Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
For many years now, I’ve been talking with folks about universal basic income and the need to divorce health care from employment and other ideas to assure that everyone can meet the basic needs of their bodies. Our current system is, shall we say, not working. Most people agree that we need to change things.… Continue reading The Wages of Wages
How do you own a tree? What part of “tree” are you controlling? Where are the property boundaries? Do you own all the elements that contribute to your tree’s continuing existence? There are vast fungal networks feeding your tree, creating essential flows of nutrition and information between the visible tree and other organisms both above… Continue reading Tragedy of the Uncommons Part 2
In which an irate witch preaches hellfire and damnation… (well, sort of...) I’ve been obliquely addressing the debacle in Eastern Europe, talking about all its varied causes without talking about the thing itself. This is partly because I don’t want to watch yet more innocent people die for the economic agendas of a few psychopathic… Continue reading An Outburst
It’s coming round to the time of equinoctial balance. In the north, this means spring. The Sap Moon is waxing and the maples are starting to show some signs of waking. Where I live it is still white and cold, but there are rumors of daffodils not far south and down by the coast. I… Continue reading Balance
There is a long and perhaps self-evident entanglement between unlimited property rights and violence. Violence is, of course, necessary to the right to destroy or kill, and private property — full ownership — will brook not even these extreme limits. In fact, to exercise and maintain unlimited property rights is to systematically employ death and… Continue reading The Violence of Property
Today, Ash Wednesday, is the beginning of the spring fast, Lent. The name lent derives from an Old English word meaning “spring season”. Other languages name this 40-day period before Easter with words that derive from “fasting”. We can see from these names that Lent is not merely a season of preparation for the Christian… Continue reading Lenten Fast for the Planet
Today is Town Meeting day in Vermont. For the uninitiated, this is the day when Vermonters pack themselves into school gyms and various meeting halls to vote on town governance for the upcoming year. Officials are elected. Laws are debated and passed. Budgets are assigned. If there are complaints or disturbances, these are given voice… Continue reading Participatory Democracy
In response to "Conservative, Not Racist", I received a wonderful email from Kent Craig of Queensland, Australia, describing his continuing deep dives into received "wisdom" and what he's brought up to the surface in that process. He kindly gave me permission to share. I think it clearly shows that one doesn't have to have a… Continue reading A Happy Correspondence
I’ve been working on my notions of private property for weeks now. Actually, one might say that I’ve been trying to determine my relationship to the concept of owning property for much of my life, though the recent activity was inspired by ideas on property ownership presented in The Dawn of Everything. But this idea… Continue reading Tragedy of the Uncommons (Part 1)
My neighbor is a writer. He does about one column a fortnight for a local paper and has written at least one novel. He said something in a recent article that has been rattling about in my head for weeks. He observed that he is a conservative, white, old man and yet not a racist.… Continue reading Conservative, Not Racist
By My Solitary Hearth 