The Great Reject: A Robust Resistance to the ‘Bad Seeds’

In a free and fair society, it is the individual who is sovereign, who has the power of determination.  A slave has no freedom and therefore no sovereignty.  Thus, anyone without sovereignty is a vassal, or slave, to something or someone else.  Surrendering one’s own sovereignty is an act of self-harm.  Surrendering someone else’s sovereignty is an act of treason.  And there’s been a lot of that.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” is an old adage we have neglected to our cost.  Much of what is happening now is the result of our ‘sleeping on the watch’, allowing the plague of authoritarianism to slip in under the covers.  So, here is my take on the big, bad seeds we need to dig up and throw on the fire.

First, reject, defy and deride any organization with ‘World’ in its title.

That is, of course, a generalization (though an economic forum, a bank, and a health organization immediately spring to mind), and indeed many more bad seeds are not thus titled, but it’s a practical metaphor and guide.  It says we need to think local, not global.  This will re-establish identity & community, and propagate self-sufficiency.  Growing, making and distributing your own stuff is secure and stable, removing dependency on global supply chains over which you have no control.

The second bad seed is technology.

Not all technology, I hasten to add.  I wouldn’t want to go back to animal skins and berries.  Neither would I want to tell my mom she had to beat clothes on rocks by the river rather than have a washing machine.  Surveillance technology, however, is a scourge.  We are watched almost every minute of the day.  The police will tell you it’s for your safety and for the greater good.  The truth is that fewer crimes per capita are now reported, apprehended and prosecuted.  We also know where surveillance technology leads to – China, and a social credit system.  Reject, defy and deride all public cameras, CCTV, and personal information gathering.

Communications technology is more than a scourge, it is a threat to life.  And while it might be fruitless to ask people to reject, defy and deride it, this may prove essential if the human race and the natural world are to survive.  What would it take for you to throw away your smartphone?  Like Frodo’s ring, it would stick to your hand like glue.  Yet if you read The Invisible Rainbow by Arthur Firstenberg, you may find yourself at the beginning of Frodo’s epic journey.

The great forces of Nature are invisible, e.g., electricity, magnetism, gravity.  We exploit electromagnetic radiation because we can.  And with the advent of 5G, we will finally swamp the whole world with it, from satellites, masts & mini-masts on every corner and perhaps every tree, as well as our mobile devices.  It’s invisible, so it doesn’t really exist, right?  Well, the whole of the natural world functions through electromagnetic impulse.  It’s the way our brains communicate with our bodies.  So, what is continuous exposure doing to us?  It’s the way birds and insects navigate.  Did you ever wonder why the protrusions on the heads of insects are called antennae?  It’s because they’re antennae!  They communicate with each other electromagnetically.  Firstenberg draws our attention to the days when, after a motorway journey, our windscreens would be splattered with insect bodies. Those days are long gone.  Are we confusing and killing Nature?

Even more incredibly, plant life also functions electromagnetically.  The thin, fungal strands you see threading their way through the earth when you dig it up are a mycorrhizal network connecting plant life.  Incredible?  Check out Dirt to Soil by Gabe Brown.  A plant needing some extra nitrogen communicates this to other plants through the underground network.  Life has been talking to life for millions of years, long before we were thought of.  Are we interrupting and destroying these natural processes?  Do you believe the entrepreneurs of communications technology take any of this into account?    Reject, defy and deride 5G.

The third bad seed is the health industry.

The demonizing and ridiculing of natural remedies, herbalism and homoeopathy was propagated from the beginning of the 20^th Century by J. D. Rockefeller, for one simple reason – you couldn’t patent them.  Thus, the sinister marriage of medicine and money was consummated, and the drugs industry was born.  There is nothing wrong with research and development in drugs.  It’s who carries it out and for what purpose.  If vast profits are the driver, then health isn’t the priority.  Indeed, the cynic would say that continuing illness was the pathway to maximum profits.

Good science is based on insatiable curiosity, dedication to a cause, continuous peer review and consensus, practices sadly lacking for a considerable time.  It follows that government must fund research and development, both for drugs and natural remedies, dedicated to wellness and cure.  Reject, defy and deride Big Pharma.

The fourth bad seed is education.

In the words of Socrates, “education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”  Very young children incessantly pester their parents with questions.  The worst thing you can do is to shut them up.  Answer all their interminable questions.  This is the brain craving knowledge.  The more you answer, the brighter they’re likely to become.

As far as I can gather, today’s education curricula are more akin to propaganda and the suppression of curiosity.  Does your average teacher go to school to kindle flames?  I think not.  Rather, it seems factors like critical race theory, gender confusion and shielding from ‘unauthorized influences’ dominate.

Calculators and computers are not substitutes for mental arithmetic or constructive thinking.  The latter two are to expand the brain muscles.  Some of this early on is rote, “hammering in the golden nails” in the words of Laurie Lee.  The rest is, or should be, small discussion groups to stimulate curiosity and questions.  Perhaps the minimum age for a teacher should be 55, ensuring facilitators who’ve been bashed about a bit and know a thing or two.  Reject, defy and deride all education agendas not dedicated to kindling a flame.

The fifth bad seed is the deliberate and systematic suppression of live debate.

I subscribe to the traditional format and sequence of debate, i.e., uninterrupted presentation of a viewpoint, uninterrupted opposing viewpoint, uninterrupted replies from each side, chaired open forum, vote.  When did you last see or attend a debate like that?

Live debate underpins the whole structure of society, and therefore scopes politics, social interaction, economics, educational & intellectual development, arts & culture, robust communities, mental & physical health.  No wonder it has been neglected, discouraged and destroyed, along with the virtual elimination of free speech.

If there was a single policy which really could change the world, it would be to instill a culture of regular debate at every level of society, e.g., in schools, churches, community centers, civic halls, clubs, theatres & other arts venues, and in businesses.  We have to get out there and start talking to each other again.  Reject, defy and deride anybody or anything that tries to stop you having a live, open debate on any subject.