. . . for my kids. . . and good friends
 

funny name for a blog!

 
. . . there's a history here; I can almost trace it back to mid-Wales and the early 70s, when I was living on a 'tiny-holding' in Abermule, informed and inspired by John Seymour's 'Self-Sufficiency' and the Whole Earth Catalogue; words and ideas that have stayed with me (see below).
 
The 'mantra' (and the domain name!) is original. I came up with it in early 2011, looking at over-weight, rather smug contemporaries. Stay Hungry! Stay Angry! a sort of code that you can live by . . . 
 
as you get older and more comfortable, if you want to retain some self-respect. A pithy version of my gentle, late night Oriel rant (27/9/09) that we'd been handed it all to look after in 1968 and now see what an effing mess we'd made of it -- barely restrained greed and selfishness and self-congratulation, elbowing away hope and even thought of a better, fairer life for all.

All we can work on (effectively) is ourselves. And it's a lot more practical than urging everyone to Occupy!, though that has it's place (and places). It's nothing like too late. Unless we start dozing around. Impending death (even if it's 40 years away!) is ever-present by our age. But wow, what a spur to urgent action it can be. So, stay hungry (not flabby; not apathetic) and stay angry (passionate, engaged and not complicit by our cosy silence in the iniquities, injustices and crimes against other human beings and the world we should be cherishing).

What we're doing is wrong on so many levels!! (like the Edinburgh Festival one-liner about crime in multi-storey car parks!) and the mantra offers almost as many responses and escape routes. But it is also the essential first step.

It's not easy starting a blog. In the beginning was the idea. Then the questions (about how to do it well). Then, in January 2011, the inspiration, and the first words. Then the procrastination. And now it's underway, at last.

Stay Hungry! Stay Angry! You just have to believe me that it did not come from Steve Jobs. You can ask Madian at books@cafe -- he heard it in the middle of 2011, (and his response fortified me) -- that's well before Jobs's death and the many replays of his brilliant Stanford speech, quoting the Whole Earth Catalogue's advice: stay hungry, stay foolish; but that was the sixties.

I'm glad my version is more edgy/more clearly subversive. Sadly it's getting too late to be foolish any more. But we can all stay hungry and we can all stay angry. Let's hope it's not too late for that to make a difference.

I even have the wrist bands!! and i'm happy to send you one if you email me . . .

Last Updated on Sunday, 25 November 2012 19:55  

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