Free-Range Living

 ' Civil dimensions ------ '

   Walking up the 'greenleaf' lane each morning with Hipster Pipster is pretty pleasant at this time of year -besides the profusion of new freshly-minted  green leaves -green's mean't to be a therapeutic colour? - there's the white of the profusion of five feet high cow parsley on the road borders, backed by nettles, ivy, cleavers and grass, interspersed with tiny blue forget-me-not and red campion flowers (aaggh! the council cutting machine has just knocked most of it down -  and, on a straight stretch, for no apparent good reason - ?). Then there's the trees - to the left the Damson trees in the green hedge, although quite a few have reached the end of their lives, then the sentinels of a row of eight or nine Oak, Ash and Beech trees to the right, the last of which is a large specimen with its own sort of  'quiet presence of strength'. And all the while accompanied by birdsong, from birds in the trees, which, unlike man, don't phase them. Puts a smile on the face of an ol' 'eco worrier', for awhile -----

 'Small dimensioned ------ '

 In spite of the coldish air through May, heat needed in the cottage eveningtimes, most of the crops here on the organic eco micro-holding (small smallholding) in the English heartlands, are doing ok/well - that is except the French beans which do need warmer air. Now at the end of May the potatoes are at full height with the earliest planted in flower - would be nice to avoid too much blight attack this year if possible. The bed of home-saved seed broad beans are all in full flower, attended by bees, reminding that it's not just flowers which need such attention, and provide for the bees. The onion crop is doing ok and if unhindered (fingers crossed) should provide all the year's onion supply. Perhaps, though, a bit of a hope – the last couple of years they've had the new pest that is the alium leaf miner to contend with, which, though, by chance, nettle juice has successfully counteracted. Salad stuff – lettuce, radish and salad onions (from last year) have been available and useful from mid May, and the purple sprouting crop lasted well till recently to provide tasty fresh greens, spring greens now having taken over. Some leeks are still well wrapped up in the fridge and proving useful for stir fries, for example.

 Most of next year's fuel supply as usual arrived on the driveway in early May, to be then wheelbarrowed into the woodstore in the 'logs-istics centre', to spend the summer drying well (dry wood needed for the woodstove). Four/five barrowfulls a day, no sweat, and hey presto, before you know it, the logstore's full - well, two-thirds full as some of the wood hereabouts in woodpiles will be sawn up later to fill it up brim full -a sight to gladden the heart and giving a feeling of 'fuel security' (as does the stored wood in the various woodpiles). This year the bought supply, which then doesn't need any cutting up, is mainly oak, which gives good, heavy logs with a lot of burning capacity. It is useful, though, to have lighter burning wood available to burn with the heavy stuff, and fortuitously a lot of the lighter stuff has been collected for free from the house renovation next door – 'the universe providing ---- ?!' ( 'taoist' type  belief that 'working with nature' results in 'nature working with you/us''). 'Free' heat too - writing these few words now at the end of May the air-source heat pump is blowing it through the two living rooms into the conservatory here - needed, cold and wet outside.

'Dimensions ----- limited ---?'

 'The individual has always had to struggle from being overwhelmed by the tribe'
 
 (Friederich Nietsche, German philosopher)

'It's a jungle out there - a 'dog eat dog' culture - 'don't give a sucker an even break', and so forth, so ran one report recently, again maybe depicting a limited-dimensioned 'man made' reality - ? The 'market decides, free market' could well have originally stemmed from the economists' notion of it as a 'perfect market' - 'perfect' because one of the stipulations was to have 'many buyers and sellers', so that no single entity or small powerful group of entities could act to influence the market forces, resulting in the 'perfect result', which in practice was an 'accurate' price level that truly reflected the actual states of current demand and supply. As, though, firms have grown/ been allowed to grow large/very large, the 'perfect' aspect would appear to have gone down the pan a bit, and the 'free market' has seemingly then transmuted into the 'free-for-all' market, the argument goes, with large powerful (oligopolistic) 'predator' firms practising power moves within the market place ( examples: allegations of 'targettin the poor' energy firm practices currently in the news, the UK supermarket outfits fined for price collusion and fixing, found out intimidating opponent journalists abroad, and demanding ex-gratia payments from suppliers).

 Such 'power plays' can often then not unnaturally impact adversley on the 'unpowerful', and there's quite probably no entity less powerful than the individual - ? The 'power play' culture seems to work on just that - power and 'leverage', with 'trust' seemingly out of the window, so 'plays' into the hands of 'big', and can then tend to be experienced at times as 'bully boy' power, particularly by the 'insignificant' - the non-powerful, such as small firms, individuals, and life becomes then less civil - ? (One large UK bank just recently got stiff fine for 'disrespectful' approach to handling customers' complaints after the bank had wrongly sold to them). Does the 'foundation' problem lie then in the fact that commercial (and government?) organisations have become too large and powerful in themselves - ?

'Civilisation 'down the pan' ---- ? '

Again, some reports indicate concern that with the rise of such powerful commercial concerns, there could well be then a threat to individual rights and freedoms (the newly elected political party in power in the UK has been reported as wanting to scrap the current human rights bill, for instance ( meeting, though, significant opposition)), and with some large commercial outfits appearing to run regimes that are said to be intimidating to employees (one recently reported with employees in constant fear of dismissal, for instance), and  not over-welcoming to employee protection (via collectivisation, for instance).  One recent quote stated that the degree of civilisation within a country could be measured by its degree of tolerance to 'the unpowerful' within that society - minorities, for instance, and presumably too, individuals and their rights - ? Competition, held to be one of the key elements in modern times, may, though, in practice need careful refereeing to ensure 'reasonably level playing fields' - ?

'Civil service ------ ?'

In the west, traditional religion, being presumably seen as paternalistic, appears to have waned as a cultural force - more 'civil service' than religious service ----- ?  It's probably perfectly possible though, that spiritualism is still important to many , both at the organisation level and the individual level - ? It may be important to bear in mind that some of the key drivers of a culture, eg. politicians, are at times only in that position on a minority vote, taking all the populace into account. Many, too, might subscribe also to the notion that the current form of democracy (for instance, here in the UK), is seen by some as less than perfect, as written in one of the UK 'broadsheet' papers this week. Voting in opposition, for instance,  in a 'settled' constituency against the party with an existing large majority, can seem to some to be something of a 'wasted' vote, and in the recent UK election there was a distinct possibility that a party with a small percentage of the total vote could have ended up holding the balance of power, which again might strike some as not being over democratic. Proportional representation, the idea of which has long been put forward, could then give a better 'power array' , better represention of the populace at large - ? (but seemingly not too popular with (some) politicians - ?) Presumably to be able to have effective democracy, it needs the foundation of being underpinned by pervasive 'fair share and care' attitudes, rather than, for instance, some  wishing to skew the situation in their own favour - ?

 Alternative applications to traditional organised religion also appear to have emerged, with some offering a 'resurgance/re-energisation' of religious/spiritual feeling (eg. the 'Alpha' movement). Other religious movements have emerged seemingly tailored  to today's culture, espousing and incorporating modern trends such as the pursuit of wealth and 'power over people', attracting apparently and maybe unsurprisingly, quite a few 'rich and famous' adherents. Reservationists, though, might presumably suggest that 'man made' religious movements could run the risk of incorporating man-made limitations - ? And that a core religious idea is that it challenges and 'stretches' the individual 'beyond the self' - following the author Robert Louis Stevenson's notion that :

 'a man's reach should be beyond his/her grasp, else what's a heaven for  - ?'

The Pope's been recently reported commenting on such a theme, with a concern for mankind's 'common home', and that human beings should not put themselves at the centre of the universe.

Interesting,  too, to compare for instance, against the development pschycologist's ideas, based on their social research, such as Maslow's 'Hierarchy of Human Needs', which identified various stages of 'ascending' human needs, with social needs seemingly featuring more strongly than in modern cultures or in what have been called 'designer' religious movements - ? Maslow's needs hierarchy then leads to the 'highest' level, that of 'self actualistion' i.e. after the various 'lower' need areas had been fulfilled, depicting the individul's 'fullest' state of development, and a state presumably offering the greatest level of self-fulfillment - ?

'Mini (un)civil ----- ?'

Bette Midler, the American star, was talking recently concerning the need to connect with nature via a 'green oasis', to help the individual retain/regain some sanity. Nature's calling right now here at the micro-holding , with the doves making a bit of a racket, and what with the sound of  old collie mate (Hipster Pipster) snoring sound asleep, it's hard to escape 'the call of the wild'. 'If you can't beat 'em  --- maybe have to join in, have a nap, and who knows, add to the 'sonorous snoring' cacophony ---- ??