Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Messages - richard ford
Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 ... 13
31
Marriage and geography.
Most men intend to marry at some point of their lives because we have an innate desire to continue the species. This is fortunate as western women seem to be intent on their own extinction.
The question of when to marry comes down to your choice of location. If you intend to live your life in one of the feminist countries the you will need to maintain your wife in another country.
In order to be a good father and husband it is not necessary to live within the same home permanently- it is only necessary to be able to offer stability and permanent commitment to the child.
Unfortunately no father in the feminist countries can ever do this. Fathers are sperm donors and nothing more under feminist law so no child can ever be sure of her fathers love. It follows from this that no man who intends to fulfil his destiny as a father should ever marry under feminist law. The question of when to marry becomes a purely financial one- when and how he can finance a family abroad.
Fortunately exchange rates work in the favour of men in the west. A man can marry as early or as late as he wishes because no loss of freedom is involved- he may continue to live in his own home and spend time among his own sex. He is not neglecting either his wife or his child. The wife can know that she will be supported while the child can be sure of a lifelong relationship with his or her father. In fact the child can be more sure of their fathers presence than any child in the feminist world because it is in the mothers interest to allow access. In the west it is always in the interest in the mother to destroy the family.
Men. If you value the family have nothing to do with western women!
If you love your child make sure you are not married under feminist law. You will lose your child.
If you love the mother of your child- do not marry her! This is the surest road to divorce!
32
My current interest in magical experimentation began only about ten days ago as a by product of cleaning out a cupboard in my kitchen. I could no longer live in a disordered home that had been alternatively burnt, wrecked and furnished by a woman with increasing mental problems. Have you ever been in the company of an unhealthy person for a length of time? Mental ill health is infectious. This is not to say that a healthy person will become mad by infection but he may be dragged down in life by them. He will lose something of the pleasure of life and become bogged down with petty issues, thoughts or feeling s that he would otherwise overcome with ease.
This is rather similar to the sensation of living in a home in which a sick person has imprinted their personality. All the time he continues to live in this environment he will continue to be affected by it. A mans thoughts influence his immediate environment and his wider life in equal quantity- and his success in the wider world will influence his mental state. In this way we can see that a triangle is formed between a man's private emotional state, his living conditions and his role within wider society. This is the basis of many magical practices that aim to find a man a new girlfriend by moving a houseplant six inches to the left or right. This makes a good filling for Sunday newspapers and woman's magazines but is largely simplistic nonsense. Despite this, I think the basic idea behind Feng Shui is correct (that there are energies that move around a house). These may be directed to a degree in order to do whatever is required of them. No demons or angels appear in clouds of sulphur when we do this- we simply find ourselves in a place that feels like home and our life begins to somehow 'go right'.
What is the exact opposite of the destructive forced ranged against us? Is it anger? Defiance? Revenge? Do we really want these things in our home at all even if they are justified? Erin Pezzy talks of a 'will to health' which is the greatest determinant of who gets over trauma and who does not. The greatest problem my wife had was not her mental illness but the fact that when unhappiness came calling she would invite it into her life. She had no 'will to health'. In my own case I had every excuse to give up on life and humanity in general. Suicide was attractive for a long time but I never invited misery into my life. Even when it had me on the floor with its foot upon my neck it never became my friend.
I therefore resolved to use this elusive thing the 'will to health' as a basis of my repair programme. I started to build order in my kitchen. For days I would beaver away with no visible result. It is quite easy to organize a flat where everything has a proper home. All that is needed it to return things to their proper place. My own flat was different- there was no order, it was (and still is) a mad environment full of wreckage, stagnation and unhappiness. I would pick something up and have no home for it at all (many cupboards have been pulled from their walls and so on). I would then notice that it would only work when paired with another component that was missing. Half a day would be spent in search of that other piece until it could be finally be placed proudly upon the shelf. This was the speed of my work but slowly a single point of order emerged.
While I was engaged in this endless task I was fighting my way through various emotions. Everything I touched seemed to speak of some misery I had allowed to be visited upon myself. I was filled with a rage- not at my wife- but at myself for allowing it all. How was it that I had come to value myself so little? I still do not fully understand this even now but I found it was suddenly easier to deal with the external problems she had created for me. The Inland Revenue were demanding money and documents that she had long destroyed. Suddenly they were willing to accept estimated figures.
Just out of curiosity I bought a compass and walked around the flat measuring the area out into exotic sounding Feng Shui zones such as five killings and helpful people. I used these as guides to moving things about and found the results generally feel 'better' than the old arrangement. This process continues.
I have not proved anything particularly conclusive but my life is moving forward in leaps and bounds. It could, of course be coincidence but I will test it by finding out how far I can take the process.
Any scientific test requires a set criterion for success. Here are my criteria.
By October 15th I will have done the following.
1) Achieved a 40% wage rise.
2) Resolved all of my marriage related conflicts. (Tax, mortgage arrears, lack of credit ext).
3) Be in some form of healthy relationship with a woman which may or may not be sexual. Simply being able to deal with a woman as an equal without accepting things I would not accept from a man would be a step forward. Working with a woman and receiving the same respect she gives her female friends would do.
There is no real information on the internet as to how to do this. I will have to find my own way forward and this is my start.
a) I have today visited the Natural History Museum and Fortnum and Mason in London. From the museum I bought some crystal eggs (one of quartz and one of rose quartz) they are quite beautiful and intend to use them to mop up some of the bad atmosphere in the flat. Quartz is supposed to have the ability to store and transmit mental energies in much the way it does for radio waves. I bought some tea from Fortnum and Mason (the same brand as used by Prince Charles they tell me). This comes in a beautiful wooden box that I will use to protect my quartz from ultraviolet radiation. This is alleged to prevent the crystals being wiped clean.
I will keep the crystals by my bed as I cannot close my door between the bedroom and the rest of the flat. The aim is better sleep.
b) I like the 'feel' that comes from the Thames on one side of my flat. The other side I am less keen on even though it faces countryside- there is something slightly disturbing about it all although I have no idea why. Possibly I do not like the fact that some windows face me even if it is from some distance. It is not a strong sensation but it has always been present. I will find out if there is an easy cure.
33
I am writing a series of articles called 'experiments in power' and I knew the point at which most people would lose me would be the subject of magic. Most people who discuss magic on the internet are lunatics but I will press on anyway because I have had some strange experiences and would like some intelligent views on what it may all mean.
Whether we decide there is a subject for study among all the nonsense or not we should understand what practitioners of magic think they are doing as the majority of them are female and feminist oriented. The most violent and mentally unstable people of both sexes tend to be attracted to magic (which tends to destabilise them further) but it is overwhelmingly a female trait.
I think one reason for this is that magic aims to influence people and events by indirect means- and women are the great masters of the indirect approach. Wicca also offers a new level of victim hood and female comradeship on top of the great quantities issued as combat rations by the feminist movement. This would seem an unattractive area within which to compete with women- irrational, emotion based, covert and secretive and often quite mad. Yet we should at least have a look at what they are doing on a 'know your enemy' basis- magic seeks to find the hidden levers of the world and control it by covert means. This is just what feminism has succeeded in doing.
I have come across magic and strange occurrences on a number of occasions. I will list them here in chronological order and see what you make of them.
1. Travailing home from London by moped I had a strong mental image of pills lying on the carpet of my mothers bedroom. Upon arrival I found that she had been taken to hospital following a drug overdose. I had no forewarning of this as I had been away for a while and it had been many years since her last attempt.
2. On a number of occasions I have known people who have suffered from persistent but quite minor illnesses. On each occasion I have laid my hands upon them and a mild tingling sensation developed in my fingers. The subject either became groggy or passed out altogether and reported the end of their symptoms.
3. I bought a deck of Tarot cards to chat up women (they love anything that is about them). These proved to be so accurate that I ceased to use them and became afraid of them in a way- they foresaw all of my subsequent problems but also told me I had a limited capacity to deal with truth. I naturally ignored this!
4. I became a full time rescuer of a very violent and abusive woman who was burning candles that she bought (with my money!) from a voodoo practitioner. She took about £27,000 from me, broke many bones including my skull on many occasions. She would set the flat alight and destroyed everything within it. During this period I became so emotionally crushed that I did nothing to prevent this. Our time together consisted of intense emotional abuse coupled with sleep deprivation. For two years I supported her until she stabbed me in the neck and was at last arrested. During this time I did everything I could- down to the last atom of my strength to help her and it was the emotional exhaustion that damaged me more than anything else. The question arises- why did I put up with it? I have read the psychological explanations (my life had set me up to accept abuse from self destructive women) but keep on thinking of the candles. When I was finally taken from the flat with a knife wound in the neck I sincerely hoped that I would die so that I would not have to accept further abuse from her. Yet I continued to try to help her even then!
5. When one is involved with someone who is mentally ill one starts to feel ill oneself. Part of the pride that was keeping me there was the idea that I had infinite reserves of strength to draw upon and I now realise this was not true. I became afraid to returning home after work and was also suicidal. I was also not dealing with any aspect of my life other than her. She would open my mail and delete telephone messages intended for me. Problems were closing in and I was finding them harder to deal with. My wife enjoyed presenting herself as victim so I would be justifying myself to everyone all of the time. On occasion men would arrive to threaten me. I then did something rather strange...
Without knowing quite why I did I drew a circle in my living room with my middle finger and then swung around with my palms faced outwards. I could feel a definite jolt flow through my body and the atmosphere of the flat cleared almost completely (it was tense and very stagnant prior to this- almost like a blanket smothering the face). That night when she returned she stabbed me for the last time and was removed by the police. All hell broke lose in my life in every other way too. Everything that I had not been dealing with presented itself at my door demanding solution.
6.Once I began divorce proceedings I became aware of how stacked things were against me. If a dog is burnt or stabbed then the owner is generally punished. If the victim is only a man and the abuser is a woman then the woman will be rewarded financially. I became depressed because I had been operating in a state of constant emergency until that point and had no time to feel anything. I felt an iron claw drag me down each morning. This began to lift and I removed my mattress because it had been stabbed and slashed by my wife. Underneath the bed I found a collection of used tampons and inscriptions written in blood. Menstrual blood is a staple of feminist 'woman's magic' once these were cleared away I recovered quite quickly.
7. I was denied legal aid while my former wife was given it is vast quantities. The divorce dragged on for two years until I bought a book on magic (aimed at women like all such books) and adapted a process within it. My wife dropped her financial claims against me on the very same day.
All of these phenomena have alternative explanations. In particular points 4, 5, 6 and 7 rely upon a link between private events and larger public events that cannot be proven objectively. Nevertheless I find it odd.
The techniques I intend to use are very gentle. It is easy to generate a vast amount of emotional energy and send it off (BANG!) to carry out some task. This is rather like detonating a bomb in your own home. Incident 5 changed everything around me without discrimination and destroyed as much as it created. I need a gentle process right now and will let you know how I do.
34
Experiments in power. Copyright Richard Ford.
If we agree that women have more power in our society than men we must look to how they attained it so that we may also have our share.
We find that women are obsessed with the indirect use of power in a way that few men ever understand. Women's magazines seem at first sight to be obsessed with shopping and emotional self indulgence but this turns out to be nothing more than aspects of the real obsession- power.
Beauty is a road to power, not only over heterosexual men but other women. Women are resentful of other beautiful women but admire them too. They desire admission to friendships and circles they basically despise- they resent women who have more sexual power than themselves but are drawn to the power itself. This is what gives so much female friendship its treacherous character. Women are drawn to wealthy and powerful men not merely for the wealth and power, but to prove their own sexual power to their friends and rivals. The cost the woman pays for this tactic is that she is forced to pursue men purely for their trophy value to other women- in other words she engages in a strange game of double bluff by which she tries to guess the men that her friends and rivals would want. Yet her friends are playing the same game- they are putting on a front as well. A woman who wishes to succeed in this game must obtain the man her friends would admit they wanted- a choice partly determined by their efforts to play the same game! In this way women become enmeshed in a hall of mirrors and may lose sight of their own sexuality altogether. This is not the disaster it would seem to be from a man's point of view because she is not seeking sexual or emotional fulfilment from a man but power. She will have more power the more easily she can walk away from a relationship.
This is one reason a woman will sometimes stop you if she is enjoying herself too much in bed- she does not wish to open that aching void of need that would end her power over you but offers some chance to be an authentic human being.
Power is not therefore a cost free pursuit for the woman. It occupies most of her waking thoughts and many of her dreams at night- it is not even necessarily always a bad thing. Many criminal men have been saved by the love of a woman- one of the better power games around. The chief cost to the woman is a lack of spontaneity and authenticity- she is never truly herself because she is always engaged in a power play whether she knows it or not. This is why woman's magazines are always engaged with two contradictory notions. Firstly they are engaged with a search for the self- many magazines are even called names such as 'Self' 'Me' 'Woman' and 'She'. The pictures consist almost entirely of other women and approximately half the articles relate to the woman discovering her needs and wants or true nature. The other half consist of efforts to avoid the self that she discovers. Her body is regarded as a problem to be solved as is every imaginable personality fault. In other words the magazines offer the destruction of everything she is as a solution to her imperfect life. In this way a woman can be persuaded to enter upon a continual seek and destroy mission by which she discovers new needs (emotional, sexual, financial) whenever she looks within herself. She is then encouraged to look for problems to remove in order to obtain this ideal life or identity. There is always a boyfriend to be changed or disposed of , or some girlfriend to be shafted. The underlying solution is always the same- more power and the woman is willing to overcome her true nature in order to obtain it.
Sooner or later the woman will become aware that she has lost herself. She is running a programme in every department of her life- yet she no longer feels 'real'. This will set her off once again on the search for herself but will find only another illusory ideal of herself and another set of things to change. The basic error in all of this is to place ones self upon an alter and worship it. This will (paradoxically) result in the loss of the self as it is displaced by the ideal that is worshiped and must be worshiped by all others.
So far I have simply tried to explain women's worship of herself and her obsessive search for power. Women now have the power but have lost their souls. They have become empty shells, machines bent upon the acquisition of more power but with no idea what to do with it.
Men can learn from this process. We must obtain power without losing our humanity. Here is a list of ways in which women gain power.
1) Special pleading. Women will always claim the need for special help. Men should not be so proud to do the same.
2) Looking after ourselves. Women look after themselves and value their health far more than men- this may be why they live longer.
3) Magic. Many, many women engage in magic. It is an egotistical system concerned only with the woman's wants unlike male religion which has concerned itself with the overcoming of the ego.
I have had some strange experiences by which woman have used magic against me- the experiences are not conclusive and do not quite make sense when told but seem to indicate something is going on. I will carry out some tests and report back. It is important not to let the tail wag the dog however.
35
Feminism and global warming. Copyright R Ford.
Feminists and environmentalists find themselves on the same side of most barricades because both greens and feminists look for greater government intervention in society. Greens hope to create a sustainable society by ensuring that industry and individuals reduce their call upon natural resources by (for instance) recycling or using renewable, non polluting alternatives to present technologies. It is hoped that most people will be enthusiastic about these changes but the green movement is constantly seeking new laws to compel change- there would be no need to create a green political movement at all if being green were a purely individual matter. Feminism would seem to be quite similar at first sight- feminism is an effort to escape sex roles that some people find do not suit them. Despite this, men and women remain more or less in the same roles they have always been. Men work more hours out of the home while women work more hours within it. Despite this, feminism has become received wisdom throughout government and the media- the only place that you will find an opposing view is the internet. Every time existing reality is shown (as opposed to a feminist view of what human nature should be) it is regarded as sexist and censored. Feminists therefore find themselves calling for greater power to censor and control just as greens find themselves calling for more and power to ban harmful chemicals. It is this that is fuelling the partnership between greens and feminists rather than any objective interests both groups share.
In fact I argue that feminism and the green movement are objectively at cross purposes to one another. For one thing, feminism has resulted in more and easier divorce- and more homes as a result. More homes mean more heating, more CO2, more everything. As a result more waste is generated and more ready meals consumed in front of the TV. This creates an illusory sort of economic growth because the labour that goes into a TV meal is measured in the GDP calculations the government make each year because it is included in the price of the meal. This helps to inflate the Gross Domestic Product without raising living standards in any real way. A family meal with someone you love is more nutritious, more emotionally satisfying and better tasting but does not have the same effect of artificially boosting GDP. The break up of the family is therefore the worst type of disaster- an invisible disaster that even appears to be a success.
More broken homes mean more fatherless children. This in turn means more crime and social problems- which also boost GDP in a perverse way. When a father helps keep a child decent this is a free service and not one that appears on the national accounts. When a father is driven from the home and works as a policeman or a social worker this same labour suddenly 'counts' and is added to the GDP.
We know that something is very wrong with the way progress is counted in this country when we are told that Britain is the fourth richest country in the world (in absolute terms- not per head) any yet everyone we know is in debt. The answer to this little puzzle is clear- most of the economic growth that makes us appear so rich is simply an illusion caused by the break up of the family. We find ourselves in an affluence trap by which we must work harder and harder to pay our debts. We grow richer on paper while working ourselves to death and barely getting by.
One result of all this is environmental destruction as we are forced to make and consume rubbish. We eat meals that taste of plastic from plastic boxes, brought home in plastic bags and paid for out of next months wages with a plastic card. We know that our plastic lives are killing us but we cannot stop because we cannot have less than we have at the moment- we are only just surviving as it is.
In short, the way to preserve the environment is to save the family. The way to save the family is to create laws that remove all incentives for its destruction.
36
Brown Doc Martins. Copyright Richard Ford.
Do you have any unwanted brown shoe polish in your home? I bet you do. It tends to come with the black in shoe cleaning kits and yet men do not have brown things to use it on. This is a shame because brown shoe polish stains better than black- it has some sort of artificial die to it so the shoes do not scuff much. Furthermore because they are brown they can get dusty without looking to scruffy.
I have decided to buy a pair of brown Doc Martins to wear on my days off. They will go some way to paying for themselves.
If you wonder why I am bothering you with such trivial news you are missing the point. Saving money is all about detail, detail, detail. Money can never be saved 'in principle' - it can only be saved in specific ways.
Every week I will do this- find some small way to make my life cheaper and easier. Each week I will tell you what I have done and you will either take my advice or not.
Perhaps you have your own ideas.
37
Breaking the spell of the National Lottery. Copyright Richard Ford.
I am very opposed to the National Lottery for two reasons. First of all it is a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. Many working people live lives of quiet desperation, hoping for overtime so they can clear last months credit card bill. Trying to save for a holiday (or more likely pay for last years holiday.) This is not absolute poverty because most people live quite well in material terms- but it is a poverty of hope. It is difficult to face life if all it offers is the nine to five for forty years and then death. It is possible to spend half the year dreaming of holidays- but permanent escape from work is what most people dream of.
Poor people are not stupid. They are fully aware that the chances of them winning are small- but they need to dream and can see no other way out of their situation than winning the lottery. The poor enter into the deception willingly because there is simply no way to face life without hope- no matter how unrealistic.
This mugging of the poor is shameful but what follows is even worse. The lottery is run by the liberal elite who use the money to further their own objectives- publicly subsidised opera and ballet plus politically correct measures that are directly opposed to the interests of the white working class people who pay for it all.
The way to break this addiction is to find a useful substitute.
Premium Bonds also give hope- but encourage saving rather than gambling.
www.nationalsavings.co.ukThere are free internet lotteries that you also will not win.... But neither will you lose because they are free. In fact I have won a total of £160 from both sources so it can be done.
www.bananalotto.co.uk
38
Supermarket loyalty cards. Copyright Richard Ford.
The high street and most of industry is still living in the 1950's and believes that all household shopping is done by suburban Stepford wives while 'real men' have no interest in food until it reaches their plate. We can tell this because of the relentless focus upon women by advertisers and the denigration of men- if advertisers knew than most men shop they may stop insulting us.
Strangely, they have no excuse for not knowing this. They have loyalty cards. I suspect that some men do not bother with them very much or value their privacy more. I think we should all start collecting our points like women- and write in every time they insult us. In this way they can see what they are loseing.
Some supermarkets will send discount vouchers by email- register for these and make it clear you are a man. Join Ciao from my website and fill in paid surveys- this will make men's needs and opinions even better known.
Silent no more.
39
Ciao! Copyright Richard Ford.
Some message boards will pay you to post your opinions. This may seem too good to be true but interesting opinions draw people to websites and advertising can be sold off the back of this. You will probably never make a living from this- but then again it has been done. The secret is to find the right board and to be intelligently active.
One such board is Ciao! This board seeks opinionated people to rate different products or services they may have used, sharing their opinions with potential buyers. Unfortunately nobody will pay for men's rights opinions as such because reading such opinions does not fill one with a desire to buy anything. Advertisers can be fairly sure that people reading reviews of digital cameras (for instance) are quite likely to buy one at some point so are willing to pay for even unfavourable reviews.
Predictably this activity is dominated by women at present. Women love to shop and they love to talk- Ciao combines both activities so it is bound to be a hit with them. There is nothing preventing us from getting involved ourselves, and the very minimum it will achieve is the following.
1. It will put some money in the pockets of men. Probably not a great deal but every little helps.
2. It will make the needs and opinions of men known to the wider world. It is pretty clear that industry, advertising and government is pandering only to the needs of women. This is because women are more vocal consumers than men.
3. By joining through my website
www.underground-railroad.org.uk you may support my site at no cost to yourself.
4. Membership entitles you to place a little information on yourself that may be read by other members. Remember to mention your favourite men's rights organization!
5. Best of all- it is all completely free!
40
I do not get particularly angry with people like John. All they do is blow with the wind and look after their own careers- and at the moment the feminists have the money.
This will change and all the Johns will flock to us. They will be our most loyal supporters when we come to power. Our progress is not dependent upon them and they lack the courage to stand against us.
The flunies of the establishment are nothings- people without courage or souls. Just ignore them.
41
Protecting the strong against the weak. Copyright Richard Ford.
Legislation often presents itself as protecting the weak against the strong, but more often it is the other way around. Let me give you an example...
Suppose group X has sufficient power to push forward favourable laws to protect itself from group Y. This can only be done by claiming a special victim status for the protected group- in other words it can only be done by reversing the truth completely. If group Y were really so powerful and aggressive then it would not have been possible for group X to have used the force of law against them- in fact it would have been worked other way around. The more obsessed society becomes with 'equality' the more unequal it becomes. Religions are among the richest and most powerful institutions in the world yet they are now protected from 'hate speech' while you and I are not. Why are you and I judged to be less vulnerable than the mighty religious organizations with there legions of lawyers? The truth is they are protected because they are powerful- not because they are weak.
We have the mighty feminist consensus that fathers are disposable. Any man who loves his children is looked upon as possessive or even a pervert. He will find it hard to work in any government job or large company with government contacts. In short he faces ruin for the simple crime of being a father. How has this come about? Money. The money flowing into family destroying bodies is colossal. Every time a family divorces then the money is divided three ways not two. The family home will be sold and lawyers will get the greater share. The father will be made homeless and the children are made fatherless. In time the children are more likely to commit crimes, take drugs or fail in life. All of these problems involve payments of public money to the privileged liberal elite. It is this powerful group that will rule out of order any attempt to save the family because this would end their power.
The destruction of the family is an ecological disaster as well as a social one. It creates more households and every expense is doubled. Two cookers, two TV's two everything. Twice as much power consumed, twice the land, twice everything. Britain will not get its CO2 emissions under control unless it reduces the total number of households- and it cannot do this unless it saves the family.
42
I quite like reading feminists rage against us. It proves we worry them and I am dissapointed that she did not rage against my own site.
We will have more and more of this as time goes on.
43
Mankind advances on two fronts. Copyright Richard Ford.
Mankind, the UK men's charity is working on two projects that will do more to help men and fathers than anything it has ever done in the organizations history.
Mankind is seeking funding for the first hostel for battered men in the country. The best way to make this happen would be for everyone who reads this to join as an active member. This would give the organization 'clout' to be taken seriously. The real reason men are not taken seriously in government is not that we cannot prove need- it is that we do not join things. Please join mankind this year, ideally as a life member at £500.
The other front is in parliament. The Labour party is now the only party that supports discrimination against men in child custody. Not only that but we have many Labour MP's who support equal parenting despite the official line.
When an MP considers whether to defy the PM he considers the political cost. Will defying the whip earn him friends as well as enemies? He will be far more likely to stand up if he has a mass organization on his side.
This is another reason it is vital that membership doubles over the next year. Please help if you can.
www.mankind.org.uk
44
How to help Africa. Copyright Richard Ford.
Africa is in fashion again. A potent mix of first world guilt, relative prosperity and the lack of any alternative ideological or religious outlets is brewing. Good people everywhere have decided to 'save' Africa and Africa should be very worried.
There is no greater waste in the entire world than a good person who does harm accidentally. Human goodness is to precious to waste in this way.
When we read someone working eighty hours a day in a sweatshop for a pittance our first instinct is to boycott whatever product is being produced. Yet why should anyone seek work in such a sweatshop anyway? They must be escaping something even worse (hard as this is to imagine). If we throw them out of work they will have to find other work for even lower rates elsewhere. The poor need more sweatshops, not less.
Furthermore the great advantage of sweatshops is that it transfers wealth to those who work- which is fundamentally democratic. Aid programmes increase the power of 'experts' over the lives of working people. It places money in the hands of politicians and makes them more powerful. Even if the money is not stolen it will certainly be used for political advantage. If we want to increase the power of ordinary people we must find ways to put money in their hands directly rather than allowing this to be controlled by those who would be their masters.
I believe we should help the poor and not the rulers. This means giving the poor power by allowing them to trade directly with people all over the world. No matter how much money we may give them in aid we cannot give them independence because the money will always be handled by someone else. Only trade can liberate the individual. Yet the greatest friends of the poor have set themselves up as the enemies of trade.
We should open our markets to poor nations but cut our aid budget. This will feed the poor directly while denying governments the cash they need for social engineering. Unfortunately fashionable opinion says that we should do the opposite- but when did progress ever depend on fashionable opinion?
45
Men's Environmental Network- a progress report. Copyright Richard Ford.
I have written about the need for a 'green' men's movement and the need to make sure that it is more than one more protest movement. I want men to move directly towards a solution to these problems rather than simply point out what should be done (a very easy and cost free option on the internet).
Furthermore I believe that I am now in profit! Consuming less of the worlds resources should always save you money- anyone who tries to sell you an environmentally sustainable lifestyle that costs more than what you are paying now is a conman. It is rather as if you were in a café and were not particularly hungry- you ask for small portions and were charged more as a result!
The great advantage of this approach is that it is possible to start very small and then grow. If you have a garden of piece of land then create a composting system so that the ground becomes more fertile over time. You can also enjoy delicious, free food while getting more exercise.
Unfortunately I have no garden so I must start with what I have. A few years ago I invested in a wind farm (that turns wind into power). I received tax breaks for doing so and also receive a good dividend. This money was reinvested into a second company that sells ecological products by post. One of the benefits of this is that I receive a discount on my purchases of twenty percent. I am buying a 'T Wave' (which used to be called Tsunami Wave) that bounces around in the washing machine and supposedly means that no washing powder is needed. I have bought a steam cleaner that makes a frightening noise but can clean anything in the home without chemicals. I hope that both of these things will save me money in the longer term but this is only a side product- the main profit is that my home is emptying of chemicals and I am poisoning the world less. I am using a toothpaste tube squeezer and shaving with a brush.
The 'men going their own way' philosophy is about being free of entrapment and complexity. This comes in many forms- some legal, such as marriage, some emotional such as dependence upon women for approval. We have entrapment due to debt and entrapment due to materialism. Living 'green' can help to free us from the need to own things. If managed well it will also free us from debt.
I will let you know how it goes.
Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 ... 13
