WHERE IS HENRY DAVID THOREAU WHEN YOU NEED HIM?

The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation.
-- Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)


This blog entry kind of follows on from my last and, yes, I still have some Part 2s to write. Yikes!

Also, I do admit this current topic is more than a pet peeve of mine and I've been arguing it with people for years. Onward!

Here's a radical concept for you: Not all rules are good rules; not all laws are good laws. Disobedience and deviance from the norm are often essential to human progress. And humane progress.

Making the world a better place -- which is what this humble blog is devoted to -- often involves enduring inconvenience, sacrifice, insults, threats, misunderstanding, incarceration, being seen as a nut/troublemaker/malcontent, a sense of isolation, despair, self deprivation, self criticism, being ostracized and... well, you get the picture.

But there is also nothing more fulfilling than having the courage of your convictions, especially if it will benefit others now or in the future. It brings a certain inner peace with it amidst any turmoil that may have resulted.

Here is a point that is very close to my own heart and experience and, to be honest, I need to get it off my freakin' underdeveloped chest: The world would perish without rebels and "troublemakers."

There is a fairly simple way to prove this.

I have known some people who were VERY conservative in how they lived their lives. I mean the types who would put getting a fat 401K ahead of any risk taking or real self-actualization -- ahead of, in essence, really living. (It's that fear thing again.) Now, I know the arguments and what I say may not apply equally to all people.

But these play-it-safe folks always have the same dull drumbeat: You need a secure job to live. Well, there is some commonsense to that -- especially if you leave it in that narrow context. And to "normal society," it doesn't matter if you are, say, a crooked lawyer or bomb designer: If you have a nice suit and decent bank balance, you're a "respectable citizen." Now, even if you take much more harmless jobs, decent jobs, POSITIVE jobs -- nurse, fireman, charity worker -- they ALL have one thing in common: Today's jobs (and everything else) exist because people who lived before us took risks.

You know, crazy, unorthodox, nutty people like artists and writers; scientists and astronomers; inventors and "insane" theorists. People who were often total outsiders in their time.

Let's break it right down. Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the great geniuses of history. A brilliant mind. An extraordinary artist, anatomist, designer, botanist, cartographer, engineer ... the list goes on and on. There weren't many guys in his day who were designing helicopters [see above illustration]. Think about the awesome creativity of that!

Still, if they'd had 401Ks in the 15th century, I'm sure there would have been friends and neighbors tsk tsking Leonardo and telling him to give up the airy-fairy nonsense and plan for his future.

But Da Vinci WAS the future. Without his "crazy ideas" and solitary courage, progress in the arts and sciences would not have moved nearly as quickly as it did.

My point? It is the creative minds and the courageous outsiders who are responsible for all the choices we have today. Without those minds, modern history would have ground to a hideous halt and you'd probably have a choice between plowing a field behind a team of oxen, or staying home in the cabin to bake bread in a stone oven.

And black Americans would still be lynched as a matter of course, and women would not have the vote, and we'd probably still be in Vietnam.

Our options and our true human rights were bought and paid for by the rule breakers and law breakers who went before us. And they're still out there doing our dirty work. The renowned ones and the anonymous ones. Maybe we should, at the very least, welcome them in from the cold.

Some of the finest people I have ever encountered have been arrested numerous times. There are many of them. Here are four: Noam Chomsky, the late Howard Zinn, the Reverend Dan Berrigan, and Norman Solomon. And you'd be crazy if you called any of them less than respectable, peace-loving, selfless members of our society.

Look these people up. You'll see for yourself. They are all pacifists. They are all the kindest of the kind, and the smartest of the smart. And, yes, they have all been locked up for "breaking the law."

Here's another radical idea: "Making a living" involves many dimensions. In the 21st century the phrase immediately brings to mind the idea of going to your job every day and feeding your family. Fair enough. In my mind, making a living is also about enriching oneself. Looking at the interesting ideas of others. Developing my soul and my mind. And being resourceful enough that I don't have to cling to one job like it's my only lifeline. To me, making a living is not just about income or accruing tangible assets.

That gives me a real security that money can't buy. And it has carried me through some very hard times. It has worked!

Many of us live pretty well and we have good times. But we are creatures of infinite potential and we should not let that be overly restricted by convention. Now, here is another key point: You can make a living for your soul without sacrificing a decent income. These things are not (necessarily) mutually exclusive! You don't have to go broke to stage your own little rebellions of the mind and soul. Free yourself up!

Don't just "think outside the box" (if I ever find the dude who authored that phrase I'm going to smear him with honey and tie him to an ant bed). Why? Because we shouldn't have boxes in the first place. We are over regimented. Over directed. Over conventionalized. Our creativity and our sense of conscientious objection have been muted by mundanity, fear and habit. Suppressed. By people who don't want us to think too creatively and maybe start coming up with alternative ways to behave rather than sticking to the behaviors that make them rich.

Idea: Bunjy jumping isn't risk taking unless you try putting some little cuts in the cable first. Risk taking is FREEING YOUR POTENTIAL. And not in some dumb-ass self-help book kind of way. For goodness sake, you can invent your own life!

Next time you take a "safe" career path or settle into a job that's limited to 40 hours per week, or assert your rights as a minority or take a dissenting view at a political rally, just remember that it was people who didn't take the comfortable route who gave you that option -- or the option to go in another direction. And it is this same kind of people who will lead our real economic, altruistic and environmental progress to a better world.

All of my life I've been considered a "rebel" to some extent, which I feel is rather silly. I haven't even been arrested yet! It doesn't take much to get the label. I mean, I'm hardly building a fortified compound. I just don't choose to live a life of quiet desperation, as Thoreau so eloquently put it. I prefer the road less traveled. It's more rewarding. More interesting. Hard at times, but life's like that sometimes anyway. Right?

And being a "rebel" got me from a lousy high school education in the tough western suburbs of Sydney, to conversations and interviews with some of the most brilliant and creative minds around. And you can do it to. In your own way. What's your "crazy" dream?

Remember: Jesus Christ was a law breaker. Crucified. Gandhi was a resister. Assassinated. Martin Luther King Jr. rejected the laws of segregation. Assassinated. John Brown was an abolitionist without peer. Hanged, 1859. And Emily Davison, became the most famous suffragette of them all. Accidentally killed during protest action, 1913.

They didn't take the easy road. They followed their conscience. They all had plenty of enemies and rebuked the laws of their day. But really their only "crime" was that they blazed trails. Today we see them as they really were. And we accept them. We even canonize them. We understand their actions as legitimate and right, and their "lawful" persecutors as wrong.

So blaze your own trail. And make it a good one. Take others into account. Help them see what it is you're doing.

Even if you have to put up with being called crazy and advised to get a job with a good 401K. Leonardo would be proud of ya!

Take care, and take care of someone else,
Adrian Zupp
PS: Don't worry: I will definitely be talking about Thoreau at some point soon. How could I not?

LEST WE FORGET -- PART 2

This blog entry will be a bit of a hodge podge of random thoughts on the subject of war; but that's okay. It's what's in me today.

As far as I can determine, there is no animosity between Australians and Turks over Gallipoli. It was nothing personal, after all.

And yet thousands died -- the ultimate sacrifice. What should we make of it all?

I am proud that Australians in wars past are noted for their courage, for being monumental volunteers, for often doing the dirty work and taking the highest casualties. But it is a pride that I'd just soon derive from watching them play on the football field against other nations, not the battlefield.

The preeminent intellectual Noam Chomsky once told me that he is not a fan of emotional speeches. He believes emotion clouds rational thinking. (He even confessed he never liked listening to Martin Luther King.) War and patriotism are often the triggers of high emotions. At the beginning, when the blood is up but not yet spilled, they can seem pretty grand. But the costs can be high. I agree with Chomsky: It is better to weigh up right and wrong to make a decision about heading off to fight rather than saluting any flag that's run up a flagpole by politicians or captains of industry and profiteering.

An 18 year old might see war as adventure but governments repackage it to the masses as patriotism. Patriotism and nationalism can be very dangerous things -- although patriotically cheering on your team at the Olympics is obviously fine. But more on this another time.

I think my Dad probably qualified as what is called a "war hero." Not that he would ever have thought of himself that way. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of him many times and I often wonder what he would say about war if he were still alive. My guess is that he would be much more critical of the why's and wherefor's of it all. But I am enjoying the notion that he now has a cosmic advantage over us all.

War gives perspective to our selfishness and our petty concerns. War is Big World. We must learn from it.

I have little time for war movies, although some have their merit. Most are rather unrealistic, as far as I can tell. Others are blatant propaganda and flag waving. Remember the spate of Hollywood war movies after 9/11? That was no accident. As the comedian Bill Hicks used to say: "Your government is in control."

Which raises the issue of the difference between "wars" and "invasions." Let's mark that one down for future discussion as well.

ANZAC Day numbers were up this year. The original ANZACS themselves are all gone but the mixture of reverence and myth is as ingrained in the psyches of the two countries as ever. I reiterate: That isn't necessarily a bad thing. As long as we revere the right things.

Several years ago I interviewed an American veteran of the Battle of the Bulge for a newspaper article. He was a great bloke. Friendly, self-effacing, quietly spoken. We talked about the war he experienced and he had very little good to say about it at all. And towards the end of the interview, out of the blue, he asked rhetorically: "Why are we so warlike?" It is something that has stayed with me over the years.

The final lesson is surely that we must teach peace. Not just preach it, but teach it. To every child. And we must explain it. Teaching the history of wars and their jumble of dates and battles is just so much memory testing and storytelling. We owe it to those who have died in wars to teach peace. We have seen again and again -- and we still do -- the price of not doing this.

ANZAC Day is gone for another year. But in my Aussie heart every day is ANZAC Day, in a sense. And I am grateful for the examples set and the lessons offered. We must remember history as it really happened. That is our duty.

Lest we forget.

Adrian Zupp

Martin Luther King Day 2010

Martin Luther King Jr. achieved much in his life before it was tragically cut short on the evening of April 4, 1968. Martin Luther King Day is on Monday January 18 2010, this year. It is a day that celebrates one of the greatest civil rights leaders the world has ever known.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I Have a Dream"

Delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.



I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.



We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.



The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.



I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

Martin Luther King Day 2010

Martin Luther King Jr. achieved much in his life before it was tragically cut short on the evening of April 4, 1968. Martin Luther King Day is on Monday January 18 2010, this year. It is a day that celebrates one of the greatest civil rights leaders the world has ever known.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I Have a Dream"

Delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.



I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.



We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.



The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.



I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!