Another Way to Live Fully in Greece and Escape Capitalism's Darkness-the Peasant's Way.

Small farmers - like Ndomi Magareth, planting beans here
on her land in Cameroon feed the world.

There is 'Another Way' to be in the world without destroying it - living simply, living the peasant's way. We can, each of us no matter where we live, start in our own backyards, rooftops, empty lots and balconies to live the life we dream, to escape the darkness of materialism by living within our one small planet's means, by refusing to consume needless crap, by refusing consumer debt and by following, with worn knees and soil stained hands, the inner light of the peasant's way.

The Zapatistas of Chiapas offer us all an excellent example of how direct action is a wellspring of hope in a desert of dispair. These gentle Mayan descendents of Mexico’s southern region have built real communities based on co-operation, organic food production, a grass roots political revolution.

Greeks have in these last years been forced by criminal bankers and subservient governments to abandon the mainstream economy. Guerrilla gardening and local consumer-producer networks are redefining life in today’s Greek cities. It's an example of how folks in Greece are living and working together outside of capitalism.

Jan Lundberg's wonderful and hopeful article a few days ago explains why the cash economy in Greece is ending, saying in part: "Fortunately, Greeks have a greater connection to the land and sea than most advanced industrialized societies. Typically, families have at least some member with a farm, an orchard, and the means to make homemade wine, cure olives, dry figs, grow fruit, collect herbs, go fishing, and more. The extent of this connection has shrunk drastically since the advent of the shopping culture. But, like in the U.S.'s Great Depression when many Americans had a good chance of having a relative who had a farm to go to as a last resort, Greeks have links to the traditions of their elders and rural relatives."

All around the globe small farmers are finding ways to survive and thrive by refusing to comply with neo-liberal policies designed to force them into debt, then off their land. In Chiapas the Zapatista school  - Escuelita Zapatista - has opened its doors to international solidarity. Unmentioned of course by the capitalist owned mainsteam media thousands of students from around the world attend the University of the Earth, in San Cristóbal de Las Casas and are are returning to their communities, collectives and movements around the world with a new sense of purpose - to pass on all that they've learned while attending the escuelita.

Greece's recent flirtation with liberty, though botched temporarily, will within months turn into a romance. In those months between now and then the other way will continue to show the people of Greece that they have been cheated and stolen from by the oligarchs and the bourgeois who support them. In 6 months there will be no debate, no fear of taking another way.

Please take a few moments and watch this wonderful video that shows how preferable a life of liberty is to a life of compliance. While you do listen to the music of their voices, feel their genuine smiles, imagine that you too could [and should] be living self directed lives of dignity and liberty.