Hey folks, currently working on two very special videos that I'm very excited to share, but here's a little nugget of knowledge in the meantime! What does a good life mean to you? What do you think has been missing from the conversation?
How do you spell that "g" word you kept using. "What's missing from the conversation?" Tree houses. 😂 Hopefully starting a yt channel this year on the construction of my tree house. Plus alternative building techniques, bamboo, and more.
@@LeFlamel Was this prompted by the OCC (Our Changing Climate) video? if not, they did upload a video on that very topic a couple days ago, I'd recommend you give it a look - they focus precisely on the sustainability aspect of it.
@@hcxpl1 vaguely, though I disagree with the video. There's no point of discussing sustainability without being vegan, at least until lab meat can scale. S the vegan question litmus test of how dedicated to sustainability people are, IMO.
A little thought, I think it's worth to stress the difference between having basic needs met and feeling the security of having basic needs meet. Most people today have basic needs (like shelter, food, water, basic healthcare) met but they feel very unsecure, unstable about them. If you lose your job (due to chance, breaking a leg, being replaced by AI or any other reason) even for a short period of time, your basic needs will no longer be met. And it's this dread, this feeling of unsecurity, having to be vigilant all the time is in my opinion one of the biggest reasons why we feel unhappy and chronicly stressed and tired. TLDR: Remember Sword of Damocles
Remember the Sword of Damocles is a bar fr. I know the feeling. I touch on it in my Maslow video, but I think part of what feeds into that insecurity besides the economic system is the lack of social/community support. A lot of folks don't have that safety net to fall back on.
@@Andrewism I do a lot of voluntary work with homeless people and I heard a great many stories of how people ended up where they are now. And almost always it's not a chronic process of getting worse and worse but a sudden event in life, some kind of a crisis (like loosing a job and having some health issue at the same time) which normally wouldn't be life-wrecking unless you don't have a safety net to help you go through this crisis. In most cases this safety net would be some family or maybe close friends. But some people don't have them. Seeing how easy it is to prevent someone from becoming homeless and how hard it is to reverse the process I often think of how much there needs to be some sort of systemic safety net for people experiencing crisises of all kinds.
@@Andrewismit's not just lack of community though, it's complete detachment from our basic needs. Everything is provided for me and sold back to me, from water, to food, to shelter, to energy. Even our social interactions are beginning to be packaged and sold. I'm relatively well off, but I'm utterly reliant on the system for all my needs, and it's frightening. Frightening because I've turned off all those human traits and understandings that are innate in providing my needs. The system does all that for us you see! Until it doesn't. Which is where I believe we're headed, and I'm most certainly not immune.
@@ricos1497 That "detachment" is alienation at its finest. That's how the system is setup, I discuss it in my Illuminati video if you haven't seen it already!
"Rich relationships" I think is something to really focus on. you can have all the free time in the world and all the good food and drink you want but if you have no human connections then it makes life really isolating.
Indeed. But how do we practically get our communities to re-orient towards a "Library Economy, Solarpunk Society?" What options are there for us? There are many, many great ideas and books, like Andrewism, Srsly Wrong Boys, Revolution Now, Our Changing Climate, Second Thought, to books Less is More (Jason Hickel), No Place Like Home: Building Sustainable Communities (Marcia Nozick) and The New Human Rights Movement (Peter Joseph), but we need that structural link. And where is it? One Small Town is the only one I'm aware of. Any others?
i find your videos help a lot with dread. you offer accessible, practical, compassionate solutions to the massively complex, strong, terrifying crises our collective faces and has created. your videos bring me hope and a feeling of control over my individual impact. you also give me language for the values and desires unspoken in my heart (like third nature!! i’m beyond excited to have found this term for the concept i’ve always dreamed about). like it’s not uncommon for my to cry listening to your videos lol! i’m so grateful for your channel, your mind and your content are a blessing.
A good life is about living in the Shire: - Sustainability (a love for things that grow) - Community (we all pile into the green dragon at day's end and/or celebrate under the party tree) - Generosity (we give presents on our birthdays instead of getting them) - Peace and comfort (gestures wildly at the farthings)
Watching your videos when I’m down always leave me feeling a bit better. Knowing that there are other people out there who see people suffering and want to help gives me hope. We can make our lives, and the lives of the people who come after us, just a bit better. Keep it up dude -random guy in New England
I personally structure how well I'm doing with my adherence to three main areas. 1: basic comfort. Having food, water shelter, consuming a minimum amount of art and entertainment and generally being rested. 2: Relationship needs. Developing both platonic and romantic relationships, finding and being in communities that make me happy (as well as even more importantly, leaving those that don't make me happy) and getting some amount of friendly physical contact. 3: Aspirational goals. Learning topics I'm interested in, doing things that improve the world and working up my skills to the point where they can become self-sustaining. Achieving this to me is making sure to talk to people often through both VRChat and discord, and honing my blender skills without pushing myself to exhaustion and taking breaks. It's quite an individualistic framework, but it has to be that way due always living on the outskirts of an already small village, leading to never having a sense of community.
I really appreciate the nuanced approach of your videos. These are challenging topics to discuss, and it's easy to slip into comfortable and simplistic notions of how we got here, and of what needs to be done going forward. It's clear you put a lot of research into your videos, and you do a great job of communicating the complexity of the problem, while still making solutions feel tractable. Thank you!
As a newly homeless person adrift in the capitalist dystopia of the middle US, I want to thank you for the positivity and spirituality of your work, it gives me reassurance that although I walk alone, I am not lonely, although I have no money, I am wealthy in spirit, and although I have cut ties with my past, an endless future unfolds before for me. Thank you.
I just listened to fiddler on the roof for the first time and was incredibly emotionally moved by the song "If I were a rich man" where he talks about what was important to him. It was beautiful. It really did sound like buen vivir. I carefully listened to the lyrics and found it very powerful. I had no idea. He wanted safe housing, community, a healthy wife, respect. It wasn't what I expected. Somehow I got it into my head that it was a comedy. But it was so deep and moving. I see why it's remained so popular over the years.
Damn, I love this channel. Every time I click on a vid I think "oh, I think I know that this is about," but then I watch it and learn that I had no idea what it was about, but now my brain has more beauty in it.
Very good video, I heard of Buen Vivir as a child, the school thought like it was a lost way of living, but it's not. I'm glad, I'll look for ways to bring it to my community and support those that already do such.
Love how you always give pratical tips on how we can move forward. Personally i'm not that super creative so it is great to get these tips so I can actually do something towards a better future. Thank you so much for spreading this information!
"Humans will realize their potential as nature rendered self-conscious." That line hits like a truck. Thank you for giving me a lot to think about. Side note 13:04 Love the artwork you use in these videos.
I’m currently studying in the university in order to get a teaching degree. I hope that in the future, I’ll be able to work in some small countryside community in my country, that many times remain without teachers. I also hope that during that time, I’ll be able to help strengthen the feelings of community between my new neighbors, help form communal gardens and maybe even a local popular assembly to help with resolving local issues, while also expanding the (government-imposed) school curriculum to include stuff like astronomy, creative writing and basic ecology. Honestly my personal philosophy is deeply linked with my religious principles so I take the idea of “spirituality” in a more traditional sense I suppose. Still, ideas like Buen Vivir are close to my heart and I believe they show a real alternative to the current destructive capitalist system.
Answering the question of Andrew now, for me a good life is found in the simple things: drinking your tea in the morning while looking at your vegetable garden, going for a walk with friends, reading a book, taking a walk in Nature (I really like forest walks), climbing on a high spot at night to watch the stars etc. Every summer I visit my grandparents who live in a small island. Their house is in a rather isolated and very sparsely populated place, surrounded in all sides by open fields and small hills. Honestly my favorite past time when I visit, is to climb on top of an old stone water tank and watch the stars at night, or read a book, or just let the wind caress my face while I look at the fields and the blue sea around me. I feel peace in those moments, like everything is fine and the world is good. I wouldn’t change that for all the high-paying jobs in the world.
this video coincidentally came on a day where i decided to start taking steps toward finding happiness where im at. your videos have been my lifeline for the past few months. youve articulated literally everything i have believed and felt since childhood and it means everything to me. ive felt alone and even delusional for wanting a world thag seems so impossible. you gave me a name for what i believe in- animism, which allowed me to connect w like minded people for the first time. again, i had felt alone and delusional. its so easy to leave these videos and feel alone again. its easy to sit and rot in my discontentment w the state of the world, curse jobs and currency bc they shouldnt exist, feel angry at literal humanity. and ive been doing so. but just the fact that you make these videos has given me cause to sit and rethink how im living. i can create the life i want to an extent within capitalism while i help others and repair the broken community around me. thank you. you have helped me name and reframe my thinking for better. ik you prob wont see this and its wayyy too long but thank you.
@@antoruby thats exactly what i want. but to get that a lot of change needs to happen. and in the meantime i want to live a life as close to what i dream of as possible
I love how you connect new concepts you present with the ones you showed in older videos like the library/gift economy. I think it proves the point that rather than having different projects compete with each other (like it is common in capitalism) and the winner-takes-it-all situation, it is much better to mix, match, and cooperate. All of these movements have similar values and rooted in indigenous/grass-root wisdom and philosophy, and having them all play out at once is really the strength of these communities
I didn't realise just how much I needed to here of this concept. It wraps all my ramblings of peace, harmony, fairness and equity within a movement focused around working with nature into a singular phrase that brings it all together! Toward buen vivir, peace!
You have such an evocative voice and fabulous cadence !!! Very easy and comforting to listen to !! Bravo! Great subjects as well. Very much enjoyed the third spaces video and am inspired !!
I have recently been thinking a lot about what it means (to me) to live a *meaningful* life. I have so much good!! I also wish i could quit my job because 40 hours/week at a computer is inhumane. I look upon our modern lives as a population scale experiment. So many ways weve evolved have been thwarted by our evolutionary drive to conserve energy and by capitalism's drive to make us consume. My current focus (pun intended) is natural vision correction. My prescription has gone down by almost 2 diopters in both eyes - now my glasses are -0.75 with no astigmatism correction. For the first time in over 20 years I live most of my life without glasses! The incredible part is that the correction comes not from "eye exercises", but from learning how to use your eyes differently (and more naturally) throughout the day. Kind of a tangent, but thanks for the great video as always!!! A July hail storm recently destroyed my vegetable garden as well as my neighbour's and the community garden boxes. If I'd been home i could have covered and saved the plants, but i was required to be at the office that day 🙄😭 Fortunately nature is resilient and some plants are returning ♡
Thank you for exposing me to philosophy and movements that I probably wouldn't otherwise know existed. I feel like I exist in a bubble of "western, global north" ideology and thought; it's refreshing to expand my awareness. In addition to discovering Buen Vivir, your video just introduced me to the artwork of John Dyer too (I did an image search because I was so curious)! Really lovely, vibrant paintings that I think very clearly convey the harmony of humans with each other and nature. For me, they invoke a sense of magic and dreamy idealism without being too abstract to lose their grounding in reality. It's as if the paintings are beckoning us to dream of better ways to be, much like the videos on this channel. I see similarities between Dyer and Jean Claude Picot (e.g., compare "Summer Days, St Mawes" with "Le Restaurant Sur La Plage").
Depends on the person. I’m a person who deeply values my own space and being left alone by others. I am unlikely to become involved in community efforts by being in the middle of things. But, I would still benefit immensely from those who really want to put in all that effort. The key might be to find peripheral, intermittent options for those individuals who can only commit briefly. With enough discrete packages of involvement strung together, along with those who enjoy the feeling of pitching in and getting their hands dirty in work parties, communal larger projects can emerge. The discrete packages also help include carers, disabled, elderly, children and those who are already weighed down with overwork or lack of resources. Find people who have the energy to coordinate those many short interludes of effort. Maybe the individualists can also be approached as backers/funders. This has an unfortunate association with philanthropy, where philanthropists make personal choices over who is worthy enough for their money. Philanthropists should be encouraged to pass over their funds to community banks so that the community itself can decide what’s important. In the case of the ant and the grasshopper, the grasshopper does have a unique selling point: his music. Even if it looks like the ants are doing all the work, the grasshopper can bring them music to make life feel better.
2:07 - kinda random, but thank you for introducing me to the word ludic. I think I'd like to remember and use that. :) (And for talking about Buen Vivir, too, of course! :D) (And ooh, ranti-ranti (11:52) sounds interesting, too! And, and, and....... 😉) Peace and solidarity! ❤ All power to all the people! And all things. Let's have some 3rd nature!!!
lovely lovely video, the idea of taking our goals of interconnectedness and community support to further a good life for us all under our own definitions and needs in the here and now feels so important.
Thank you for making those videos I Find them very intresting and it being back hope and shows tools for change. You make me want act to manifest that change
Thank you for the thought-provoking videos you keep putting out! I always learn something new about the world and myself. On top of the wonderful art shown!
never understood how people thought profit increasing was a sign that society was getting better lmao. its just a measurement of whats being TAKEN FROM society and consolidated into european monarchs accounts. its a sign of how much value was taken from people on the brink of deaths labors. its a sign of how low of morality a place is capable of achieving. in order for it to mean something positive, profit would have to be dispersed more widely than thinly. otherwise its a sign of people LOSING more.
I appreciated you giving the caveats on how narratives can be co-opted by governments and how that doesn't mean these narratives are invalid. Especially when we speak of Latin America, I always have to remind this to myself because of all of instability and violence that there has been both from international interference and from local people using leftist rhetoric to take advantage or terrorize working class people. I pray that one day we in Latin America can hold both our sincere wish for stopping poverty and our past tribulations in getting there. All power to all the people, even if we stumble along the way
Can you make a video talking about Ai and what we should be doing? I feel like a lot of people in our generation are not really partaking in the conversation around AI or not taking it seriously. I feel it has potential to help in ushering in a solar punk world and helping to solve many issues we face today like global warming but with the most powerful models being in the hands of corporate giants and this arms race between the U.S and china on top of the empowerment of bad actors using this technology... im afraid we've got a long ride ahead. Im not even talking about the existential terminator scenarios. There are tons of near term like 1-2 year implications and it feels like none of us are talking about it.
I would die to know your thoughts on Trinbagonian and Caribbean politics, Andrew. With how influential patriarchy, colonialism and "production equals prosperity" plagues our communities. I wonder how much of our lives is lost in that pursuit.
i've got a book in progress that may be of interest :) i also used to talk about these topics on my old medium blog as well as on a secret tiktok, and i hope to return to that more regional work in the future.
@@Andrewism FWIW, I for one (as a random not-in-that-geography viewer) would welcome content that's specific to there. I'm sure there'd be useful parallels to something or other.
Hi. I basically never comment on youtube videos, let alone videos in the "leftist youtube" space, as much as I consume those videos. I don't have anything insightful to say, other than: I really like this channel. I really, really feel like you are filling in a certain gap of content and perspective that I want to exist in this particular space, at least in so far as what I have been exposed to by this capricious and nebulous "algorithm." Really glad you exist and you're putting the work into this channel and getting these ideas out there.
I find your videos so far to capture a sense of “economics” and social troubles that so far has not sapped me of all hope. You show problems in a way that makes me dream of something better and see a path towards it.
The concept of living a good life is different across time and place. In ancient Rome, to live an honorable or good life could be something like being a soldier and showing your loyalty to Rome, being a wealthy man, becoming a senator or even a consul etc. In the colonies during the time of revolt serving the colonial army would have been honorable, which to me is an important part of a "good life." All I know is that westerners are losing sense of community and identity, and part of a good life is to stand for something, because having meaning is what makes a good life. Whether that manifests in being a soldier on the front lines of your nations war, exploring the world like a nomad, living in your village and helping uplift your community and much more. So I believe the key aspects, among others are meaning and honor. This among technical needs like water, food, shelter, of course. Sorry if this comment was a bit rambly but I felt like adding in my one cent.
For me, i also need to use my skateboard as my method of transportation. I'm going to listen to this video with my family. I wonder if we can find direction with it.
i have also been thinking about this a lot. Im currently taking a semester off from college to evaluate what my life choices. Ive always wanted to go to medical school and become a physician, but recently ive become more cognizant of the realities of capitalist medicine. Not to mention the student loans which I have no desire nor plan to pay. I have a deep desire to learn about the human body and how we can use our knowledge to help others, but I feet trapped under capitalism. I am starting to consider solarpunk/anarchist community as a legitimate option. I think I still want to go to medical school to learn, but instead of working in a hospital where others' pain is capitalized on, i'd like to try to bring it to anarchist spaces in an attempt to reclaim it. I think we need to reclaim science as a whole. Right now it is being used to benefit the wealthy. We are nature that has become self-aware, and science is very much the study of ourselves in every way. Imagine the possibilities if it was taken seriously, instead of being capitalized on and commodified. sorry for the tangents LOL
Thank you for addressing spirituality!! I am always looking for leftists who invite people to embrace their spiritual needs. Not everyone has those needs-- but as someone who has profound spiritual needs-- I often feel alienated from leftist spaces who reject religion/spirituality altogether. Thank you again. Your work is full on wonder and conviction.
This puts me in mind of Taoism ☯️ Western culture is obsessed with the yang (the individual) and has abandoned the yin (everything beyond the individual that makes up a person). We really have lost our way... I really recommend Ursula K Le Guin's translation of the 'Tao Te Ching' if you're interested!
In this context, yang also represents what we do, while yin represents what we don't do. We learn that doing more, taking more, achieving more is 'virtuous' - but wisdom is in knowing when (and how) to be still, to leave alone, to give back. A nice allegory for this is the table - a table that is all substance will reach the ceiling, serving no purpose: the value in a table is in its surface - where it ends, where it is not. So we see that being more is not being better. The yang (what you do) determines your substance, while the yin (what you don't do) determines the shape of your character and your value to those around you. Both are necessary but they must be in balance.
I immediately equated Buen vivir to uBuNtu the minute I started viewing this piece. especially the point and fact that these concepts continue to be fugitive and resistant to western linguistic translations which are infected by colonial and by extension capitalist tendencies. We appreciate your expansion on the global ideals as found in most cosmologies of the various peoples of the world who have had to struggle against colonisation and capitalistic oppressions. All Power! Amandla!
I would like it if debt, taxes and insurance weren't perpetually mandatory. And that I could still expect to have a place to call home, clean water to drink, and nutritious food to eat. Without a constant threat of someone always wanting to take it all away for one reason or another. Healthy relationships would also be nice but I find them hard to maintain without the other prerequisites of basic security. I understand that's it's possible to have all of those things in the right community. But unless you're born into one they are difficult to find or create. Even if you muster enough humility to pursue and join them.
1:36 Many of us have an easier time recognizing brand logos than we do that plants that grow around us. Did I come to this channel to be personally attacked? Yes, yes I did, but oof, this one stung a little. Gonna learn and grow from it, just like the plants around me, that I can't name most of, but gonna need some emotional first aid for a bit in the mean time.
Do you consider these "Isms" like Marxism, Bouddhism, Buen Vivir etc to be thought experiments that allow us to consider human existence from a variety of angles? Or should they actually be implemented? I ask this with the doubt in mind as to whether some method could actually solve our problems, or whether we are the problem? Meaning that we need to understand the foundational problem before applying solutions.
Not that i write this as an advocate for what you call "isms" but is there not a logical problem with your premise. Is there a ",problem" if "we" are the problem. And when you say "we" do you really mean all or do you mean some. Identifying "the problem" with an inherently subjective experience seems impossible or even futile. What is good for one can never be good for all. The simple idea that something , particularly an ideology or way of living is good for all seems flawed. It seems more reasonable that we try, different things , different experiences and reflect study, change our minds. There are certain things that believe in , i would certainly never try to persuade another of my beliefs. But it does take those who would to push the needle. In each and every moment they simultaneously risk disaster or greatness, depending on how one looks at it.
Great video, it reflects the attitudes that existed within early communities in the Caribbean; sadly political dogma is eroding the the things that held us together.
you can set rules for good life, for example having meaningful labour, living with and feeling the cycle of the ecology we live in. that means we do not have any of that in modern world, and that why we have wars, money, and pollution.
I argue everyday with the econ professor about this. Kills me inside. Prosperity Without Growth has been great. The Red Deal talks a bit about this. Jason Hickels is doing a lot of degrowth work.
Buen Vivir reminds me of Stoicism in that both philosophies have themes of good life. They are identical as this notion goes beyond individual pleasure to the community and nature as a whole. I think you should make a video about Stoicism and leftist ideas as I’m both things and there isn’t much content looking at that philosophy from a leftist perspective
Living in this madness of society and trying to be part of a healing can be strenous. Sometimes its best to arrive to buen vivir. But i doubt the line go up movement as the sole criterion of things happening will die out that easily. But it affects our minds and it is good to know there are so many people out here who are creating and promoting alternatives. It just will take time.
There is something that I do not understand. Why wouldn't it make sense to translate Buen Vivir into English for being a "western" language when Spanish is already a western language? I also wanted to tell you that the term "Latin America" is completely colonial and that it would be preferable if you used the term Hispanic America. For everything else, very good video.
The issue of translation is not about either being western languages, that's not what was said. It's moreso about how in translating the term, the weight and history behind it can be lost. Translation can lead to decontextualisation. Your opinion has been heard, suspicious as it is coming from someone with a depiction of the Santa Maria as their profile pic. Regardless, I'll continue using the term Latin America. It's not without controversy, but it still has its uses, and Hispanic America is no less colonial in origin.
@@AndrewismThanks for answering the translation question. However, I have to say that the term "Hispanic America" is not colonial (unlike Latin America) but rather refers to the mestizo culture shared by all those territories (including many isolated indigenous communities). Latin America, on the other hand, is a term created by the absolutist emperor Napoleon III so that the inhabitants of those lands would abandon their mestizo culture and thus make the French invasion easier. In any case, you are free to use the term that you consider best. All the best.
I just had the strangest little moment. I just hit pause the very instant you were saying it. I paused the video right in the middle of you saying the word. After that intro I needed to take a breath. It is hard to know this and hear this again and again and feel it so much bigger than you, while desperately trying to survive wages that never pay one enough to live.
Hey folks, currently working on two very special videos that I'm very excited to share, but here's a little nugget of knowledge in the meantime!
What does a good life mean to you? What do you think has been missing from the conversation?
Hi Andrewism. Given the desire for sustainability and ecology, what are your thoughts on veganism?
A culture of fearless trust and intimacy - I pray that the generations to come grow up knowing buen vivir. Thank you for sharing.
How do you spell that "g" word you kept using.
"What's missing from the conversation?" Tree houses. 😂
Hopefully starting a yt channel this year on the construction of my tree house. Plus alternative building techniques, bamboo, and more.
@@LeFlamel Was this prompted by the OCC (Our Changing Climate) video? if not, they did upload a video on that very topic a couple days ago, I'd recommend you give it a look - they focus precisely on the sustainability aspect of it.
@@hcxpl1 vaguely, though I disagree with the video. There's no point of discussing sustainability without being vegan, at least until lab meat can scale. S the vegan question litmus test of how dedicated to sustainability people are, IMO.
A little thought, I think it's worth to stress the difference between having basic needs met and feeling the security of having basic needs meet. Most people today have basic needs (like shelter, food, water, basic healthcare) met but they feel very unsecure, unstable about them. If you lose your job (due to chance, breaking a leg, being replaced by AI or any other reason) even for a short period of time, your basic needs will no longer be met. And it's this dread, this feeling of unsecurity, having to be vigilant all the time is in my opinion one of the biggest reasons why we feel unhappy and chronicly stressed and tired.
TLDR: Remember Sword of Damocles
Remember the Sword of Damocles is a bar fr. I know the feeling. I touch on it in my Maslow video, but I think part of what feeds into that insecurity besides the economic system is the lack of social/community support. A lot of folks don't have that safety net to fall back on.
@@Andrewism I do a lot of voluntary work with homeless people and I heard a great many stories of how people ended up where they are now. And almost always it's not a chronic process of getting worse and worse but a sudden event in life, some kind of a crisis (like loosing a job and having some health issue at the same time) which normally wouldn't be life-wrecking unless you don't have a safety net to help you go through this crisis. In most cases this safety net would be some family or maybe close friends. But some people don't have them. Seeing how easy it is to prevent someone from becoming homeless and how hard it is to reverse the process I often think of how much there needs to be some sort of systemic safety net for people experiencing crisises of all kinds.
@@Andrewismit's not just lack of community though, it's complete detachment from our basic needs. Everything is provided for me and sold back to me, from water, to food, to shelter, to energy. Even our social interactions are beginning to be packaged and sold. I'm relatively well off, but I'm utterly reliant on the system for all my needs, and it's frightening. Frightening because I've turned off all those human traits and understandings that are innate in providing my needs. The system does all that for us you see! Until it doesn't. Which is where I believe we're headed, and I'm most certainly not immune.
@@ricos1497 That "detachment" is alienation at its finest. That's how the system is setup, I discuss it in my Illuminati video if you haven't seen it already!
@@jantonimikulski1569 Love what you're saying here. I think it's on point. @ricos1497, too.
"Rich relationships" I think is something to really focus on. you can have all the free time in the world and all the good food and drink you want but if you have no human connections then it makes life really isolating.
Indeed. But how do we practically get our communities to re-orient towards a "Library Economy, Solarpunk Society?" What options are there for us? There are many, many great ideas and books, like Andrewism, Srsly Wrong Boys, Revolution Now, Our Changing Climate, Second Thought, to books Less is More (Jason Hickel), No Place Like Home: Building Sustainable Communities (Marcia Nozick) and The New Human Rights Movement (Peter Joseph), but we need that structural link. And where is it? One Small Town is the only one I'm aware of. Any others?
i find your videos help a lot with dread. you offer accessible, practical, compassionate solutions to the massively complex, strong, terrifying crises our collective faces and has created. your videos bring me hope and a feeling of control over my individual impact. you also give me language for the values and desires unspoken in my heart (like third nature!! i’m beyond excited to have found this term for the concept i’ve always dreamed about). like it’s not uncommon for my to cry listening to your videos lol! i’m so grateful for your channel, your mind and your content are a blessing.
i'm really glad to hear! thank you for your kind words
A good life is about living in the Shire:
- Sustainability (a love for things that grow)
- Community (we all pile into the green dragon at day's end and/or celebrate under the party tree)
- Generosity (we give presents on our birthdays instead of getting them)
- Peace and comfort (gestures wildly at the farthings)
I like the way you think, question and, answer your curiosities. It's very poetic and creative.
Thank you so much!
Watching your videos when I’m down always leave me feeling a bit better. Knowing that there are other people out there who see people suffering and want to help gives me hope. We can make our lives, and the lives of the people who come after us, just a bit better. Keep it up dude
-random guy in New England
you active in NE organizing?
- another random dude in NE
Im a New Englander too. Solidarity forever, comrade🫡🚩🏴
I personally structure how well I'm doing with my adherence to three main areas.
1: basic comfort. Having food, water shelter, consuming a minimum amount of art and entertainment and generally being rested.
2: Relationship needs. Developing both platonic and romantic relationships, finding and being in communities that make me happy (as well as even more importantly, leaving those that don't make me happy) and getting some amount of friendly physical contact.
3: Aspirational goals. Learning topics I'm interested in, doing things that improve the world and working up my skills to the point where they can become self-sustaining.
Achieving this to me is making sure to talk to people often through both VRChat and discord, and honing my blender skills without pushing myself to exhaustion and taking breaks. It's quite an individualistic framework, but it has to be that way due always living on the outskirts of an already small village, leading to never having a sense of community.
I really appreciate the nuanced approach of your videos. These are challenging topics to discuss, and it's easy to slip into comfortable and simplistic notions of how we got here, and of what needs to be done going forward. It's clear you put a lot of research into your videos, and you do a great job of communicating the complexity of the problem, while still making solutions feel tractable. Thank you!
Glad you like them!
I couldn't have said that any better. I'm in complete agreement with @crwper's response.
Buen Vivir seems like a lovely mixture of existentialism, social ecology, and indigenous resistance movements. 💚
I love the idea of that 3rd consciousness where humans recognize their place in nature and take care of it
"Nature rendered self-conscious" i always wanna shout it out from the rooftops
As a newly homeless person adrift in the capitalist dystopia of the middle US, I want to thank you for the positivity and spirituality of your work, it gives me reassurance that although I walk alone, I am not lonely, although I have no money, I am wealthy in spirit, and although I have cut ties with my past, an endless future unfolds before for me. Thank you.
Your comment is so true! I wonder, how is life for you 8 months later?
I hope you are well
Buen Vivir is also very Jewish. A lot of our philosophy is how to make life as fulfilling, joyful, and meaningful as possible
I just listened to fiddler on the roof for the first time and was incredibly emotionally moved by the song "If I were a rich man" where he talks about what was important to him. It was beautiful. It really did sound like buen vivir. I carefully listened to the lyrics and found it very powerful. I had no idea. He wanted safe housing, community, a healthy wife, respect. It wasn't what I expected. Somehow I got it into my head that it was a comedy. But it was so deep and moving. I see why it's remained so popular over the years.
Damn, I love this channel. Every time I click on a vid I think "oh, I think I know that this is about," but then I watch it and learn that I had no idea what it was about, but now my brain has more beauty in it.
I always enjoy watching your videos after smoking a blunt,
Real
It is bad.
Omg I smoked like 10 mins ago. Twinning
Same, but combine it with a binge of Lancer lore right beforehand.
It's a nice little time sandwich, that.
,
Very good video, I heard of Buen Vivir as a child, the school thought like it was a lost way of living, but it's not. I'm glad, I'll look for ways to bring it to my community and support those that already do such.
Love how you always give pratical tips on how we can move forward. Personally i'm not that super creative so it is great to get these tips so I can actually do something towards a better future. Thank you so much for spreading this information!
"Humans will realize their potential as nature rendered self-conscious." That line hits like a truck. Thank you for giving me a lot to think about. Side note 13:04 Love the artwork you use in these videos.
I think that line was either from or inspired by Elise Reclus
I’m currently studying in the university in order to get a teaching degree. I hope that in the future, I’ll be able to work in some small countryside community in my country, that many times remain without teachers. I also hope that during that time, I’ll be able to help strengthen the feelings of community between my new neighbors, help form communal gardens and maybe even a local popular assembly to help with resolving local issues, while also expanding the (government-imposed) school curriculum to include stuff like astronomy, creative writing and basic ecology. Honestly my personal philosophy is deeply linked with my religious principles so I take the idea of “spirituality” in a more traditional sense I suppose. Still, ideas like Buen Vivir are close to my heart and I believe they show a real alternative to the current destructive capitalist system.
Answering the question of Andrew now, for me a good life is found in the simple things: drinking your tea in the morning while looking at your vegetable garden, going for a walk with friends, reading a book, taking a walk in Nature (I really like forest walks), climbing on a high spot at night to watch the stars etc.
Every summer I visit my grandparents who live in a small island. Their house is in a rather isolated and very sparsely populated place, surrounded in all sides by open fields and small hills. Honestly my favorite past time when I visit, is to climb on top of an old stone water tank and watch the stars at night, or read a book, or just let the wind caress my face while I look at the fields and the blue sea around me. I feel peace in those moments, like everything is fine and the world is good. I wouldn’t change that for all the high-paying jobs in the world.
this video coincidentally came on a day where i decided to start taking steps toward finding happiness where im at. your videos have been my lifeline for the past few months. youve articulated literally everything i have believed and felt since childhood and it means everything to me. ive felt alone and even delusional for wanting a world thag seems so impossible. you gave me a name for what i believe in- animism, which allowed me to connect w like minded people for the first time. again, i had felt alone and delusional. its so easy to leave these videos and feel alone again. its easy to sit and rot in my discontentment w the state of the world, curse jobs and currency bc they shouldnt exist, feel angry at literal humanity. and ive been doing so. but just the fact that you make these videos has given me cause to sit and rethink how im living. i can create the life i want to an extent within capitalism while i help others and repair the broken community around me. thank you. you have helped me name and reframe my thinking for better. ik you prob wont see this and its wayyy too long but thank you.
Good for you sir!
@@Thepissheadman ma'am, and thank you! :)
Why limit your aspiration of a good life within capitalism? Why can’t we aspire something better than it?
@@antoruby We want that too
@@antoruby thats exactly what i want. but to get that a lot of change needs to happen. and in the meantime i want to live a life as close to what i dream of as possible
I love how you connect new concepts you present with the ones you showed in older videos like the library/gift economy. I think it proves the point that rather than having different projects compete with each other (like it is common in capitalism) and the winner-takes-it-all situation, it is much better to mix, match, and cooperate. All of these movements have similar values and rooted in indigenous/grass-root wisdom and philosophy, and having them all play out at once is really the strength of these communities
I'm very appreciative of the specific, hopeful and informed niche you occupy. Some of us need to believe in utopia otherwise what are we fighting for?
Lets goo andrew!!! I love to see your subs going up man it is a good sign ;) ✌️👊
I didn't realise just how much I needed to here of this concept. It wraps all my ramblings of peace, harmony, fairness and equity within a movement focused around working with nature into a singular phrase that brings it all together! Toward buen vivir, peace!
Your Contant ignites a passion and fire within me to take steps towards making a better tomorrow
Reminds of a line said in the show "American Gods": "I am we, and we is power."
I get so excited every time you drop a new video essay. Thank you for your labor.
You have such an evocative voice and fabulous cadence !!! Very easy and comforting to listen to !! Bravo! Great subjects as well. Very much enjoyed the third spaces video and am inspired !!
I have officially watched all of your videos in one day
I have recently been thinking a lot about what it means (to me) to live a *meaningful* life. I have so much good!! I also wish i could quit my job because 40 hours/week at a computer is inhumane.
I look upon our modern lives as a population scale experiment. So many ways weve evolved have been thwarted by our evolutionary drive to conserve energy and by capitalism's drive to make us consume.
My current focus (pun intended) is natural vision correction. My prescription has gone down by almost 2 diopters in both eyes - now my glasses are -0.75 with no astigmatism correction. For the first time in over 20 years I live most of my life without glasses! The incredible part is that the correction comes not from "eye exercises", but from learning how to use your eyes differently (and more naturally) throughout the day.
Kind of a tangent, but thanks for the great video as always!!! A July hail storm recently destroyed my vegetable garden as well as my neighbour's and the community garden boxes. If I'd been home i could have covered and saved the plants, but i was required to be at the office that day 🙄😭 Fortunately nature is resilient and some plants are returning ♡
Thank you for exposing me to philosophy and movements that I probably wouldn't otherwise know existed. I feel like I exist in a bubble of "western, global north" ideology and thought; it's refreshing to expand my awareness. In addition to discovering Buen Vivir, your video just introduced me to the artwork of John Dyer too (I did an image search because I was so curious)! Really lovely, vibrant paintings that I think very clearly convey the harmony of humans with each other and nature. For me, they invoke a sense of magic and dreamy idealism without being too abstract to lose their grounding in reality. It's as if the paintings are beckoning us to dream of better ways to be, much like the videos on this channel. I see similarities between Dyer and Jean Claude Picot (e.g., compare "Summer Days, St Mawes" with "Le Restaurant Sur La Plage").
Me: What has this dude been up to
Andrewism: Trying to figure out how to live a good life
GOOD! You deserve it.
I hope you're doing the same Andrew!
I love all the beautiful art you included! That is a good life (being able to see beauty)!
Reaching individualistically inclined people is the challenge.
Depends on the person. I’m a person who deeply values my own space and being left alone by others. I am unlikely to become involved in community efforts by being in the middle of things. But, I would still benefit immensely from those who really want to put in all that effort. The key might be to find peripheral, intermittent options for those individuals who can only commit briefly. With enough discrete packages of involvement strung together, along with those who enjoy the feeling of pitching in and getting their hands dirty in work parties, communal larger projects can emerge.
The discrete packages also help include carers, disabled, elderly, children and those who are already weighed down with overwork or lack of resources. Find people who have the energy to coordinate those many short interludes of effort.
Maybe the individualists can also be approached as backers/funders. This has an unfortunate association with philanthropy, where philanthropists make personal choices over who is worthy enough for their money. Philanthropists should be encouraged to pass over their funds to community banks so that the community itself can decide what’s important.
In the case of the ant and the grasshopper, the grasshopper does have a unique selling point: his music. Even if it looks like the ants are doing all the work, the grasshopper can bring them music to make life feel better.
There the saying food for thought, I consider your videos "a banquet for dreams" in the best way possible!
I swear I have resubscribe every few months. TY for your work my friend!
I dig your style. I can see lots of benefits from people considering adopting a similar approach
2:07 - kinda random, but thank you for introducing me to the word ludic. I think I'd like to remember and use that. :) (And for talking about Buen Vivir, too, of course! :D) (And ooh, ranti-ranti (11:52) sounds interesting, too! And, and, and....... 😉)
Peace and solidarity! ❤ All power to all the people! And all things. Let's have some 3rd nature!!!
No problem!
lovely lovely video, the idea of taking our goals of interconnectedness and community support to further a good life for us all under our own definitions and needs in the here and now feels so important.
Thank you for making those videos I Find them very intresting and it being back hope and shows tools for change. You make me want act to manifest that change
Absolutely love your videos! This is great!
Just found your channel via FD Signifier. Thank you for spreading your message! (Random question: are you Caribbean? You kinda sound 🇯🇲)
Sweet video; good vibes
Really appreciate these types of videos
Thank you for the thought-provoking videos you keep putting out! I always learn something new about the world and myself. On top of the wonderful art shown!
Thank you!!!
The REAL, "real"!!??
The ACTUAL facts, and the truth of the society those facts/events create and perpetuate. Groovy.
big fan 🤘
never understood how people thought profit increasing was a sign that society was getting better lmao. its just a measurement of whats being TAKEN FROM society and consolidated into european monarchs accounts. its a sign of how much value was taken from people on the brink of deaths labors. its a sign of how low of morality a place is capable of achieving. in order for it to mean something positive, profit would have to be dispersed more widely than thinly. otherwise its a sign of people LOSING more.
Taken into bankers accounts, not monarchs. Monarchs lost the war against bankers and their power over a century back.
Thank you for your content ❤
Great video
I always learn something new from you
inspiring. thank you
I appreciated you giving the caveats on how narratives can be co-opted by governments and how that doesn't mean these narratives are invalid. Especially when we speak of Latin America, I always have to remind this to myself because of all of instability and violence that there has been both from international interference and from local people using leftist rhetoric to take advantage or terrorize working class people. I pray that one day we in Latin America can hold both our sincere wish for stopping poverty and our past tribulations in getting there. All power to all the people, even if we stumble along the way
Keep up the good work!
Can you make a video talking about Ai and what we should be doing? I feel like a lot of people in our generation are not really partaking in the conversation around AI or not taking it seriously. I feel it has potential to help in ushering in a solar punk world and helping to solve many issues we face today like global warming but with the most powerful models being in the hands of corporate giants and this arms race between the U.S and china on top of the empowerment of bad actors using this technology... im afraid we've got a long ride ahead.
Im not even talking about the existential terminator scenarios. There are tons of near term like 1-2 year implications and it feels like none of us are talking about it.
Yeah I’m terrified tbh, I understand why many artist are completely against it but unfortunately it doesn’t look like the train will be slowing down.
I would die to know your thoughts on Trinbagonian and Caribbean politics, Andrew. With how influential patriarchy, colonialism and "production equals prosperity" plagues our communities. I wonder how much of our lives is lost in that pursuit.
i've got a book in progress that may be of interest :) i also used to talk about these topics on my old medium blog as well as on a secret tiktok, and i hope to return to that more regional work in the future.
@@Andrewism Bet! I look forward to it. Its always great to hear from regional voices. Keep up de good work!
@@Andrewism FWIW, I for one (as a random not-in-that-geography viewer) would welcome content that's specific to there. I'm sure there'd be useful parallels to something or other.
Much love
You can make a lenseless monocle by poking a needle hole to look through. Business cards are a good thickness for it. Works better with more light
As a conscious New Afrikan I thank you for these video essays.
They are one of the many tools I use to dig out of this cell of capitalism
Hi. I basically never comment on youtube videos, let alone videos in the "leftist youtube" space, as much as I consume those videos. I don't have anything insightful to say, other than: I really like this channel. I really, really feel like you are filling in a certain gap of content and perspective that I want to exist in this particular space, at least in so far as what I have been exposed to by this capricious and nebulous "algorithm." Really glad you exist and you're putting the work into this channel and getting these ideas out there.
I find your videos so far to capture a sense of “economics” and social troubles that so far has not sapped me of all hope. You show problems in a way that makes me dream of something better and see a path towards it.
Lots of pasta and warm blankets, methinx.
Not a joke! Good friends too. Especially to share the pasta and warmth with.
The concept of living a good life is different across time and place. In ancient Rome, to live an honorable or good life could be something like being a soldier and showing your loyalty to Rome, being a wealthy man, becoming a senator or even a consul etc. In the colonies during the time of revolt serving the colonial army would have been honorable, which to me is an important part of a "good life." All I know is that westerners are losing sense of community and identity, and part of a good life is to stand for something, because having meaning is what makes a good life. Whether that manifests in being a soldier on the front lines of your nations war, exploring the world like a nomad, living in your village and helping uplift your community and much more. So I believe the key aspects, among others are meaning and honor. This among technical needs like water, food, shelter, of course. Sorry if this comment was a bit rambly but I felt like adding in my one cent.
Where do you get the art that illustrate your videos?
For me, i also need to use my skateboard as my method of transportation.
I'm going to listen to this video with my family. I wonder if we can find direction with it.
Hope. Thank you.
Amazing!
i have also been thinking about this a lot. Im currently taking a semester off from college to evaluate what my life choices. Ive always wanted to go to medical school and become a physician, but recently ive become more cognizant of the realities of capitalist medicine. Not to mention the student loans which I have no desire nor plan to pay. I have a deep desire to learn about the human body and how we can use our knowledge to help others, but I feet trapped under capitalism. I am starting to consider solarpunk/anarchist community as a legitimate option. I think I still want to go to medical school to learn, but instead of working in a hospital where others' pain is capitalized on, i'd like to try to bring it to anarchist spaces in an attempt to reclaim it. I think we need to reclaim science as a whole. Right now it is being used to benefit the wealthy. We are nature that has become self-aware, and science is very much the study of ourselves in every way. Imagine the possibilities if it was taken seriously, instead of being capitalized on and commodified.
sorry for the tangents LOL
gracias!
Thank you for addressing spirituality!! I am always looking for leftists who invite people to embrace their spiritual needs. Not everyone has those needs-- but as someone who has profound spiritual needs-- I often feel alienated from leftist spaces who reject religion/spirituality altogether. Thank you again. Your work is full on wonder and conviction.
people can identify more corporate logos than native plants
This puts me in mind of Taoism ☯️ Western culture is obsessed with the yang (the individual) and has abandoned the yin (everything beyond the individual that makes up a person). We really have lost our way... I really recommend Ursula K Le Guin's translation of the 'Tao Te Ching' if you're interested!
In this context, yang also represents what we do, while yin represents what we don't do. We learn that doing more, taking more, achieving more is 'virtuous' - but wisdom is in knowing when (and how) to be still, to leave alone, to give back.
A nice allegory for this is the table - a table that is all substance will reach the ceiling, serving no purpose: the value in a table is in its surface - where it ends, where it is not. So we see that being more is not being better. The yang (what you do) determines your substance, while the yin (what you don't do) determines the shape of your character and your value to those around you. Both are necessary but they must be in balance.
th-cam.com/video/iGO2g1TnNHA/w-d-xo.html
I immediately equated Buen vivir to uBuNtu the minute I started viewing this piece. especially the point and fact that these concepts continue to be fugitive and resistant to western linguistic translations which are infected by colonial and by extension capitalist tendencies.
We appreciate your expansion on the global ideals as found in most cosmologies of the various peoples of the world who have had to struggle against colonisation and capitalistic oppressions.
All Power! Amandla!
I would like it if debt, taxes and insurance weren't perpetually mandatory. And that I could still expect to have a place to call home, clean water to drink, and nutritious food to eat. Without a constant threat of someone always wanting to take it all away for one reason or another.
Healthy relationships would also be nice but I find them hard to maintain without the other prerequisites of basic security. I understand that's it's possible to have all of those things in the right community. But unless you're born into one they are difficult to find or create. Even if you muster enough humility to pursue and join them.
1:36 Many of us have an easier time recognizing brand logos than we do that plants that grow around us.
Did I come to this channel to be personally attacked? Yes, yes I did, but oof, this one stung a little.
Gonna learn and grow from it, just like the plants around me, that I can't name most of, but gonna need some emotional first aid for a bit in the mean time.
You should make a video on South Africa🇿🇦
Based and real
Do you consider these "Isms" like Marxism, Bouddhism, Buen Vivir etc to be thought experiments that allow us to consider human existence from a variety of angles? Or should they actually be implemented? I ask this with the doubt in mind as to whether some method could actually solve our problems, or whether we are the problem? Meaning that we need to understand the foundational problem before applying solutions.
Not that i write this as an advocate for what you call "isms" but is there not a logical problem with your premise.
Is there a ",problem" if "we" are the problem.
And when you say "we" do you really mean all or do you mean some.
Identifying "the problem" with an inherently subjective experience seems impossible or even futile.
What is good for one can never be good for all.
The simple idea that something , particularly an ideology or way of living is good for all seems flawed.
It seems more reasonable that we try, different things , different experiences and reflect study, change our minds.
There are certain things that believe in , i would certainly never try to persuade another of my beliefs. But it does take those who would to push the needle. In each and every moment they simultaneously risk disaster or greatness, depending on how one looks at it.
pura vida
Solidarity
Great video, it reflects the attitudes that existed within early communities in the Caribbean; sadly political dogma is eroding the the things that held us together.
you can set rules for good life, for example having meaningful labour, living with and feeling the cycle of the ecology we live in.
that means we do not have any of that in modern world, and that why we have wars, money, and pollution.
Ah there’s Sundance Harvest at 15:15!!!
Up! 👍
What is this flag shown at 5:58 ? Does it have a name? what does it stand for?
I argue everyday with the econ professor about this. Kills me inside. Prosperity Without Growth has been great. The Red Deal talks a bit about this. Jason Hickels is doing a lot of degrowth work.
The pandemic never went away. Our "leaders" just said it did because they want us all back to work.
It's a beautiful life
We are the only once that can help.
Buen Vivir reminds me of Stoicism in that both philosophies have themes of good life. They are identical as this notion goes beyond individual pleasure to the community and nature as a whole. I think you should make a video about Stoicism and leftist ideas as I’m both things and there isn’t much content looking at that philosophy from a leftist perspective
what does it mean to live a good life. my whole life is this question and the fact that i'm prevented from just being good kills me.
and advertising should be illegal. i keep telling people this and they laugh. they can't even imagine not being sold to
Wonder if you would like to do another collab video with the youtuber "Our Changing Climate"
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Living in this madness of society and trying to be part of a healing can be strenous.
Sometimes its best to arrive to buen vivir.
But i doubt the line go up movement as the sole criterion of things happening will die out that easily.
But it affects our minds and it is good to know there are so many people out here who are creating and promoting alternatives. It just will take time.
Actually much of what you're discussing was 1st proposed be Epicurian philosophy 3000 years ago.
love the paintings
There is something that I do not understand. Why wouldn't it make sense to translate Buen Vivir into English for being a "western" language when Spanish is already a western language? I also wanted to tell you that the term "Latin America" is completely colonial and that it would be preferable if you used the term Hispanic America. For everything else, very good video.
"Hispanic" is derived from Hispania, or Spain, so it's also western 😂 maybe just Central and South America?
The issue of translation is not about either being western languages, that's not what was said. It's moreso about how in translating the term, the weight and history behind it can be lost. Translation can lead to decontextualisation.
Your opinion has been heard, suspicious as it is coming from someone with a depiction of the Santa Maria as their profile pic. Regardless, I'll continue using the term Latin America. It's not without controversy, but it still has its uses, and Hispanic America is no less colonial in origin.
@@AndrewismThanks for answering the translation question. However, I have to say that the term "Hispanic America" is not colonial (unlike Latin America) but rather refers to the mestizo culture shared by all those territories (including many isolated indigenous communities). Latin America, on the other hand, is a term created by the absolutist emperor Napoleon III so that the inhabitants of those lands would abandon their mestizo culture and thus make the French invasion easier. In any case, you are free to use the term that you consider best. All the best.
💗💗💗🔥🔥🔥🎯🎯🎯
I just had the strangest little moment. I just hit pause the very instant you were saying it. I paused the video right in the middle of you saying the word.
After that intro I needed to take a breath. It is hard to know this and hear this again and again and feel it so much bigger than you, while desperately trying to survive wages that never pay one enough to live.
comment for the algorithm