Aidan Ricketts
  • Home
  • Commentary
    • New year, a time to embrace the uncertainty of it all
    • We could be non-binary
    • Adaptive resilience vs safety paternalism
    • Left wing, right wing? What just happened to politics?
    • Covid, class and the addiction to certainty
    • Neoliberalism, the Life World and the Psychopathic Corporation
    • Democracy is about our bodies, not just our minds
    • What’s your motivation: is it yourself or the change you’re making?
    • Mind over matter: The world of abstraction is driving us to destruction
    • The real threats to our liberty and survival
    • Avoiding the abyss of conspiracy theories
    • The difference between a legal system and a fantasy novel
    • What’s a conspiracy and what’s just common garden variety corruption?
    • Unpredictability, humility and an emerging anthropandemic
    • The trilemma – climate change, economic collapse, and rising fascism
    • Happy New Normal for the decade ahead
    • Fires, liars and climate deniers
    • The race to the bottom in australian politics
    • Talking about lock-on devices – an article in ‘The Conversation’
    • The Ponzi scheme is teetering
    • Regenerative culture a key part of the blockade experience
    • Staying sane in the late Anthropocene
    • Extinction Rebellion
    • Major parties have failed on climate, it’s time to rebel.
    • Elections In The Late Anthropocene
    • It is the Greens that are defeating the Nats and it’s all about your preferences
    • Australia’s powerhouse of democracy and innovation is in the Northern Rivers
    • Is identity politics a problem for the left?
    • The climate emergency and the awful state of Australian politics
    • Liberty, freedom and civil rights? Do any of us understand these things anymore.
    • Democracy and rights under threat in corporate police state
    • The forest wars are back, time to mobilise
    • …more commentary
  • Workshops
    • Newkind Festival: Australia’s masterclass for social change
    • Earth laws & regional community environmentalism
    • Greens. Reboot. Future. A weekend of great speakers and big topics
    • Stop CSG Sydney – talk by Aidan Ricketts 25/07/14
    • …more workshops
  • News & Events
    • The lucky country is fast becoming a crime scene
    • Gas body fired up over methane leaks
    • Contaminated sites – CSG/LNG
    • Extreme coal in the UK
    • Activists efforts rewarded in Vanuatu
    • …more news & events
  • Media
    • A Flood of Emotions – Sydney Ideas Event
    • Participatory democracy in the COVID era – SCU podcast
    • Activism educator Aidan Ricketts explains how and why protests can be peaceful
    • Bob Brown Is Taking “Shocking” Anti-Protest Laws To The High Court
    • Anti protest laws could arrest nannas, seize tractors
    • “They blinked first”
    • Colin Barnett quick to protest against ‘activism degrees’ – The Australian, 16/10/2014
    • ‘Degrees in activism’ put brake on growth – The Australian, 15/10/2014
    • Magistrate throws out vexatious police case against CSG protesters
    • Outrage over school PR ‘by stealth’- The Northern Star
    • CSG clash a certainty
    • Communities use new tactics
    • Gas group attacks lecturer
    • …more media
  • Activist Resources
    • The Activists’ Handbook
    • The ‘How To Guide’ for declaring your community gasfield free
    • Direct Action and the CSG-Free Community Strategy: an activist training resource
    • Planning and Mapping your Campaign – a guide for local action groups
    • …more resources
  • Reviews
    • The Ecologist review
    • Resurgence review
    • Chain Reaction review
    • Plan to Win review
image of red doorways in a desert

New year, a time to embrace the uncertainty of it all

On January 1, 2023 · Leave a Comment · In Commentary

So, new year was traditionally a time to reflect on the year that passed and look forward to the opportunities of another year. Would it be too pessimistic of me to suggest that it has become a time to pat ourselves on the back for surviving another year, and to take a deep […]

Continue Reading →
Illustration of brain as pop art

We could be non-binary about a lot more than gender

On December 1, 2022 · Leave a Comment · In Commentary

Whilst gender may be the issue around which the idea of non-binariness is becoming familiar, (an overdue recognition of the variety of individual experience) it is worth pondering just how much more non-binary we could all be, in relation to every issue.

Continue Reading →

Adaptive resilience vs safety paternalism

On May 16, 2022 · Leave a Comment · In Commentary

Resilience means more than our ability to return to a previous state after disruption. It means being able to respond and adapt in meaningful ways that take a new set of conditions into account.

The climate crisis is upon us, and already in Australia we are witnessing displacement as a result of increasingly […]

Continue Reading →

Left wing, right wing? What just happened to politics?

On January 21, 2022 · Leave a Comment · In Commentary

As a deep green myself, but also a democratic communitarian I have often found myself arguing against banning things. Our real environmental enemies are the huge corporations, not the working class fishermen, the 4 wders, the campers. These people, whether we think they are doing harm or not, are part of our community and we need to win their hearts and minds. Similarly, if we care about animal rights, we need to win hearts and minds not generate resentment by seeing how many types of racing we can ban.

Continue Reading →

Covid, class and the addiction to certainty

On September 14, 2021 · Leave a Comment · In Commentary

These are frightening and most of all uncertain times. The big question, for true sceptics, is can you really sit with uncertainty? Can you simply not have the answer? Can it simply be beyond your expertise? Is it really you who has to solve it?

Continue Reading →
EFA Neoliberalism and psychopathic corporations video

Neoliberalism, the Life World and the Psychopathic Corporation

On September 8, 2021 · Leave a Comment · In Commentary

I was recently invited onto an Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA*) panel discussion with host Rita Mack, and Angus Murray, a Partner and Trade Marks Attorney at Irish Bentley Lawyers, that raised questions about the nature of the digital world and the crisis of embodiment such as:

Are corporations psychopathic? If corporations are psychopathic, […]

Continue Reading →

Democracy is about our bodies, not just our minds

On June 8, 2021 · Leave a Comment · In Commentary

The word democracy is derived from the Greek root ‘demos’ which refers to the common people. It may sound trite to say that common people are humans and that humans necessarily have bodies but that is exactly where I want to start this.

The fact that we have a body is how we […]

Continue Reading →
Image of blue spiral

What’s your motivation: is it yourself or the change you’re making?

On April 11, 2021 · Leave a Comment · In Commentary

The world will never be perfect and some social problems may remain seemingly intractable for a very long time, but there is no reward at the end of a purity spiral, it is like an ideological pyramid scheme that only produces victims.

Continue Reading →

Mind over matter: The world of abstraction is driving us to destruction

On November 7, 2020 · Leave a Comment · In Commentary

Even in our so-called spiritual communities there is an abundance of mind over matter ideologies on offer. How often do you see statements like ‘everything that we are arises in our minds’, ‘our minds create our reality’ and so on. It’s time to call bullshit on these bypasses.

Continue Reading →

The real threats to our liberty and survival

On October 24, 2020 · Leave a Comment · In Commentary

Outside of government and politics, corporations are a major threat to our liberty and privacy as they use the internet and our personal devices to surveil our lives, largely with our willing participation and build profiles on our consumption patterns, social lives and preferences.

Continue Reading →

Avoiding the abyss of conspiracy theories

On September 9, 2020 · Leave a Comment · In Commentary

Normally we hope that crisis brings the best out in people: cooperation, mutual aid and empathy. This seems to be true of bushfires and floods but something about this pandemic is driving a divisiveness that is making our lives feel more unhinged and conflicted than ever.

Social media has begun to feel like […]

Continue Reading →

The difference between a legal system and a fantasy novel

On August 7, 2020 · Leave a Comment · In Commentary

What is ironic about these so-called sovereign citizen raves is that they actually hold the legal system in naively high regard. Despite appearing to challenge the system, they are actually predicated on the assumption that the legal system has such immutable internal logic and moral integrity that the mere revealing of a fundamental flaw will cause it to voluntarily disband itself. This is the fantasy novel aspect.

Continue Reading →

What’s a conspiracy and what’s just common garden variety corruption?

On June 5, 2020 · Leave a Comment · In Commentary

Oh dear, it’s become very strange of late. Lock down, isolation, social media and fear have provided  fertile ground for all manner of weird theories about the state of the world.

Now let’s be clear. The world is not in good shape. For a start we have a massive problem with climate change, […]

Continue Reading →

Unpredictability, humility and an emerging anthropandemic

On March 4, 2020 · Leave a Comment · In Commentary

Just like the droughts and bushfires have confirmed the dire warnings scientists have been issuing for decades about what to expect from climate chaos, so too does the emergence of a potential anthropandemic virus whether coronavirus or any number of later anthropandemics serve as a warning of the future we are approaching.

[…]

Continue Reading →

The trilemma: climate change, economic collapse, and rising fascism

On February 12, 2020 · Leave a Comment · In Commentary

Climate chaos would be problematic enough if we were able to stand and face it with intact systems of democratic governance and an economic system capable of adaptive resilience. Unfortunately we are instead faced with a truly dysfunctional trilemma of climate chaos, rising global fascism, and an economic system that continues to defy […]

Continue Reading →
← Previous Entries
  • Buy The Activists’ Handbook

    Buy The Activists Handbook by Aidan Ricketts

    Only $28 with free postage

  • Recent Posts

    • New year, a time to embrace the uncertainty of it all
    • We could be non-binary about a lot more than gender
    • Adaptive resilience vs safety paternalism
    • A Flood of Emotions – Sydney Ideas Event
    • Left wing, right wing? What just happened to politics?
    • Tweets by @rickettsa
  • I like these sites

    • Global Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement
  • Community Organisations

    • Code Green Tasmania
    • CSG Free Northern Rivers
    • Friends of the Earth Melbourne
    • Generation Alpha
    • Huon Valley Environment Centre
    • Lock the Gate Alliance
    • Nature Conservation Council NSW
    • North Coast Environment Council
    • North East Forest Alliance
    • Plan to Win
    • Rainforest Information Centre
    • Save our Foreshore
    • Still Wild Still Threatened
    • The Change Agency
    • The Wilderness Society
  • Browse

    • The Activists Handbook
    • Commentary
    • Training workshops
    • News & Events
    • Media
    • Acitvist resources
    • Reviews
    • Consultancy Services

Aidan Ricketts

  • About Aidan
  • The Activists’ Handbook
  • Consultancy Services
  • Contact
  • Site Map
© 1999 - 2017 Aidan Ricketts
Platform by PageLines