forseeable future) rather than just talking about some sort of a revolution from the comfort of your living rooms (And I don't mean that in a condescending way, what you're all saying is great, but honestly, it won't do a thing).
My email address is lemongait@hotmail.com ... contact me PLEASE if you have ANY slight interest in joining me, or even just knowing more. I can't wait to get to know all of you!

 

I wish I could go with you, but I have people to take care of. Keep us posted

 

Just thought I would update you guys on a few things.

"The Roundhouse" is still up and running and has not been torn down-

Roundhouse

And "Dancing Rabbit" ecovillage is to be featured on MOrgan Spurlock's "30 Days"

Ish.com

Check out their website if you have the time. It really inspires

 

I've been struggling for the past year or so... trying to keep up with my modern-day teen life(movies, video games, etc.), yet at the same time not feed the corprate system. This has been extremely difficult. I need to eat of course(I try to get my parents to shop at local stores instead ofShaws or Price Chopper) and I still often find myself buying frivilous material goods which I have little use for. Luckily I've been making some progress. Yard sales, flea markets, and Goodwill have become my best friends. I've been getting more of my books from the library, borrowing them from friends, or buying them second hand. Sadly though, my art hobby is still supported by major chain stores.

Someday I do want to check out ecovillages. Right now I'm still stuck living with my parents, but perhaps after highschool I can check it out. It seems like a wonderful expierence, though I'm not sure how well a city-girl like me would do out in the country.


Also, I found this article a while back... interesting stuff: http://www.why-war.com/guides/2003/11/politicalshoplifting.html

 

Beautiful thread cobcottage. I actually came across this thread months ago, and it introduced me to Freeganism, as well as some other interesting resources. I might add some links of my own if I have time to compile them.

I would also make a tentative proposal that - if no one objects (..some people might feel it is something which should only be decided democratically) - that maybe this thread could be made 'Sticky'.

 

Beautiful and useful post - thanks

 

Sticky, yes. Great idea. I would definitely vote that this is probably the best thread the hipforums have ever seen. I miss cobcottage though.

 

Hi, I've compiled a list of some more links - hope ye find them useful!

Self-sufficiency:

• Path to Freedom - an amazing site on 'urban self-sufficiency'; really inspiring! A comprehensive set of links as well.
• Plants for a Future - 'a resource centre for rare and unusual plants, particularly those which have edible, medicinal or other uses. We practice vegan-organic permaculture with emphasis on creating an ecologically sustainable environment and perennial plants'. They also have a database with information on 7300 edible, medicinal and in-other-ways useful plants

Unschooling:

• Learn in Freedom - a site really worth visiting ( IMO ), with lots of information on ....well ....'learning in freedom'
• Alternative Learning - 'a worldwide network of Natural Learners, Unschoolers,and support groups, linked together by map.'; some well-written articles too
• John Taylor Gatto -'Challenging the myths of modern schooling'

Free accommodation for travellers:

• Global Freeloaders - a site which enables travellers to search for, and offer, free accommodation
• Place to Stay - another one
• CouchSurfing - 'the world is smaller than you think'

Miscellaneous:

• The Intentional Community Database - someone mentioned Intentional Communities already; this is a paperless database of ICs all over the world

Animal welfare* (..very delicate subject - I might add more links later, but want to give it some more thought):

• The Vegetarian Resource Group

Free computer software and operating systems (to be honest, you'll need a free operating system - such as GNU/Linux, or FreeBSD - to make the most of these resources - but I'll include them anyway):

• Free Community - an online community which offers free computer services, including web-space, a mail account and other things. They have a lot of interesting things going on - definitely worth a look.
• SourceForge.net - one of the largest repositories of free, and open-source, software
• Freshmeat - another repository for free software
• The GNU project - the free computer operating-system project; and it's primary sponsor, the Free Software Foundation
• AGNULA - A GNU Linux Audio distribution; a free computer OS optimized for high-quality audio/music production
• Linux-sound.org - quite an extensive list of tools/software for working with audio/sound/music on GNU/Linux; I also started a thread on this myself, here

Free music (I am only including sites on which the music is actually legally re-distributable - e.g. released under a Creative Commons or Free Art license; or where the author/composer clearly specified that they are ok with people making copies of, and re-distributing, the music):

• Opensrc.org - free music at opensrc.org; the site also has a list of links to other free music sites
• Muzik.agnula.org - free music at muzik.agnula.org
• Artistserver.com - formerly ElectronicScene.com; I think it is perhaps mostly electronic music there still, but people have been adding music of different genres for the last few months
• Hyperion Records Listening Room - for people who like classical music (classical in the 'loose' sense of the word - i.e. pre-baroque to contemporary), Hyperion Records have this page where you can listen to entire tracks for free
• Icecast.org stream directory - a list of what you could call (perhaps for want of a better term) online radio stations; music in different genres
• search.creativecommons.org - search for content released under one of the Creative Commons Licenses
• www.opsound.org - Opsound is a record label using an open source, copyleft model, an experiment in practical gift economics, a laboratory for new ways of releasing music.
• Jamendo - from their website: 'jamendo is a new model for artists to promote, publish, and be paid for their music.' (..all music released under a Creative Commons License)

That'll do for the moment

------------------

Brief Rant:
Something I'd love to see happening in the anti-capitalist/autonomous/libertarian-socialist/counter-culture/whatever-you-want-to-call-it movement - and which I would surmise is actually a necessary development if a viable alternative to the asylum referred to as 'mainstream culture' is to be put forward - is a concerted, intentional effort to develop 'co-operative economics'. I started a thread on Sharing Communities a while ago, which fell flat on it's face unfortunately, but I think these sort of endeavours/projects are badly needed/desired.

I also think that the free software movement, and 'real-world' movements like the FreeCycle network give a 'proof of concept' to the idea of gift economies/moneyless communities. The free advice and tutoring that occurs on online forums/mailing-lists/irc-channels/etc. ( e.g. forums.devshed.com - to mention just one of a countless number ) is more clear evidence that people are often perfectly willing to give their time without receiving anything in return.

Anyway, I didn't mean to hi-jack this thread - if it seems that I did, I'm sorry. I might start another thread along these lines anyway - the more of these sort of discussions the better I think.


(* I'm more of an animal 'welfare' than an animal 'rights' person myself. And 'rights' is a word I feel is bandied (inappropriately) around a lot, even outside debates on concern over animals)