For so many of us – perhaps most of us – a peculiar energy resides at the core of our being, an energy that does not accept the world we are given, that does not agree that what we see is all there is, that knows – as the World Social Forum procla…
It’s so tempting to say “Global warming caused superstorm Sandy.” And it is so easy to counter with “Storms like Sandy happen. You can’t say that global warming caused a particular storm!” Much human folly nowadays comes from believing that identi…
I like this article by Rebecca Solnit (who’s writing I’m coming to love more and more) not because it comes from “the left” but because it calls for sanity and decency. It acknowledges the overriding fact that our quasi-democratic system is itself…
Today’s article by Rebecca Solnit about Occupy Wall Street is fabulous, but she erred on an important fact. She ascribes the following quote abut the state of mind of anti-nuclear activists in the 1978 Clamshell Alliance to journalist Bill Moyers:…
The process and mandate of panelists in citizen deliberative councils tend to make randomly selected people act much more responsibly as citizens while on the council. A recent article in the New York Times Magazine notes that randomly selected pa…
For years I’ve known people who gave away their professional services as a gift, explicitly encouraging (though not requiring) gifts in return to allow them to continue their work. I’ve also loved the idea of “paying it forward” – enjoying as a gi…
As powerful economic, ecological, and social imbalances work themselves out in and around our lives, we face some pretty hard times – some of us already, some of us more than others, most of us increasingly. Each of us hopes we can ameliorate the …
The debate over corporate power and money in politics is beginning to generate some significant light – good analysis, integral thinking, creativity – as well as heat – passion, slogans, quick response. If both of these forces of nature can synerg…
As the new year – the oddly fabled year of 2012 – is upon us, all sorts of people are making predictions, making wishes, making commitments (as well as making money, making trouble, making plans…). I like the approach of Sarah van Gelder, editor…
During the next week I’ll be reporting on a wide variety of initiatives and inquiries arising among Occupy activists in this transition phase of their movement. But first I want to share one of the main thrusts of their emerging effort, which is s…