National Civil Disobedience Day
On January 26th we celebrate the founding of a prison. That prison is place we now call home, yet in some strange ways it has continued to be a prison. Ever since The First Fleet arrived on these shores, the land we now call Australia has been a place where people have been prisoned and coerced to behave in certain civilised ways. Just like prisoners who have spent the greater part of their life within the walls of their prison, we have become institutionalised. We feel protected by the institutions that guard and control our lives, and fear that which tries to break into our prison.
We institutionalised the original 'savages' of our land, because they didn't conform, we then institutionalised our own children, forcing them into schooling for a quarter of their lives. We institutionalised our skills, our labour and talents subjecting them to diplomas, degrees and endless upgrades, we then handed over our right to food and employment to institutions that would protect us from the natural bounty of our soils, oceans and our own imaginations.
We cower in our prison, eating prison food and indoctrinating ourselves with the rules of the establishment. We have all become snitches, turning on each other to gain the favour of the guards.
But now it is time to change, beginning this 26th of January, think an original thought, and try to imagine what our land would be like if it wasn't a prison. What would happen if you bought milk illegally from a farmer, or helped smuggle a refugee to our shores for safety. What would happen if you walked into the Sydney Opera House in singlet and thongs? what would happen if we closed our schools and let children educate themselves, or what would happen if we stopped buying things and started bartering between friends for what we need.
Get ready to imagine National Civil Disobedience day January 26th 2015, because on that day I suggest we re-imagine what this land would be like as a free society, where people break out of the prison we have created for ourselves.
Some great activities for National Civil Disobedience Day
1./ Go trespassing - Find a restricted area and bring your bird-watching binoculars. Enjoy the terrain of a military zone (avoid rocket testing days of course). Wander into a government building, enjoy the gardens around ASIO's head-quarters.
2./ Brew and sell a beer or cider. Hand craft your own alcoholic beverage and trade it with a neighbour for some illegal eggs, milk, "herbs" or bitcoins, or even money?
3./ Buy illegal milk, eggs or meat direct from a farmer
4./ Go skinny dipping under a full moon at a popular beach
5./ Bake cakes and smuggle them into a nursing home.
6./ Chop down a tree in your own yard without a permit and use it for firewood, then if you get caught out, copy the the infringement notice, photoshop a few words here and there and send it to HVP or other large multinational forestry company headquarters, informing them that they do not have a permit for the trees that they chop down on public land.
7./ Kill and eat a possum. I mean no disrespect to these lovely creatures, just as I have not animosity to the cows I eat!
8./ Take a live chook on a train - I don't know if this is breaking any laws, but surely it would make a great youtube hit. (PS - please clean up afterwards) If the enforcers question, then say it is your guide-chook because you are blind.
9./ Pay your taxes in bitcoins - I don't know how, but if you know how to use bitcoins, you should somehow be clever enough to work it out.
10./ Declare your property as a succeeded state no longer under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Australia, create your own passports, tourism bureau and refugee policy. Offer asylum to Edward Snowden, Julian Assange any any other refugee you would like to invite.
We institutionalised the original 'savages' of our land, because they didn't conform, we then institutionalised our own children, forcing them into schooling for a quarter of their lives. We institutionalised our skills, our labour and talents subjecting them to diplomas, degrees and endless upgrades, we then handed over our right to food and employment to institutions that would protect us from the natural bounty of our soils, oceans and our own imaginations.
We cower in our prison, eating prison food and indoctrinating ourselves with the rules of the establishment. We have all become snitches, turning on each other to gain the favour of the guards.
But now it is time to change, beginning this 26th of January, think an original thought, and try to imagine what our land would be like if it wasn't a prison. What would happen if you bought milk illegally from a farmer, or helped smuggle a refugee to our shores for safety. What would happen if you walked into the Sydney Opera House in singlet and thongs? what would happen if we closed our schools and let children educate themselves, or what would happen if we stopped buying things and started bartering between friends for what we need.
Get ready to imagine National Civil Disobedience day January 26th 2015, because on that day I suggest we re-imagine what this land would be like as a free society, where people break out of the prison we have created for ourselves.
Some great activities for National Civil Disobedience Day
1./ Go trespassing - Find a restricted area and bring your bird-watching binoculars. Enjoy the terrain of a military zone (avoid rocket testing days of course). Wander into a government building, enjoy the gardens around ASIO's head-quarters.
2./ Brew and sell a beer or cider. Hand craft your own alcoholic beverage and trade it with a neighbour for some illegal eggs, milk, "herbs" or bitcoins, or even money?
3./ Buy illegal milk, eggs or meat direct from a farmer
4./ Go skinny dipping under a full moon at a popular beach
5./ Bake cakes and smuggle them into a nursing home.
6./ Chop down a tree in your own yard without a permit and use it for firewood, then if you get caught out, copy the the infringement notice, photoshop a few words here and there and send it to HVP or other large multinational forestry company headquarters, informing them that they do not have a permit for the trees that they chop down on public land.
7./ Kill and eat a possum. I mean no disrespect to these lovely creatures, just as I have not animosity to the cows I eat!
8./ Take a live chook on a train - I don't know if this is breaking any laws, but surely it would make a great youtube hit. (PS - please clean up afterwards) If the enforcers question, then say it is your guide-chook because you are blind.
9./ Pay your taxes in bitcoins - I don't know how, but if you know how to use bitcoins, you should somehow be clever enough to work it out.
10./ Declare your property as a succeeded state no longer under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Australia, create your own passports, tourism bureau and refugee policy. Offer asylum to Edward Snowden, Julian Assange any any other refugee you would like to invite.
