Capitalism: A Mental Illness Generating System

In a country afflicted by endemic violence and social inequality, South Africa is a country in which evolving structural violence continues to perpetuate deep-rooted inequality, poverty and social injustice. The mental health sector is not immune to this and often struggles with the same issues faced on a societal level. Mental health in South Africa

Does Our Social Dilemma Leave Room for a Solution?

Last night (as of writing this) I took some time to watch the Netflix Documentary Our Social Dilemma, which provides a relatively deep dive into the frightening way that social media algorithms have come to dictate almost every facet of our existence. Watching the very people who helped design these systems emphatically convey the dangerous

Psychedelics, Conspiracies and the Neoliberal Milieu

Lately, we’ve seen a spurt of spiritual individuals, many of them linked to the psychedelic community, almost surprisingly invest themselves into conspiratorial thinking that lends itself to right wing tendencies. I say surprisingly, but should it come as such a shock considering the context and approach within which most psychedelic circles take their ‘medicine’? This

Leftist Arrogance and the Question of Religion

“Modern humans made the night sky opaque; made the stars disappear; cut ourselves off from the cosmos; severed ourselves and our children from celestial miracles; banished mystery and knowledge; exiled ourselves from infinity.” – Drew Dellinger It’s been a real pleasure to watch the it’Sunny blog develop and grow, and I’m excited to find myself

Why Capitalism is Inherently Racist

As the world continues to be a deeply racist society, racism continues to inhere in at least two aspects of the system. First, the continued exploitation of people of color for profit. And second, it is demonstrated in the demand that people of color must accommodate to the white man’s system, rather than vice versa. 

The Limits and Possibilities of Morality for Finite Humans Living in a Finite World

“Nihilism represents the ultimate logical conclusion of our great values and ideals – because we must experience nihilism before we can find out what these ‘values’ really had. – We require, sometime, new values.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power, Preface, §4. How do we – human, all too human beings – reform our

Liberals, Look to Your Left!

Almost anyone who identifies as being somewhere on the radical end of the political spectrum – as an anarchist or an autonomous Marxist or just a plain old leftist, for instance – has probably found themself in situations where they have had to explain their ideas to well-meaning but deeply frustrating individuals who also seek

Some More Gender Trouble

‘Are you a man or a woman, dear?’ A question that’s been eating away at me for quite some time. As if these are the only two options. For many non-genderqueer people, this particular question enjoys an almost solidified and unquestionable status as a factual principle of gender reality. You are either a man or

Eviction Convictions: Property Rights versus Human Rights

In Cape Town, South Africa, there has recently been an outbreak of riots, and the very first thing that most news sources would tell you about was the violence. Oh, the violence, so bad, so terrible. And yes, violence is absolutely awful, and should always be a last resort. However, thanks to the unilateral narratives

Thinking Beyond the Ballot

I have never voted at the polls.  It is not a statement that I make openly to many people in my life, as it is often met with great disdain and dismissal, or a “yes but…” kind of statement.  I am very passionate about this position.  I always have been something of an anarcho- communist,

Ghosts

When we look out at the sky at night, we’re also looking back into the past. The light from distant stars takes so long to reach us that we cannot be sure that, in reality, they’re still there. Although the myriad things that surround us on Earth – rocks and rose bushes and panda bears

Why I Became An Anarchist: My Case for the Unruled Collective

If you have been following my writings or blog recently, you may have noticed quite a big content change. Although I am still spiritual and invested in that journey, I made a decision at the beginning of this year to stop sitting on the fence and find something viable to stand on socially and politically;

Will Our Energy Prevail?

“There was madness in any direction, at any hour. You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning… And that, I think, was the handle — that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean

An Open Letter to Black Lives Matter: Why We Need to Pay Attention to Climate Change

South Africa condemns the lynching murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police Department. We extend our deepest sympathy and solidarity to his traumatised family and community. We salute the thousands of Minneapolis residents who have come out in justified  indignation to demand justice for George Floyd. We are part of those protests in every

Your Body is the Revolution

One of the core ways capitalistic-states traumatise us all; all genders, all sexes, all races, everyone is by alienating us from the earth, from those around us and from the very thing we use to walk and run and work and play and dance; our bodies. “A woman’s body is a living, breathing altar” –

The Long Freeway Through Serfdom

One brutally cold June morning in 2016 I stood among the tall grass as that distant winter sun peered over the rolling hills of a friend’s small farm in Diepsloot.  What struck me as we looked out over those golden hills, rolling eternally, up until the moment they met the stark and tall orange walls

Emoticons, Moral Certainties and Life

“Human beings are by nature actors, who cannot become something until first they have pretended to be it. They are therefore not to be divided into the hypocritical and the sincere, but into the sane, who know they are acting, and the mad, who do not.” – Attributed to W.H. Auden   I have long

Amateur theory Time: Connect to your Cycles and Cut Capitalisms’ throat

Lately,  I’ve become more interested in anarchism, ecology, somatic experiencing, fungi, connecting with one’s cycles, capitalism, and patriarchy…..and inhale. This, is, of course, a lengthy list of subjects to be interested in and so I may be completely wrong, or at the very least, there may be some gaps in my very limited knowledge and

Conversations with Aragorn Part 1: The Anarchist Project, Post-Structuralism and Possibilities of a Better World

Aragorn Eloff is a long time-time anarchist with a keen interest in different forms of grassroots struggle, ecological activism and animal liberation.He is also an independent researcher working at the intersection of radical politics and continental philosophy, with a focus on the work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.He currently works for New Frame, a

Dear Life Coaches: Why You Need to Remain Socially Conscious

Although I have spent almost a lifetime diving deep into the world of self-development and spirituality, I am still a newbie to this business. In fact, I am only starting my business officially within the next few weeks. So as a newbie, I humbly ask that you take into consideration a recent awakening I had

Food for Thought: Enlightened or Privileged?

Has spirituality, to a certain extent, become co-opted by certain groups as a (perhaps unconscious) way to maintain undertones of far right-wing capitalistic ideology?

My Personal Experience With Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)

This may rub some people the wrong way but the truth of the matter is, as someone who has been diagnosed with adult non-hyperactive ADHD, I do not know if it exists. Now when I say that, I am NOT saying it doesn’t exist either. *WHAT I AM NOT HERE TO DO IS INVALIDATE ANYONE’S

You should get the Vaccine because my Mom has Cancer

It happened in May 2021, devastation in the middle of a global crisis. It was the size of a marble, hidden in the cleavage of my mom’s breasts; she thought it was a cyst. It wasn’t. What followed was endless cycles of doctors’ appointments and every scan, X-ray, and -ogram known to man. All of

Exclusive Interview with the BBC African Correspondent Andrew Harding – The Role of Media in Climate Change

“We need to get better at pushing big climate stories into the headlines; we are just not as good at it as we should be.” – Andrew Harding Andrew Harding has been living in South Africa for over 10 years. He is currently the BBC African foreign correspondent. He has spent the majority of his

The Revival of Purpose

I’m writing this to the part of me that cringes when I use the word ‘purpose’, and to the part of you that does the same thing. I find myself using this word naturally, without thinking about it. But then I’m also like, ‘but do we reeeeaaaaalllly have a purpose?’. So I thought about it

The Catch 22 with Animal Conservation: The Poaching Problem

Over the past several years animal poaching has been a severely increasing problem particularly in South Africa in regards to Rhino poaching. This brings up one of the hardest questions to answer: How do we stop this? Yes, surveillance, monitoring, stricter border control and law implementation are great measures but they tend not to fully

Breathing is Getting Harder Under Capitalism

I have noticed how life has taken a toll on all of us. It’s getting harder to breathe each day because of the inequality and injustice we live under. Toxic pollution is hanging over our cities’, possessing a major threat to our health and the climate. We are slowly dying, capital is fueling the earth’s

Conversations with Jordan Bates: New Earth Entrepreneurship

Jordan Bates, Founder of Ouroboros and co-owner of High Existence took some time to sit down and answer some questions regarding one of his latest passion projects ‘Shamanic Entrepreneurship’, now renamed ‘New Earth Entrepreneurship’. Dayna: What inspired you to start the Shamanic Entrepreneurship group? / Could you possibly describe this project in a few sentences?

Let’s Talk About Clover

These days more and more people are becoming vegetarian or turning to veganism, which are fantastic ways to live an environmentally sustainable lifestyle. However, these methods require major lifestyle adaptations which can be intimidating to many people. I find that people who are often not ready to make such changes in their lives, such as