EPCWEB The Art of Business and the Business of Art

April 2002

Vol.2 No.4 · April 2002

Feature Article

April 2002

Eclectic Artists Publishing.

The Food Web

Sections within this article:

1. Paradise Lost?

2. Beyond Hunters & Gathers

3. Patent Lies

4. Golden Harvests

5. Summary & Conclusions

We first learn about The Food Chain at about age eight. It is not really difficult to understand the basics, so why do adults seem to have such a hard time with the concept? Answering this important question may be the key to our ultimate survival.

The modern business community has extended the ‘food chain’ metaphor well beyond the image of a little fish being swallowed by a bigger fish which is in turn swallowed by an even bigger fish. In today’s parlance, the ‘economic food chain’ encompasses everything from militarial-industrial control of raw materials, to global trade agreements controlling labor and ‘acceptable’ levels of environmental degradation, to ‘supply chains’ governing flows of goods from component manufacturers to final sales and distribution. The consumer is the theoretical top link in this chain, but the unbridled profiteers are actually the top dogs as they ultimately swallow the labor, resources and net earnings of the entire society.

While science long ago replaced the simplistic ‘chain’ model with the more appropriate imagery of interconnected ‘webs’, the single dimension provided by a chain is nevertheless a good starting place for rudimentary discussions (which is probably why the corporate “K.I.S.S.” asses continue to rely on it). So before we go any further let’s review the basic Food Chain. (In the following example, we follow 100,000 units of sunlight energy to see how much ends up at the top of the food chain.)

The Sun bombards the Earth with a wide spectrum (array of colors) of light photons. (It is important to remember that, except for geothermal energy vented through the Earth’s crust to which highly unusual life forms are bound, the Sun is the ONLY source of life-giving energy on the planet.)

The Earth’s atmosphere filters out some frequencies (e.g., the ozone layer blocks many harmful ultraviolet rays, although less and less nowadays), but the red wavelengths are absorbed by special blood-like molecules (chlorophyll) within plants, thus beginning the reductive process of photosynthesis which allows plants to build energy-ladened sugars using just carbon dioxide and water (with the help of a few other readily available compounds), and the major ‘waste’ output of these plant reactions is oxygen. Algae and plankton undergo the same processes in the oceans. Therefore, plants are the fundamental layer of the Food Chain. The amount of energy stored by the plants is measured in Calories and this is ultimately the ‘only’ energy input for all ‘higher’ life forms on the planet (namely, animals ranging from insects to humans).

Some ‘higher’ life forms have a diverse array of input options so, for example, a small fish may few alternatives if its main dietary choice is in low supply. But a salmon might choose to eat this fish before swimming upstream to mate, where a bear catches and eats it thus consuming the net collective energy of the entire food chain to that point. So the sun’s energy flows from plants (primary producers) to herbivores (primary consumers) to carnivores (predators). Predators themselves are typically denoted as primary, secondary and tertiary, indicating their increasing rank in the energy flow. It should be obvious that the lowest levels of the food chain should be most prolific, while the top of the food chain has (or should have) the smallest populations, since it takes 10 carrots to feed one hungry bunny, and several bunnies to feed one hungry wolf.

At the top of the chain in every eco-system are ‘super predators’ (like a bear or a shark) who themselves lack a superior predator. Humans are the ultimate super predator, and our choices for energy input span the plant and animal kingdoms. We might even choose to use our ‘superior intellects’ (and thus technologies) to shoot and eat the super predator bear, or net the predatory salmon, or systematically harvest eggs from domesticated chickens, gather wild berries, or cultivate rows of crops. In fact, our technologies (as well as our diverse dietary adaptions) allow the human species to routinely violate the natural laws which would otherwise keep our populations small (since we are at the very top of the food chain).

It is important to note that all biological ‘wastes’ are also captured and re-used by an array of so-called ‘lower’ life forms. For these life forms, our wastes (outputs) are their foods (inputs). For example, we use oxygen to breakdown the calories we have consumed, and output carbon dioxide (used as an input by plants) and other partially decomposed bi-products. Various bacteria breakdown our solid and liquid wastes, eventually returning them (and even us) to the air, soil and oceans. No stored energy is ‘wasted’ (with the notably temporary exception of ‘fossil fuels’ which were living remains entombed cataclysmically before nature could finish its job). Whenever an energy-rich by-product begins to accumulate, some struggling life form evolves into that niche, thereafter making all or part of its living by utilitizing that unused resource.

We can see that, while complex beyond our full comprehension, the cycle is complete, balanced and dynamic. We need now only imagine the ‘chain’ as a ‘web’ where all life forms are constantly looking up, down and sideways for a better, cheaper, more efficient way to make a living in this crowded and competitive world. The complexity of this web can be imagined when we consider that there are often symbiotic relationships between otherwise independant life forms (for instance, there are symbiotic bacteria which live in our digestive tract and help us digest our foods, and which are sometimes killed-off by certain antibiotics taken to cure another ailment, which in turn leads to unpleasant intestinal side-effects from those drugs… we need each other in order to survive). Then contemplate that even minute details of this stunningly complex dance are designed into the DNA of each of the various living organisms on this planet — in response to billions of years of collective wisdom regarding patterns of day and night, lunar tides, weather, seasonal variations, available niches, competitive pressures, potential symbiotic partners, and even some random variations on the theme just in case things change. That is a basic picture of the Earth’s ‘Food Web’.

Paradise Lost?



There was a time when the Earth seemed vast compared to our populations. In such a world one could dream of a paradise where foods grew in natural abundance and people needed only to casually pick and eat their fill whenever the urge struck them. While this has nearly always been a remote dream in the the Northern latitudes, for a time various inhabitants within tropical zones did indeed experience such luxury. We have even speculated that such relatively easy living conditions led to the documented differences in culture between the more laid-back ‘people of color’ (where sunshine and energy-rich foods were abundant) and the ever hard-charging, technology-driven ‘pale skins’ of the frosty Northern climates. So (he says with a wink), perhaps humankind’s chance for paradise was lost when Europe’s forefathers chose to forge technologies allowing them to continue to grind it out in the cold rather than simply retiring to the Carribean? But that is all in the past and there is no going back.

Today we face another major crossroad in human history… but this time the risks are of potentially Biblical proportions. Just as the ‘Garden of Eden’ mythology of western religions warns of the dangers of arrogantly eating the forbidden fruit of knowledge, which ultimately led to humankind’s expulsion from Eden, modern industrial leaders are driven by their greed to arrogantly tinker with the very genetics of our food web. The hubris of this act is most apparent when we consider that the genetic code (DNA) which controls Earth’s food web was created through an elaborate and delicately balanced process over billions of years, whereas Mendel only postulated inheritance of traits 150 years ago, science did not even discover DNA until 50 years ago, and the first full DNA sequences were only completed at the turn of the new millenium, but only for a handful of species, and only for a tiny number of samples in each population! The genetic code for each organism contains billions of codons (letters or digits) to decode! DNA Science still has NO idea what all those gene sequences code for, or what function the proteins created by those genes might serve, or the complex interplay of those genes in the development and function of the organisms, muchless the sequences for all the planet’s species, to say nothing of how those genetically coded proteins and functions interact with other species, including viruses, parasites and symbiotic organisms living in and around us. To be brutally honest, we are still discovering hundreds of new species of organisms each year, and we estimate that we are extinguishing dozens of other species each year before we even discover them, so we don’t even have a comprehensive understanding of our macro world muchless the microscopic world. We are mere intellectual babies in this mature world of nature’s web. Yet, this is the backdrop upon which our rarely trustworthy profiteers are heeding the advice of the snake and greedily devouring apples! As Peter Gabriel sings in his prophetic mini-opera, “Supper’s Ready” (1972), “666 is no longer alone. He’s getting out the marrow in your backbone!” In the name of gold, a select few are ignorantly and brazenly modifying the very foundations of not only our food supply, but our very biology. Do not forgive them, for they DO know what they do.

Beyond Hunters & Gathers

Historically, humankind’s food web evolved from opportunistic ‘hunter-gather’ methods of survival to domestication of live stocks and cultivation of seasonal crops. Thus we began down our slippery slope of apparent technological control, bending the world to our own will. And thus began our ability to increase our population beyond the inherent or ‘naturally balanced’ carrying capacity of our environment. Then we developed storage technologies (processing grains into meals, salting, drying, canning, and eventually refrigerating, freezing and dehydrating) which smoothed out some of the feast or famine cycles, thus increasing our populations even more. When we began to trade foodstuffs we entered yet another era of technology and moved another step beyond evolved nature, again allowing our populations to expand dramatically. Looking for another use of its family’s main product (petroleum), circa 1960, the Rockfellers promoted ‘Green Revolution’ technologies which used newly-developed petrochemicals to increase crop yields in starvation-prone Asia Minor, thus turning India and similar countries (temporarily) into net food exporters… until their well-fed populations then exploded to once again outstrip their own ability to feed themselves. (Indeed, populations of all life forms tend to expand to the upper limit of their available food supply.)

Today, technologies not only allow us to have any food at any time of the year, but to modify the look, taste and texture of that food; to process one food into something that looks and tastes like another; to eliminate most forms of competition for the land, water, nutrients and developing crops or animals; to harvest, process and distribute food so efficiently that we must waste it or warehouse it (e.g., diary products), or otherwise limit its production or distribution so as to protect the ‘market price’ of what financiers now cynically refer to as commodities. The typical lament of a farmer today is that we have become too good at producing food; so good that many farmers can not make a living without subsidies on water, subsidies on production, subsidies on marketing and distribution. Yet still, there are always industrial players hawking new technologies each year, supposedly to further increase yields, and to further eliminate natural and economic competition, regardless of what effects are wrought upon our air, lands, seas, ecologies, cultures, or even our individual or collective futures.

As a case in point, in the early 20th century, farmers netted fully 60% of the retail cost of their goods. Today, with massive corporations (such as Monsanto, Dow, Cargill, Archer-Daniels-Midland, etc.) oligopolizing both farm inputs and product markets, small farmers are lucky to net anything at all. Most family farms have closed down over the last 20 years. Only the biggest fish backed by the power of governments are surviving in that economic spider web.

We have become so ‘efficient’ at food production that most people are completely disconnected from the reality of their food web. A recent poll revealed that a majority of people thought our food comes from ‘a supermarket’ rather than from ‘a farm’! No wonder our diets are atrocious, our bodies test positive for an array of known carcinogens, our shelves are filled with fillers, and our minds are numbed to the terrifying threat now facing us: the premature release of genetically engineered (GE) or genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) into our food supply and environment at large.

Professional apologists and industry’s public relations firms cite the long list of humanity’s technological accomplishment, as well as the ‘selective breeding’ techniques employed even before Mendel’s doctored evidence, to argue that gene-splicing and genetic engineering is simply a more efficient method of doing what mankind has done for hundreds or thousands of years: Distilling the best traits and eliminating the worst traits in crops, animals, etc. While the “etc.” is cause for worry in and of itself, the argument is patently, scientifically false. Cross-breeding involves natural genetic mechanisms at a macro level, thus if we are breeding for increased milk production then ALL of the myriad genetic changes necessary for that increased production are brought along for the ride. Adding, removing or modifying specific segments of DNA through chemical or viral ‘surgery’ is like letting a novice computer user modify a few connection on the circuit board of a network server: Not only would you NOT expect the machine run correctly afterward, but you would have little or no way to guess where errors might show up. Thus, bank balances might stop adding up, e-mails might be mis-routed, ‘buy’ orders might become ‘sell’ orders, and when calling a friend in France you might get an ATM in Sydney. If this server was able to build its next generation based on its own modified blueprint you’d soon have an entire generation of whacked-out network servers. But the real nature of recombinant DNA is even scarier than that because the flawed generation of network servers would have a 50% chance of screwing-up every new network computer ever created from that time forward! Thus, the inventors of Starlink Corn (GMO) are at a loss to explain why butterflies are dying in and around their fields. The truth is simple: At this stage of our scientific understanding, commercial development of genetically engineered life forms is a like a network of pandora’s boxes which we are letting a bunch of selfish, greedy and relatively ignorant children play God with. In the name of sanity and humility we should immediately forbid all commercial development and environmental release of GE/GMO foods (and all other GE/GMO life forms, including biological weapons still being invented and tested by our own government). These should be highly quarantined and never released until we have a much more comprehensive understanding of genetics, molecular, cellular and development biology, and the Earth’s overall web of ecological systems.

Patent Lies

Beyond the sheer terror and arrogance of our premature rush to develop and market commercial GMO’s are the ridiculous positions taken by the investor-interests of biotechnology firms. They argue that they should have complete private control of profits derived from technologies built using government and university-sponsored research, with no licensing fees paid to the public or educational institutions upon whose work the commercial developments are built, and without which there would be NO commercial development at all. Worse yet, they argue that they should be allowed to patent DNA sequences, even those which are largely (99.9999999%) based upon pre-existing forms of life! Ultimately, these biotechnology firms intend to own and control every piece of genetic code, and every form of “new and improved” life on the planet. Investors are salivating at the idea that they can receive a recurring licensing fee for every drop of food grown every year, without the real work of tilling an acre of soil, planting a single seed, watering, weeding, harvesting, or selling a single pound of produce. Here’s a post-Orwell nightmare: Imagine a world where soulless and impersonal transnational corporations own and control even the DNA within the tomatoes on your table.

As if those greedy and one-sided arguments were not bad enough, it gets worse, much worse. Monsanto recently brought suit and won a large dollar award against a Canadian rape seed (canola) farmer who re-planted his own seed which was harvested from his own fields! Hold on to your hat to understand the facts and implications of this chilling court ruling in this age of rampant ‘globalization’. Monsanto does not sell its GMO ‘Round-up Ready’ canola seeds (which are engineered to withstand the otherwise deadly chemicals in Monsanto’s Round-Up broad spectrum herbicide); it LEASES the seed. Under the terms of the seed ‘lease’ a farmer pays for the right only to use the seed for one year. The farmer is NOT allowed to harvest and seed a percentage of his crop to plant next year’s crop. He must buy new seed from Monsanto every year, or negotiate a fee for re-using second-generation seeds he harvests at his own expense. Already we can see how Monsanto intends to corner and control this entire market. However, this particular farmer refused to lease Monsanto’s GMO seed at all, preferring instead to plant his own “non-patented” seeds harvested from his previous crops. But the winds of change they are a’blowin’… and so too are the pollen grains of Monsanto’s patented ‘Round-Up Ready’ crops. Since some neighboring farms DID use Monsanto’s seeds, cross-pollination was inevitable and lo and behold some of the farmer’s next generation seed had indeed incorporated the Monsanto-patented portions of the genome. On this basis, Monsanto claimed that the farmer had ‘stolen’ their genetic engineering and violated their patent rights, ultimately winning their full licensing fee, plus the entire value of the farmer’s crop, plus additional fines and expenses ($145,000 in all)! This court decision sets several frightening precedents including: (1) Anyone with a patent on any form of DNA need only wait until natural genetic distribution mechanisms occur, and they can then claim rights to all forms of life then incorporating those attributes (whether or not the unsuspecting recipient wanted those genetic modifications); (2) The marketing department only needs to directly solicit upwind farms, then let nature do the rest of the work for them, guaranteeing rapid ‘saturation levels’ of market penetration; (3) There is absolutely no way to prevent such cross-pollinization or the future licensing fees thereafter demanded; (4) Bio-tech firms like Monsanto should be able to corner the market on the lowest levels of the food chain within a decade or two, thus subjugating all of humankind beneath the claws of their self-serving licensing schemes.

Once a patent is issued, patent laws allow the owner to demand any fee and any terms they desire for the life of the patent. Since patents are only good for 17 years (in the U.S.), we can expect “new and improved” crop patents every 10 – 15 years, with rapid cross-pollinization occurring immediately after initial release. But industry experts are expected to insist that consumers will still have a choice: They can choose not to eat.

Finally, we must remember that saying “I’m sorry” does not always set things right. While our governments have apologized for their mistakes in allowing the Savings & Loan swindles, the Vietnam war, $27,000 military coffee-pots, and innumerable other blunders, how sorry will they be (and how will they remedy it) if they allow greed to introduce devastating and irreversible changes to the genetic codes of life? News flash to the arrogant new Gods: The planet is not your personal laboratory playpen, and humanity (not to mention the rest of the Earth’s species) are not your guinea pigs!

Golden Harvests


Thus far, we have not even touched on the myriad other problems associated with the “new and improved” modern food web. There are the disgusting factory farming techniques with livestock and poultry. There are the biological dangers of massively overdosing commercial animals with antibiotics, thus creating many new drug resistant forms of disease. There are the growth hormones from livestock showing up in our milks, cheeses and meats and ultimately in us, proportedly causing an actual acceleration in maturation of entire pre-pubescent populations. There are the toxic and carcinogenic petrochemicals routinely coating our foods and fixing themselves within our bodies and environments, causing severe levels of ‘collateral damage’ (to borrow the military euphemism). There are the many documented health problems associated with our highly-processed and chemically-doused foods. There are the over-salted, stripped and raped soils, now dependant on massive watering and fertilization in order to produce any yields at all. There are the insane Federal laws prohibiting the cultivation or consumption of numerous natural substances while sanctioning secrecy and deception for dangerous man-made products (aspartamine masquerading as NutriSweet, Monosodium Glutamate – MSG – based products trademarked as “Natural Flavors” on consumer labels, and a legal definition of “organic” which is as ‘double-speak’ as anything in Orwell’s 1984). There are the billions in annual taxpayer subsidies flowing largely to giant agri-corporations while fewer that 2% of our population can now make a living as a farmer (while 100% of our population continues to eat food). And there is the culture so removed from the basis of life that everything, it seems, is taken for granted. Even our individual liberty.

Yet, rather than dwell on those details (many of which are explored excellently by John Robbins in “Diet for a New America” and “The Food Revolution”), let’s consider what steps we can take to avoid weaving a such tangled food web that our banishment from Eden will look like a picnic. (All puns definitely intended.)

Change Our Diets! It has been said that it is easier to change a person’s religion than it is to change their diet… but we can easily change our own diet. Try mostly organic, unprocessed and largely vegetarian fare for 6 months and see how you like it. We think you’ll agree that it is relatively easy, fun, creative and (surprise!) delicious. In a ‘free market’ economy this is the surest way to bring about change.

Grow Organic Crops! Like ‘Victory Gardens’ from WWII, a personal organic garden is a strong political statement, a relaxing form of exercise, re-attachment to our tangible world, a reliable source of toxic free food, and a big cost-saver (compared to tomatoes at $2.99 per pound and $1 for each piece of fruit). Search for “permaculture” to quickly start a do-it-yourself Eden, even in city apartment buildings. An added bonus: Renewed consciousness of the rhythms of the sun, moon and seasons… an inspired family project! To get started check out this index site.

Support Local Organic Farmers. Even if you have every excuse which prevents you from starting your own garden, it is a virtual certainty that there are local farmers, farmers markets, and CSAs in your area. Most CSAs (Community Support Agriculture) will even deliver their produce directly to their annual subscribers (who prepay for an entire year’s array of produce). If you don’t grow your own, there is no excuse for failing to support your local growers.

Demand an Open and Free Genome! Do not let a handful of transnational corporations lock-up the future of the world’s food supplies. Join the many national and international protest against GMO/GE food. Rally against premature introduction of these new Frankenstein life forms (“FrankenFoods”). Demand that all GMO/GE products be immediately banned from cultivation, import and use until independent scientists can PROVE that they are fully understood and completely safe. Demand a full, open and free genome for all life forms. If ever there was an overwhelming case for public rather than private control, the essence of life itself is surely the place to begin. Write your Senators and Congresspersons today and urge your friends and neighbors to do the same.

Reform Existing, Corrupt Farm Practices. End all price supports, agricultural subsidies and protectionist laws for corporations… only transitional supports should be provided for small family farms until renewed, localized food economies are stabilized. Prohibit the use of chemicals and routine antibiotic interventions, and reinforce ONLY natural, organic and sustainable farming practices. Legislate requirements for completely organic and sustainable agricultural practices. Rorbid imports from any nation which does not do likewise.

These are the personal, local community, and national / international agenda items needed to reclaim some of our most basic human rights from those who would play God. This is a very do-able ‘action item’ list which can ensure a golden harvest for all of the tomorrows, ours as well as our offspring. The bad guys’ agenda is clear, and unless we act forcefully and quickly their time-tested and true methodologies will win… then the rest of us will lose, perhaps forever.

Summary & Conclusions

If there is an ‘original sin’, it is that of apathy, to standby complacently making excuses while all around us our beds are burning. Perhaps it did not matter when our taxes were increased and re-routed to fight endless foreign wars. Perhaps it does not matter that we have lost control of our political system to legalized corruption and transnational corporations. Perhaps it doesn’t really matter if we have no privacy, no sanctity of our private homes as a castle, no ability to opt out of the ubiquitous system. But, any way you slice it, it does matter if we lose control of our food and the very essence of life itself (the genome).

The fabric of our food web is now threaten by the same old greed, arrogance and corruption which has brought us the terror-filled world we now inhabit. This is the end of Act II in our real B-movie horror show. If such a threat fails to raise us, en masse, from our social and political slumber soon then we will begin to live those endings often dismissed as pure flights of fancy.

You now feel overwhelmed, of course. So many ideas to consider. So many things to do: Personal changes to make; Letters to write to Congress when you never even write to your parents or best friends. “Oh, hell, why bother?” It’s an understandable sentiment. But, perhaps you should think about it over your next meal or two. As you cut and chew just think about it… The Garden of Eden, Liberty & Responsibility, and your place in the web of life.

Thank you for your attention, interest and concern.

Copyright 2002 Eclectic Properties
Corporation. All rights reserved.
Alter-Nation and Alter-Nation.com are Trademarks and Servicemarks of Eclectic
Properties Corporation. Used here by kind permission.

Artwork of the Month

Artwork of the Month – April 2002

Works are selected for provocative visual, intellectual,
social and/or spiritual content.. Print versions
(suitable for home or office display), with or without professional mounting
and framing, may be available for order as indicated below each display.Eclectic Artists Publishing.

“Will You See and Will You Listen?”

Available as 6″x9″ print suitable
for framing at $18 each
or professionally matted and framed at $75 each.
Order
Now!
Signed by the artist upon request.

About The Art

The garden variety life in the modern Western world is beginning to resemble a bad Felini film… the colors are all wrong, the plot is sick and twisted, the moral is amoral. It’s distorted like the Nth generation of a distant echo: more noise than signal.

This piece gives us a digital impression of a psychedelic experience… Shadows cast through prisms across the void. Will we see and will we listen to a vibrant new way to look at an otherwise average life?

Copyright 2002 Eclectic Properties Corporation.
All rights reserved.

Poet's Park

Poem of the Month – April 2002


     

     

     

     

Legislate

Legislate the birds and bees.
Legislate the air we breathe.
Find the market’s way to tell me.

Build the bombs and fight the wars
With enemies we can see no more.
It’s better that than shut the factories.

May I fault you?
May I find you cruel?
Today I taunt you:
“Step back now and look who’s playing God”

D’you ignore ecology
Led by your biology?
Force your current reasons on me.

Call religions to your side

To promulgate an angry tide.
Brush away the facts of history.

May I fault you?
May I find you cruel?
Today I taunt you:
“Look back now and think whose paying God”

Legislate the birds and bees.

Legislate the air we breathe.
Find the market’s way to tell me.

Build the bombs and fight the wars
With enemies we can see no more.
It’s better that than shut the factories

May I fault you?
May I find you cruel?
Today I haunt you:
Step back now and see our angry eyes.

Look up now and see who’s saving god.

Copyright 1986 Dean DiSandro, published and administered by Eclectic Artists Publishing.


     

     

     

     

We Can Soar!

When I heard the news this mornin’ started seein’ red.
“That’s the straw that breaks the camel” is all I said.
Another dozen dozer rippin’ out our history,
Another cynical paid spokesman for the industry.

Then the winds of change inside of me began to blow.

I got an overwhelming feeling that I need to show.

Oh, I believe we can SOAR… beyond horizons and
Oh, we can DREAM so much more… fantastic visions.
Stand tall for our planet, regain control.
It’s our world, we can heal it with heart & soul.
It begins with community so claim your role.
If we just work together we can accomplish any goal!

Well, the Earth, our love, and honor is all we have.
And the seeds of greed grow weed-like in the sludge of man.
The corrupted politicians let the money flow.
and their debts to the fat cats is all we need to know.

Let the winds of change inside of us begin to blow.
It’s an overwhelming feeling that we need to show.

Oh, I believe we can SOAR… beyond horizons and
Oh, we can DREAM so much more… fantastic visions.

Stand tall for our planet, regain control.
It’s our world, we can heal it with heart & soul.
It begins with community so claim your role.
If we just work together we can accomplish any goal!

Oh, I believe we can SOAR… beyond horizons and
Oh, we can DREAM so much more… fantastic visions.
Stand tall for our planet, regain control
It’s our world, we can heal it with heart and soul.
It begins with community, now claim your role.
If we just work together we can accomplish any goal.

Copyright 2000 Dean DiSandro, published and administered by Eclectic Artists Publishing.

ABOUT THE POEMS

“Legislate” is the lyrical content of a song from the as-yet unpublished musical play “Existing As Slaves”. “We Can Soar!” was written as a theme song for an unsuccessful campaign to limit unbridled and corrupt development along California’s central coast, but with the larger purpose of creating a common theme for the entire worldwide sustainability movement (the campaign for which will be waged continuously over the next 50 – 200 years).

 
Copyright 2002 Eclectic Properties Corporation.
All rights reserved.
Alter-Nation and Alter-Nation.com are Trademarks and Servicemarks of Eclectic
Properties Corporation.
Used here by kind permission.            
 

Steal a Song

April 2002

JOIN NOW!     And be
sure to purchase Alter-Nation’s latest CD, Change
the System!. You can also use these links to contact Rockin R Records regarding
recording your music or Eclectic Artists Publishing regarding publishing your songs.

Opus I: Echoes (parts 1 – 6)


Download & Play MP3 music file

Part 1
Echoes…past to future over noise.

Echoes of wisdom, echoed wisdom.
Shadows cast through prisms across the void.
Will you see and will you listen?
Ideas are all you need to be set free.
Can you receive them?
Can you believe in love?
Will knowledge change anything…in ME?

Part 2
So now its past June.
I’m past 22.
Now what should I do when I look all around and see this mission was all a game?
When I add it all up I see believing is so insane.
I’ve worked hard at control, learned to do as I’m told.
Put my questions on hold…
accepted your roles…
accepted your God…
accepted your goals.
Now where do I go?

“Sancto Deo! Figlio follow blind.”
“Sancto Deo! Figlio fall in line.”

Man is extremely corrupt…
just check the math of biology and then trace it through history.
We mock the “life” we speak of?
(Is that the life of the victims of faith or life of hypocrisy?)
We make it dangerous to trust!
You think I’m paranoid now, just wait ‘til they have “discovered” me!
Suspicion…. Conclusion? Submission!

Pent-up and petrified, I’m tired of this street and I can’t make believe I’m sold.
Set-up and pacified, they lied through their teeth, I got a “degree”, but no more!
Now what will become of me?
I’m caught in between what’s right and what green controls!
Time to make time for relief…
yeah, get up off my knees, make ‘em pay, find a way to EXPLODE!
(“Not so loud”)
Hey who cares! EXPLODE!
Its better now to return the fight with all, all that I’ve learned.
My body’s primed. I speak from my soul.
My vision’s clear…. …but what do I know?
…and what about LOVE?
….I’m alone!
…all alone!

Part 3
Socrates – The partisan, when he is engaged in a dispute, cares nothing about the rights of the question, but is anxious only to convince his listeners of his own assertions.

Plato – Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way find their way into the inward places of the soul… When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader… Has he not also another object which is that they [the people] may be impoverished by payment of taxes, and thus compelled to devote themselves to their daily wants and therefore [be] less likely to conspire against him?… Oligarchy [defined]: A government resting on a valuation of property, in which the rich have power and the poor man is deprived of it… Everything that deceives may be said to enchant.

Shakespeare – (The Merchant of Venice) The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose…

Aristotle – The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than by reverence, and to refrain from evil because of the punishment that it brings , rather than because of its own foulness.

Jean Jacques Rousseau – (The Social Contract) Man is born free, and everywhere he is in irons… The strongest is never strong enough to always be master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty… (A Discourse on Political Economy) Never exceed your rights, and they will soon become unlimited… (Education) What wisdom can you find that is greater than love?…

Ralph Waldo Emerson – The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.

Henry David Thoreau – There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil [for each] one who is striking at the root…Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts, of life are not only NOT indispensible, but are positive hinderances to the elevation of mankind….That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.

The Bible – (Proverbs 22:7) The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

Part 4
Echoes…past to future over noise.
Echoes of wisdom, echoed wisdom.
Shadows cast through prisms across the void.
Will you see and will you listen?
Ideas are all you need to be set free.
Can you receive them?
Can you believe in love?
Will this gift change anything in me?

Part 5
I’ve seen their faces watched disappointment get buried by pride.
(You’ve lived this, you’ve learned this time after time after time!)
Each time this happened I’ve wished that we could all just rise above.
(You’ve lived this, you’ve learned this time after time after time!)
Thought I could make it, but I’ve failed now I’m sorry I’ve tried.
(You’ve lived this, you’ve learned this time after time after time!)
Thought I was different that I could change minds and wake everyone.
(You’ve lived this, you’ve learned this time after time after time!)
I never realized that no one was prepared to pay.
(You’ve lived this, you’ve learned this time after time after time!)
I did not expect that everyone else would want it this way.
(You’ve lived this, you’ve learned this time after time after time!)
I should have known this since’s it been just like for all time.
(You’ve lived this, you’ve learned this time after time after time!)
I should have stopped this but my hope stays addicted to life.
(You’ve lived this, you’ve learned this time after time after time!)
I need to end this! But I’ve told myself …
TIME AFTER TIME AFTER TIME AFTER TIME AFTER TIME!

Part 6
Echoes…past to future over noise.
Echoes of wisdom, echoed wisdom.
Shadows crash through prisms across the void.
Will you see and will you listen?
Ideas are all you need to be set free.

Lyrics copyright 2000 Dean DiSandro.
All rights reserved. Used here by kind permission.

About The Song

It’s not as if much of anything we write about is news… in fact, perhaps 98% of our laments are just the same as those of the concerned public in biblical times, in Greek times, in Egyptians times, in pre-history. Witness the numerous and notable quotes from the last 2,000 years of Western history during Part 3 of this Opus.

Sadly, as has been apparent for many generations, there is much truth in the adage that ‘history will teach us nothing’. Still, with each generation the hope remains that maybe THIS TIME our way of telling the story will make people stop and reflect. Maybe THIS TIME our rhythm, lyric and melody will break through the white noise, split the spectrum into its sonic colors and, finally, resonate in the hearts and souls of all humans. Maybe this time ECHOES will travel from the past to the future over the noise and into daily reality.

Ideas are all you need to be set free! 🙂

Buy Alter-Nation’s Change
the System! double-disk, multimedia CD now

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Properties Corporation. Used here by kind permission.

AlterMedia

April 2002

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Independant film-maker John Sayles’

“City of Hope” & “Men With Guns”


(Bookworm Bonuses: “Diet for a New America” and “Grapes of Wrath” )

      

      

Schenectady, New York, native John Sayles, has compiled an impressively prolific resume since his birth in 1950. Besides numerous short stories, screenplays, books, and music videos, the films he has both written and directed include (in reverse chronological order): Sunshine State (release date June 21, 2002); Limbo (1999); Men With Guns (aka ‘Hombres Armados’ 1998); Lone Star (1996);
The Secret of Roan Inish (1994); Passion Fish (1992); City of Hope (1991); Eight Men Out (1988);
Matewan (1987); The Brother from Another Planet (1984); Baby, It’s You (1983); Lianna (1983); and Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980)! Even more amazing is than his incredible number of film and scope of subject matter is the fact that Sayles is an independant filmmaker!

While all John Sayles’ films are well done and well worth your time and money (for instance, “Return of the Secaucus 7” was the uncredited precursor of the big hit, “The Big Chill”), Alter-Nation wishes to draw your attention to two films in particular: “City of Hope” and “Men With Guns”. As always, Sayles’ scripts reflect real people, real life, and real issues. City of Hope is set amidst the hustle of 1980’s New Jersey real estate development, construction, and slumlordship where we watch self-respecting folks slide down the slippery slope of economic prostitution, calling it “The American Way” at every step. In the end, a panhandler gets it exactly right: “Help! Help! We need help here! Help! We need help here!” Men with Guns, on the otherhand, tackles the horror of life as a peasant in Northern Guatemala / Southern Mexico… completely in Spansih and native indian languages with English sub-titles! This film is brilliant, uncompromising, and emotionally potent. As the title implies there are just two kinds of people in this modern world: ‘Them what gots ’em and them what ain’t.’

While all of Sayles’ works deal unflinchingly with the truth of the modern human condition, the stark messages of the two film reviewed above, plus the raw power of Sayles’ storytelling, will make you a believer: John Sayles’ entire repertoire is worthy of your attention.

BOOKWORM TIPS OF THE MONTH

John Robbins’ “Diet For A New America”

and

John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath”



John Robbins’ 1987 classic, “Diet For A New America”, was indeed nominated for a pulitzer prize, but that is just a publicist’s teaser. The real titillation is that, before he wrote this book, Robbins was the heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice cream dynasty. In a rare demonstration of principle and courage, Robbins eschewed the family fortune, and indeed skewered the very industry from which that wealth was derived. But this book is no celebrity tell-all. In fact, it is thoroughly researched and footnoted. It is well organized and well argued. It is nearly a scientific presentation of the thesis that a complete rethinking of the American diet is in order, that conversion to a largely vegetarian diet can solve numerous personal, social and environmental problems simultaneously. It is not an overstatement to say that Robbin’s style and thoroughness will disarm, intrigue and perhaps even win-over the most jaundiced top-of-the-food-chain predators among us. We DARE YOU to read it.


John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath” is a classic so ‘What are you waiting for?’ For the Cliff’s Notes crowd it might suffice to say that this story, set among the agricultural valleys of California’s central coast during the 1930’s Depression, is a concise encapsulation of capitalism’s history, and its effects on both its players and its environment. Understand the economics and tactics at play within The Grapes of Wrath and you will be a long way toward seeing the tragedy of blind obedience to any dogma: Just as ‘pure communism’ is an impossible dream which relies on the benevolence of our fellow workers and ignores that we are all lazy to varying degrees, ‘pure capitalism’ is a just-as-impossible scheme which relies on the benevolence of our fellow capitalists and ignores that we are all greedy to varying degrees. Steinbeck paints human portraits, with connect-the-dots and coloring lessons for us to follow. Will we see and will we listen? (By the way, for the non-readers in the audience, Henry Fonda stars as Tom Joad in the classic movie version of this tale.)


Copyright 2002 Eclectic Properties Corporation.
All rights reserved.
Alter-Nation and Alter-Nation.com are Trademarks and Servicemarks of Eclectic
Properties Corporation. Used here by kind permission.