Equanimity is a free magazine-style website designed to entertain and inform. It is single-handedly produced and funded on a not-for-profit basis by sole-trading from a sustainable, semi-off-grid suburban block. It is a record for posterity of some life-long learnings, for what they are worth.

I share a determination with other like-minded individuals and organizations to bring about a glocal (globally-conscious local living) coexistence that benefits everyone and, naturally, involves responsible stewardship of our environment. The core of my activities is advocacy of different facets of sustainability (environment, demography, history, social politics, money and economy) as well as systems upgrades (calendars, spelling and language). I am involved in numerous Projects at any one time.

My background is in behavioral science and language. I was born and raised in Melbourne to British/Aussie parents. My first school was a short stint in Baghdad, Iraq. Back in Melbourne, after high school, I was accepted into Prahran School of Art to do sculpture, but, concerned for my financial independence, opted for Behavioral Science (psychology and sociology) at La Trobe University. I travelled and dallied with Community Administration (South Australian Institute of Technology, Aboriginal Task Force) and then, in 1988 started a 30 year career in teaching English language to non-native speakers (TESOL, University of New England, Master of Science in Education, TESOL, Aston University). I taught in Melbourne and Thailand and at universities in Japan, the U.K and Australia.

I achieved debt-free home-ownership early and advocate it for everyone as a bedrock of security in our current paradigm. I started distancing myself from the labor force in my 30s as I questioned the ‘hard work’ ethic that keeps ordinary people in service to the wealthy. We are the beneficiaries of 6.000 years of civilizations creating a built environment that we have, but do not share adequately. We have a massive population and highly advanced technology for whatever labour needs to be done. We have a distribution problem, not a supply problem. We create demand unnecessarily. I have freed myself of the regimentation of external employment and support myself without government assistance. As I age, I’m being labelled ‘retired’, but I don’t think of myself that way at all. Most of my time involves running my sharehouse and voluntary community work. My time is my own and I use it with passion. Long before I dispensed with the feeling of being ‘time-poor’, I dispensed with what I call the ‘mentality of poverty’.

My household is atypical. I spent 10 years investigating intentional communities and sustainable cohousing. I have tested micro-economic methods for fair, transparent cohabitation. Having learnt much and simplified a lot, it is still invigorating to be lessor (landlord), housemate, farmer, teacher and employer. You don’t need a lot of assets and a high cash flow to live a quality life.

In 2007 I co-founded a Chapter of the Zeitgeist Movement in Brisbane and remained in a leadership role in it until its climax and closing in 2017. The movement advocates a borderless, hi-tech, sustainable global resource based economy. While I sympathize with those lofty ambitions, I have come to the view that it is wholly unrealistic. Humans are no where near ready for it, especially those outside the Western world. People are tribal and need a sense of belonging and identity to place and past. The future is unwritten and must be navigated day by day with pragmatism and compassion. Ethno-nationalism is, I believe, the path through which humanity will find peaceful coexistence. I know most people regard that as anathema today, but we have the international institutions to make that a success, we just need to nurture the culture to match it. As Andy Wahol said, “The only way out is in.”

I formed Equanimity Foundation in January, 2011 as an investigation into alternative legal frameworks. By 2020 I had learned of the many models for philanthropic community initiatives and, as the size of my activity doesn’t warrant a legal entity, I closed the Foundation. I have philanthropically supported local activities such as an electric vehicle conversion start up company and a bridging home (house-boat) loan. My end-of-life plan is to emulate Chuck Feeny’s Atlantic Philanthropies.

To donate or bequeath estate, I can recommend many worthy organizations – see the links here. I suggest you only donate once you have a debt-free roof over your head!

Contact me HERE.

Artwork by Simon Cole
Copyright © 2021