Tag: violence

Being Grateful in Bangladesh – Episode 178

by Kurt Robinson on October 3, 2017 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Story: Feel gratitude for the peace around you

We took an uncomfortable 10 hour bus ride from Dhaka to Cox’s Bazar, which every Bangladeshi will tell you is the longest beach in the world. Technically, that’s not true, that honour goes to Praia do Cassino in Brazil at 250km. The rightful title of Cox’s Bazar is the longest *natural sand* beach in the world, at 120km, which is probably more impressive.

Looking around on the beach, or wherever you are, you might notice the lack of something. The lack of violence and intimidation. We are constantly bombarded with messages from the media telling us how dangerous the world is, how murder is waiting around every corner. They tell us so often, sometimes we forget to look around us and see that it’s absolutely not true – most of the time, things are peaceful. It’s good to connect with that peace every once in a while, and remember how lucky we are to live in a world where we can enjoy freedom from attack, where we can just sit silently alone or with friends.

Join me on a tale of gratitude on the next exciting episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please become a patron on Patreon, or have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Episode 113 – Non-Aggression Principle – Anarchapulco Nights

by Aaron Battle on July 3, 2016 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Episode:

How we celebrate the newest annual Mexican holiday that represents freedom for our fellow human… Anarchapulco!

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

The Cash:

The Story:

Everyone has their favourite holiday season, we all love the summer break, Christmas and Easter. As for myself and many other free minds we celebrate ideas and giving freedom to our fellow man. This event like many other holidays only happens once a year, it has become the new perfect reason to quit your job, to retire or at least take a few weeks off work. Kurt and I have attended this event for 2 years running – and many others that attended decided to remain in Acapulco, either way – see you at Anarchapulco!

Here we have for you another behind the scenes episode of the greatest event, being ‘Anarchapulco’. In this episode we discuss how important Anarchapulco has become for the Paradise Paradox. For the reason that there is an interesting dynamic that is cultivated at this event. Firstly everyone brings shared values and when spending time with many many people that understand and seek similar passions, there is a light generated at the end of the tunnel. We choose peace, love and Anarchy and this holiday/conference is celebrated in Acapulco, Mexico.

In the second half of this episode Kurt explains to me an important principle, which many understand and follow in their everyday lives. Basically this principle outlines that one should not inflict violence against others. However, this principal has much deeper implications, that many may not have considered. Have you asked yourself – Where do I draw the line when others want to inflict violence against me? or, how do I feel about living in a society that threatens violence to control people? At what level am I willing to accept violence in my life..? These are the questions that leaves one wondering… if our society is so modern and civilised why do bodies of governance lower themselves to such medieval ways?

The Eps:

Anarcho-Superheroes – Anarchapulco Nights 2016

Liberty Hip Hop Live at Anarchapulco 2016

Closet Communist – Anarchapulco Nights 2016

Anarchapulco Nights 2015

Anarchapulco 2015 Breakdown

The Links:

A Rational Principle of Ethics and Liberty

Anarchapulco 2017 Pre-Sale

Episode 42 – School Sucks

by Kurt Robinson on June 24, 2015 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

The Cash:

Or donate your Altcoins using Shapeshift:

Or give us a small amount of money every month using PayPal:

The Story:

Do you remember your school days? If you’re like most people, you don’t reflect on the past too much. You could go through your life not winding your mind back to your time in a very strange place, a very different place. Depending on which country you grew up in, perhaps you had to go to school – maybe you were coerced into going to school. Maybe it was made clear to you that there just wasn’t any other choice. You might have gone through 10 or 13 years of your life, going to school every day without even questioning why you were doing it.

This was a place where you were going every weekday, where other people were forced to go too. If you had the choice, you might not have been in the proximity of these people at all. Caged wolves will attempt to dominate one another, using violence. If we put children in a cage, the results are not surprising.
When a teacher stands in front of a class and talks, the message isn’t so hard to determine. They might teach science, history, maths, or they might tell a child directly “You are worthless. You will amount to nothing.” Think back. Do you remember some variation of this from your “education”?

However, even if a teacher doesn’t directly insult the students, there is a meta-communication which runs right through the system. Many modern schools, especially public school, are still based on a military model. I tell you what to do, and you do it. If you don’t do what I tell you, you are disobedient, you are a bad kid, you shall be punished. If you survive this system with a capability for independent thought, you are the exception, not the rule.

How does schooling affect the way we think, for better or worse? Is it possible that you had some traumatic experiences there, that caused some mental scar tissue which may never completely heal? Have you forgotten so absolutely, that you would be willing to put your own children through the same thing? Let’s dive into these muddy waters of questions in the next exciting chapter of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

Radical Unschooling – A Revolution Has Begun-Revised Edition by Dayna Martin
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, 10th Anniversary Edition by John Taylor Gatto
In the Absence of Fathers – A Story of Elephants and Men
Unschooling and Freedom Parenting with Dayna Martin
Who The HELL Are These People? with John Taylor Gatto
Pedro Kumamoto makes history with shoestring campaign and win in Mexico
Jeff Berwick on Emancipated Human

Episode 37 – A Moral Compass

by Kurt Robinson on May 31, 2015 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or on the ceiling of your basement dungeon.

The Cash:

Or donate your Altcoins using Shapeshift:

Or give us a small amount of money every month using PayPal:

The Story:

Thursday, May 14th 2015, Chihuahua, Mexico. A group of five children aged 11 to 15 knock on the door of their neighbour, Christopher Raymundo Márquez Mora, 6 years old. They ask Christopher if he wants to come play with them and gather some firewood. Christopher obliged. The children told Christopher that they wanted to play a game of kidnapping. Christopher Márquez was never seen alive again.

Days later, the Missing Persons Unit started questioning the youths, as they were the last people seen with Christopher. Their stories quickly became contradictory, and soon they were confessing to an awful crime. They had tied Christopher up, nearly suffocated him with a metal bar, stoned him to death, removed his eyes from his head, stabbed him several times in the back, and buried him in a shallow grave. The children covered the grave with weeds and a dead animal, presumably to mask the smell and stop any predator from digging up the corpse.

This case is particularly shocking in its brutality. On the whole, the world is becoming less violent. But a lot of violent cases still occur. In Australia, tens of people die per year as a result of being hit with no warning – what’s now known as a “coward’s punch”. Then there are reported cases of college students killing homeless in the USA as a sort of game.

What could have inspired these young boys and girls to murder Christopher Márquez? What cultural factors might be involved in producing such deadly games? Do people really know what morality is, or do they just think of what they can get away with? Do people know what it means to have a moral compass? We ask these questions and more in this exciting chapter of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

The Girl Next Door book (Amazon affiliate link)
The Girl Next Door movie (Amazon affiliate link)
Sylvia Likens on Wikipedia
Steven Pinker TED talk – The Surprising Decline in Violence
Sucker punch on Wikipedia
Teen ‘sport killings’ of homeless on the rise
Cassidy – B-Boy Stance
Elephant Delinquents
The Bomb in the Brain – The true roots of human violence
COPS takedown

Cover image used and modified under Creative Commons. Original image by Walt Stoneburner.

Episode 31 – Streets are Burning: Jalisco & Baltimore

by Kurt Robinson on May 8, 2015 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

The Cash:

Or donate your Altcoins using Shapeshift:

Or give us a small amount of money every month using PayPal:

The Story:

The date was May 1st, 2015. I picked up my phone and noticed an unread message. “Do you know something about the narcobloqueos?”

“Hm… no. What’s that?”

“Aahh okay. Some shitty thing about narcos.”

I don’t own a television, don’t listen to the radio, and so sometimes remain in a state of blissful ignorance about the outside world, so I had no idea that on nine roads and highways in Guadalajara, there were burning buses, allegedly set on fire by agents of drug cartels – specifically the Jalisco New Generation cartel. Seven people were killed that day, mostly police officers and military. Twelve were injured, and three people went missing. It also meant my friend couldn’t catch the bus to her home in El Salto.

I asked a few people about it, and the response was that it happened every election season. The rumour was one of conspiracy. The theory is that every election, the government, in collusion with the drug cartels, does something to spook the people just a little bit. Then, whoever is in government can swoop in, saying that they will be extra hard on drug traffickers, appearing as the hero to anyone who isn’t paying enough attention to know what is really going on. The cartel refrains from burning any buses for a few months or a few years, and it appears that these violent symptoms have been pacified. Naturally, the core issue remains unaddressed.
About two weeks ago, I saw a protest in downtown Guadalajara.

A little more than a year ago, the second largest market in downtown Guadalajara, Mercado Corona, had gone up in flames, and with no official investigation, and little investigation in general. Nobody can say for sure who did it. However, a certain statesman was, just a few months previously, calling for the demolition redevelopment of that exact piece of real estate, it’s not surprising that suspicious people are quick to ask questions. And they are right to ask questions. A people that is not suspicious of its government will quickly get lead astray.

North of the border, in Baltimore, Maryland, on the 27th of April, the media started reporting a riot. Again, suspicious people started to question. For reports of a riot, the media seemed to have a lot more footage of police officers, than they did of actual rioters. Then, a lone CNN camera managed to capture what appeared to be a carefully choreographed performance involving a young protester being abducted by the police.

It is in the interest of the media to sensationalise events. Humans seem to have an evolutionary instinct to react to bad news, and that keeps people glued to their TV sets. But is there more to this story than sensational journalism?

In both of these cases, there are interests who are trying to manipulate public opinion, whether it be the narcotraffickers, the media, or the governments. In this episode, we attempt to analyse some of those factors and speculate on who might benefit from a conspiracy beyond what you can view on your television.

The Links:

Así fueron los incendios y bloqueos en Jalisco
Burning vehicles block roads
“Baltimore riots are a hoax”
“Joseph Kent kidnapping hoax”
Fox13 Memphis posts fake photo
Fox13 Memphis admits error
G20 Agents provocateurs
Dan Dicks Press for Truth “Into The Fire” G20 Toronto documentary

The cover photo is a modified photo used under Creative Commons licence. Original photo here.