My own mind has been home to  radical thoughts since the beginning of my conscious life. For years I thought that it was only ME who saw the world differently. Now how innocent is THAT!

Researching for the bluecray.org  website has led me to  discover some inspiring and reassuring people, websites and journals. These discoveries have encouraged me to stand my ground, state my position from creative insight and seemingly go at odds to  mainstream collective thinking and perception.

I found that  there are people, websites, and journals offering independent activism initiatives that fill a mainstream void.  A void  that so readily occurs when the mainstream momentum engulfs creative radical perimeter thinking,  swallowing, chewing it then regurgitating it as popular thought, minus the deeper meaning and context.

Now I am not saying that this eating up of radical thought by the mainstream is wrong. And I am not saying that this process doesn’t  serving humanity or that it is toxic to humanity’s mass conciousness journey – or is it?

All I am trying to say is that  peripheral radical and unique creative elements  of human society are very essential to the overall wellbeing of the direction of humanity.

• The Change Agency has one such website . While mainstream community environmental workers have undoubtedly helped the environmental “cause”, agencies such as the Change Agency dare to be that little bit different.
• Radical Psychology - A Journal of Psychology, Politics, and Radicalism by the Radical Psychology Network is one such Journal Website. Questioning themselves in the mainstream flow of Psychological knowledge, they appear to be stretching the creative edge of Psychological reasoning and daring to bring their insights to public awareness.
• R J Lifton – is one such individual. He has given value to the Artist and visionary, in the scheme of humanity facing mass destruction.
• Daniel Goleman : Ecological Intelligence, Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence and Truth and Consequence

At ground level, I have seen this feasting on the radical edge, by popular mainstream movement, time and time again, within the environmental movement.

Examples are:

• Organics mainstream:  served to us by popular word, offered as a buffet by supermarket giants and television presentations. To the side still lies true organics, offering a peaceful coexistence with nature that is in stark contrast to the mainstream rush at devouring the earth’s resources.
• Landcare and other mainstream revegetation programs : that feed on weed infested sites, clearing and spraying their way to a new glorious habitat “presentation”, whilst often destroying delicately balanced micro habitats in the process. A diet of weeds can, in fact, be very healthy for a site that is being regenerated.
• Mainstream Climate Change and Natural Resource Management  initiatives and products:  absentmindedly allowing us to buy and spend our way out of future environmental consequences whilst the real issues of “living like kings and gods”,  inequality for human rights and markets for weapons and lifestyles of mass destruction lay dormant in our irrational minds as we take our daily diet of mainstream news for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
• Sustainability : a word so overused now, that it is a frequent term used by the very markets and processes that erode the earth’s environmental sustainability to describe their own financial longevity and practices.

So next time you race out to by the newest “green” product to sponsor a cause, “kill” off that grass with roundup to plant a new forest and decide to buy organic herbs packaged ever so nicely in their plastic container rather than pick your own home grown parsley – have a thought for your own radical psychology – then go to the edge, and THINK AGAIN.

• The Rainforest Information Centre – “Earth Spirit Action” - Deep Ecology
• Alison Tuck : Woman and Child First  - Psychology Links and Articles
• Bluecray philosophy links

shop till you drop bop till you pop
the Bluesfest of Byron is near
the Belongil site’s ready
and Tyagarah looks steady

The Byron Bay Bluesfest 2009 clearly illustrates that the  dichotomy of human rational, ignorance and self-gratuitous environmental belief systems is alive and well in Byron Bay, 2009. The Byron Bay Bluesfest has a long history within the Mt Warning Caldera Region and beyond.
And the slow subtle degradation of habitats and environmental health in the Byron Shire also has a long history.  Players in this field (Belongil Fields and beyond) can pat themselves on the back, preen their egos and shuffle their heads back into the sand. I just wonder how many cigarette butts, bottle tops and pieces of plastic they will find there, after the Byron Bay Bluesfest 2009 is gone and the animals that have survived the trauma of forced relocation come back to their homes to continue their lives.
I love music, I love the land, I love the animals and the human spirits that live in this beautiful Mt Warning Caldera Region.  I pray with all my might that some mass consciousness shift occurs at the Byron Bay Bluesfest at Belongil Fields (or is it Tyagarah?) this year (2009), so that the coming years of Bluesfest “mania” (Tyagarah ?)become directly, immediately and thoroughly accountable to the authentic spiritual land guardians of the Mt Warning Caldera Region.
I say this, because it is clear to me that the Byron Shire is incapable of taking care of this beautiful part of the world – one only has to walk along the shoreline at Byron and through the parklands to see just how much plastic, rubbish, cigarette butts, bottle tops, batteries and god know’s how much unseen waste and toxins have infiltrated the habitats that they proclaim to protect.
The Arakwal people are the historical custodians of the land in this area. Their land stewardship preserved a unique and diverse environmental heritage, much of which has now been swallowed up by inappropriate 19th, 20th and now 21st century development.  Today, more and more people have an increasing  impact on this area and region, and from what I can see, the heritage and rights for the native animals that live in the Habitats of the Byron Shire have been severely compromised.
Words like “precautionary principle”, “environmental sustainability”, “caring for country” and “global crisis” mean nothing, when the current dichotomy of human words and actions are let loose on the planet. Please don’t let the “vision fade”.

2009 Spendour in the Grass Festival Yelgun

Byron Shire Council and the Splendour in the Grass Festival – article in Byron Shire Echo 27th January 2009

Environmental Defender’s Office NSW

EDO Compliance Portal – a tool to assist citizens in enforcing environmental law

Byron Flora and Fauna Study 1999 (google HTML) or at Byron Shire Council publications website