the hive as i see it

this is a one sided manifesto. the co-creator of freedom hive isn't here and so i will give what i can give now.

we are criticized for being a nation of consumers. "united by shopping" i heard at one talk. i like to think it's more than that. but then again sometimes i feel like a tourist. there must be something else, because people here are different than any where else i've been in the world. i'm not going to make comparisons here for the better or worse.

what is true is that we are increasingly pressured to consume, as in more and more of our daily lives we must interact with corporations to do the things we need to do. it seems like we are just a resouce colony being trained to consume.

our youth are under huge pressure. faster than they can generate it, their culture is being fed back to them for profit by the same people that should providing role models and not salesmen.

freedom hive is a notion that to truly be free, we must own to the greatest extent possible the things that nurture our lives. the entertainment we watch when we want to relax or share time with friends. the beautiful objects around us that give us happiness and allow us to feel secure. the fashion we use to communicate our outer self.

and to do it in a sustainable way, without having to rely on the impoverished of other nations to build it for us for a dollar's wage a day.

these are old ideas and they've been tried before. so in essence there's nothing really new in what i say. only the continued desire to make it so.

as i write this, i'm using a computer produced by a multibillion dollar corporation, via an unimaginable internet originating from a US military computer network. and these things will continue to exist and grow just as capitalism continues to eat itself. and until the masses see a need to change the system to one that nutures the earth and its inhabitants in just coexistance, the pressure on the individual to conform to the resulting system will continue to grow.

freedom hive is just another attempt at a solution. why freedom? freedom to live in a world free of messages that tell us we need to buy something or fix ourselves to be happy. freedom to enjoy the company of others without having to defend our right to exist in society or become part of a social class. why a hive? bees are social, just as humans are. we need others. we have the capacity to roam, collect sustanence and beauty, and produce for a common good.

so what about the queen? who will be elected. i suppose there shouldn't have to be one, but generally there is one, and that's how we are. but think of this. maybe the queen is love. love of the father, the mother, the child. what do we love the most? a cause, a group, or maybe ourselves. life is sweet... share the honey.