Rejecting the System

[organica]

I am wondering what other anti-capitalist-minded folks, esp. poor people, are doing to survive despite the system.
I just got the # for the local Food Not Bombs (I want to volunteer with them), I volunteer all week at a non-profit radio station where I am treated as a total equal in a collective atmosphere, I am learning about compassionate living at the local Shambhala Centre... but I know it's not enough.
What are concrete ways to subvert things, while not ending up dead, in jail or starving?
I'm not really an activist, because I am shy & don't really get along with people, but I am definitely leaning in that direction.

[xrodolfox]

Well, I am lucky enough to have landed in enough privaledge to have gone to an excellent University and now work in my field. Although I live paycheck to paycheck, I am not poor.

However, I do know of several ways to be active (as that is my field ;) ).

First of all, I think what you are doing is great already.
However, if you are stuck, you might need to evaluate what you think is valuable that you can contribute to a community. Sure, you may be shy, but there are things that you can do, or can add, without having to go out and meet people, or be around people. You don't have to fit into a mold for making the world a better place. I am sure you have other gifts.

Part of the problem, is that most of us evaluate our gifts in terms of capitalism: how much would someone pay for it? Or we evaluate our skills in terms of: are we the best ever in it?

The way that society is structured, unless you are the best basketball player to come by your area in decades, you can't really call yourself a basketball player and live off of it. It is nearly impossible to live by being a musician. Thus, people's value and skills are shunted unless they are complete anomalies. So... you might be a good cook. Not a 4 star restaurant cook, but you might like to cook. That is a skill. You might be a good soccer player. Not pro, but you have fun. That is a skill.You might be good at working a radio station. Sure, you might not be able to run the whole gamut, but you like it.

Once you figure out what you can do, you then try to figure out how to use that gift to make the world a better place.

If you love gardening, you might want to work gardening in urban areas to take over burnt out houses.

If you love music, you might want to start a music group to express your conflict over the current state of affairs.

If you love stenciling, you could stencil up the town with witty witticism in an effort to reclaim our once public spaces.

If you love to complain, you could write letters of complaint to have other people sign.

There are a million ways to contribute, you just have to see how what you do, shy or outgoing, affects us all, and then work to make sure that what you do, little or big, works towards challanging the dominant structures.

You can work directly in opposition to oppression, or you can work to make alternatives. Either way, you are helping us all out. :)

[Ludi]

I'm trying to work with people who are interested in building a different way to live.

You might want to read some of the essays Here (http://www.ishmael.org/welcome.cfm)

and/or visit the forums Here. (http://ishcon.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=index)

[Coney]

Good reading on avoiding the system:
http://www.crimethinc.com/library/english/libalpha.html

Lots of tips on how to find cheap or free stuff. They're very big on Food Not Bombs, and you can read there how to start one yourself. Essay on Veganism, too. It's very much into the Hardcore scene--which I'm not--but this stuff (in addition to Days of War, Nights of Love) was pivotol in getting me out of my work rut and dropping a day of work to have more time to make pictures. I'm in a much better head space now.