Of Mentors and Movements

I've been thinking about the actions I am taking and whether they can fit into a bigger movement.

John Michael Greer's latest piece [update site was taken down, here is a copy.] at the Archdruid Report is on the failure of the Peak Oil movement (maybe one could say the collapse of the collapse movement).

JMG is great about answering his commentators, so I asked

 Do you think there is any hope for a de-industrialization/retrotopian movement framed around quality of life issues? 

So much of modern life is ugly, noisy, and boring. Spaces can be made that are the opposite of all of those things and then be used by the home economy as a way to pay for the space and it's joy. 

Or do you think as long as there is a great fear of some competitor taking their status, most people really can't see that truth (after all, reading Walden shows that people have had the opportunity all along, eh?)

To which JMG replied

it would have to be handled very skillfully, to keep from going the way of the voluntary simplicity movement, and being turned into a sales pitch for "simple" products. It might well be worth trying, though

Then by coincidence I stumbled across Vinay Gupat's  fictional piece The Unplugged.  It's an excellent read.

So the real question is whether I am ready to stop being just an individual and be part of a movement?  Or is more correct to ask if I need to pick up the ideas of my mentors and put in the work to make them movements?

If the answer is yes in either case, then the best place to start is in making Norman weird, and, of course, in corrupting the youth.

My Translation of the Daodejing

I am working on a translation of the Daodejing.  It is a side-project, and so no promises as to when it will be done.  Also, at least for the first wave, I am selecting my favorite passages to work on.

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Daodejing 4

Dao is empty
Its use never exhausted

It is an abyss
From which 10,000 things spring

It blunts sharp edges
unties knots,
and softens bright glares

Becoming one with the dust,
It is an endless pool

I do not know whose child it is.
Its workings are prior to the first Ancestor.

Daodejing 3

3
When "superior people" are not glorified
People are not disappointed
When rare objects are not treasured
People do not steal
When what people desire is not shown off
People's hearts are not confused

Therefore the sage rules by
Emptying hearts and filling bellies,
Weakening willfullness and strengthening bones,
Constantly directing people to be knowledgeless
and desireless,

Instructing the "knowledgeable" to not dare too much,
And, in contrast, practicing wei wu wei
so all things are duly regulated.

Daodejing 2

2
Everyone under heaven recognizes beauty as beauty
and so ugliness exists.
All recognize good, and so bad exists.

Is and isn't grow out of each other
Hard and easy complete each other
Long and short test each other
High and low are interdependent
Sound and voice harmonize
Beginning and end make each other possible

Therefore the Sage
Practices wu wei,
Carries on wordless teaching,
Creates 10,000 things without instruction,
Rears them, but does not make claims,
Influences, but does not oppress them,
Accomplishes, but does not take credit
So accomplishment endures.

Daodejing 1

1
Dao called Dao is not the eternal Dao

Names that can be named are not eternal names.

Nameless: the origin of heaven and earth
Naming: the mother of 10,000 things

Truly, "rid of desire, one can perceive
the Wondrous."
With desire, one can perceive only outcomes.

These have the same source, but different names.
This source we call Mystery
Or more mysterious than any mystery.

The gateway to all wonder.