Martin Heidegger : Beiträge zur Philosophie (Vom Ereignis)  |   Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event)

This second major work by Heidegger is discussed extensively in Martin Heidegger : Politics,Art, and Technology [ edited by Karsten Harries and Christoph Jamme ]. The volume had its origin in the colloquium “Art, Politics, Technology- Martin Heidegger 1889-1989″ held at Yale University in October of 1989. A few years before Karsten Harries had very generously allowed me to audit his graduate seminar on Heidegger during the time when I was at Yale. These seminars were terrific. It is to this time that I owe my continuing interest in Heidegger.

Concerning the Isomorphic : Archaic and Anarchic

What is, when the struggle for standards is dying out ? ( BzP 28 )

The beginning of The One-Straw Revolution [ 自然農法　わら一本の革命 ( shizen nōhō wara ippon no kakumei ) ]by Masanobu Fukuoka [ 1913-2008 ] published in Japanese in 1975 :

I believe that a revolution can begin from this one strand of straw. Seen at a glance, this rice straw may appear light and insignificant. Hardly anyone would believe that it could start a revolution. Nevertheless, I have come to realize the weight and power of this straw. For me, this revolution is very real.

Look at these fields of rye and barley. This ripening grain will yield about 22 bushels (1,300 pounds) per quarter acre. I believe this matches the top yields in Ehime Prefecture. If this equals the best yield in Ehime Prefecture, it could easily equal the top harvest in the whole country since this is one of the prime agricultural areas in Japan…and yet these fields have not been ploughed for twenty-five years.

To plant, I simply broadcast rye and barley seed on separate fields in the fall, while the rice is still standing. A few weeks later, I harvest the rice and spread the rice straw back over the fields. It is the same for the rice seeding. This winter grain will be cut around the 20th of May. About two weeks before the crop has fully matured, I broadcast rice seed over the rye and barley. After the winter, grain has been harvested and the grains threshed, I spread the rye and barley straw over the field.

I suppose that using the same method to plant rice and winter grain is unique to this kind of farming. However, there is an easier way. As we walk over to the next field, let me point out that the rice there was sown last fall at the same time as the w inter grain. The whole year’s planting was finished in that field by New Year’s Day.

You might also notice that white clover and weeds are growing in these fields. Clover seed was sown among the rice plants in early October, shortly before the rye and barley. I do not worry about sowing the weeds-they reseed themselves quite easily.

So the order of planting in this field is like this: in early October, clover is broadcast among the rice; winter grain then follows in the middle of the month.

You might also notice that white clover and weeds are growing in these fields. Clover seed was sown among the rice plants in early October, shortly before the rye and barley. I do not worry about sowing the weeds-they reseed themselves quite easily.In early November, the rice is harvested, and then the next year’s rice seed is sown and straw laid across the field. The rye and barley you see in front of you were grown this way. In caring for a quarter-acre field, one or two people can do all the work of growing rice and winter grain in a matter of a few days. It seems unlikely that there could be a simpler way of raising grain.

This method completely contradicts modern agricultural techniques. It throws scientific knowledge and traditional farming craft right out the window. With this kind of farming, which uses no machines, no prepared fertilizer, and no chemicals; it is possible to attain a harvest equal to or greater than that of the average Japanese farm. The proof is ripening right before your eyes.

full text | wikipedia

Anarchism, Or The Revolutionary Movement Of The Twenty-First Century – David Graeber and Andrej Grubacic

It is becoming increasingly clear that the age of revolutions is not over. It’s becoming equally clear that the global revolutionary movement in the twenty first century, will be one that traces its origins less to the tradition of Marxism, or even of socialism narrowly defined, but of anarchism.

Everywhere from Eastern Europe to Argentina, from Seattle to Bombay, anarchist ideas and principles are generating new radical dreams and visions. Often their exponents do not call themselves “anarchists”. There are a host of other names: autonomism, anti-authoritarianism, horizontality, Zapatismo, direct democracy… Still, everywhere one finds the same core principles: decentralization, voluntary association, mutual aid, the network model, and above all, the rejection of any idea that the end justifies the means, let alone that the business of a revolutionary is to seize state power and then begin imposing one’s vision at the point of a gun. Above all, anarchism, as an ethics of practice-the idea of building a new society “within the shell of the old”-has become the basic inspiration of the “movement of movements” (of which the authors are a part), which has from the start been less about seizing state power than about exposing, de-legitimizing and dismantling mechanisms of rule while winning ever-larger spaces of autonomy and participatory management within it.

full text | David Graeber