RedOvechkin1917

Last week, I read "The Way of the Shaman" by Michael Harner (HarperOne, 1980). The first chapter of the book is by far the most interesting. The author travels to Latin America to learn about shamanism in indigenous tribes in Latin America, and trips Ayahuasca with tribal elders in Peru (I think). This trip takes place in the 1950s. I wonder if Harner was the first westerner to do ayahuasca at all, or with an indigenous shaman. I was interested in this topic matter because of my own mental health struggles and my desire to explore beyond the confines of white, western medicine. I think that white capitalist civilization is a chief source of many of the mental health struggles that I have experienced, so I am very frustrated when psychiatrists encourage me to pop a few pills and then resume with business as usual in capitalist America. I once asked my psychiatrist what differences I could expect between a variety of different anti-depressants he had suggested, and he pretty mu...

  One podcast that I have really been enjoying lately is “Soberania,” a Mexican news podcast. A friend of mine in DSA recommended it to me, and I find that the hosts offer a very sharp perspective on current events within Mexico that steers clear of all the misinformation and smears that abound in the U.S. corporate media. The two characters who receive the most coverage in the show are Mexico’s former president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), and Mexico’s recently elected president, Claudia Scheinbaum. Each of them are member’s of Mexico’s MORENA party, which is a very popular left-wing political party. I would highly recommend that individuals in the U.S. who are despairing over the possibility of left-wing electoral campaigns study MORENA and its two recent leaders. AMLO left office with something like a 60% approval rate, and MORENA supports policies such as transitioning to green energy, supporting a Free Palestine, and ending the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba. In Mexico,...