democracy: america's oldest spectator sport...

the challenge: redesigning our institutions...

perhaps the erosion of democratic vitality is an inevitable result of complexity and size. perhaps we should expect no more than limited popular constraint on the activities of government through regular, weakly competitive elections. perhaps the era of the “affirmative democratic state” – the state which plays a creative and active role in solving problems in response to popular demands – is over, and a retreat to privatism and political passivity is the unavoidable price of “progress.” but perhaps the problem has more to do with the specific design of our institutions than with the tasks they face as such. if so, then a fundamental challenge for the left is to develop transformative democratic strategies that can advance our traditional values – egalitarian social justice, individual liberty combined with popular control over collective decisions, community and solidarity, and the flourishing of individuals in ways which enable them to realize their potentials// fung & wright, deepening democracy

the warning...

( about a woman's failed campaign to regulate the derivatives market, whose crash helped trigger the financial collapse in the fall of 2008 )

report: income inequality and poverty rising in most o.e.c.d. countries...

the gap between rich and poor has grown in more than three-quarters of OECD countries over the past two decades, according to a new OECD report. OECD’s growing unequal? finds that the economic growth of recent decades has benefitted the rich more than the poor. in some countries, such as canada, finland, germany, italy, norway and the united states, the gap also increased between the rich and the middle-class. countries with a wide distribution of income tend to have more widespread income poverty. also, social mobility is lower in countries with high inequality, such as italy, the uk and the us, and higher in the nordic countries where income is distributed more evenly// 10.21.08, OECD

how a group of b.c. anarchists inspired democracy in russia...

...only then did i understand why this exiled but proudly russian sect of socialist anarchists had the influence on yakovlev that it did. the doukhobors were a living rebuttal to the theory that russia requires a strongman. yakovlev must have seen them as an example of the way russians might have lived, had they not been stifled by the corruption and inefficiency of the communist party. in a series of mountain valleys in the BC interior, the future architect of perestroika encountered a community of proudly russian people who convinced him that his countrymen could thrive in an atmosphere of freedom and democracy. indeed, in his memoirs, yakovlev had written: they are amazing people — hard-working, open, courteous . . . they believe with complete sincerity that only moral principles will save mankind from moral collapse . . . these stubborn people, though at times naïve in their misconceptions, have sustained through all their ordeals an uncompromising attitude toward deception, hypocrisy, and violence, along with an unbending rejection of militarism// christopher shulgan, june 2008, the walrus

rob on l.a. ink...

( fighting sickness has never been sicker )

zizek on democracy now...

chomsky: hopes and prospects...

the americas, both north and south, have been in motion with elections and political shifts that chomsky explores here with his characteristic independence and insight. "popular activism has repeatedly brought about substantial gains in freedom and justice," he writes. "the authentic hope of the obama campaign is that the 'grass roots army' organized to take instructions from the leader might 'break free' and return to 'old ways of doing politics,' by direct participation in action." in latin america, bolivia and haiti in particular, chomsky shows how direct participation in action has put into practice a different model of democracy. we have much to learn from these struggles, which could portend more far-reaching, badly needed changes//

e.f. schumacher: on the edge of the forest...

the real utopias project...

"real utopia" seems like a contradiction in terms. utopias are fantasies, morally inspired designs for social life unconstrained by realistic considerations of human psychology and social feasibility. realists eschew such fantasies. what is needed are hard-nosed proposals for pragmatically improving our institutions. instead of indulging in utopian dreams we must accommodate to practical realities. the real utopias project embraces this tension between dreams and practice. it is founded on the belief that what is pragmatically possible is not fixed independently of our imaginations, but is itself shaped by our visions. we now live in a world in which these radical visions are mocked rather than taken seriously. along with the post-modernist rejection of "grand narratives", there is an ideological rejection of grand designs, even by those still on the left of the political spectrum. this need not mean an abandonment of deeply egalitarian emancipatory values, but it does reflect a cynicism about the human capacity to realize those values on a substantial scale. this cynicism, in turn, weakens progressive political forces in general. the real utopias project is an attempt at countering this cynicism by sustaining and deepening serious discussion of radical alternatives to existing institutions. the objective is to focus on specific proposals for the fundamental redesign of basic social institutions rather than on either general, abstract formulations of grand designs, or on small reforms of existing practices//

charlie rose interviews david graeber...

( graeber is an anthropologist/anarchist )

the demise of the dollar...

in the most profound financial change in recent middle east history, gulf arabs are planning–along with china, russia, japan and france–to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the japanese yen and chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the gulf co-operation council, including saudi arabia, abu dhabi, kuwait and qatar. secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in russia, china, japan and brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars... "these plans will change the face of international financial transactions," one chinese banker said. "america and britain must be very worried. you will know how worried by the thunder of denials this news will generate."// robert fisk, 10.06.09, the independent