The Next System Project helps us face creatively the systemic challenges we face now and in the near future. The second volume of the project’s “New Systems Series” includes: Building A Cooperative Solidarity Commonwealth: Jessica Gordon Nembhard describes a system that seeks to establish and strengthen economic participation from the bottom up through interlinking networks of […]
Next System Project
March 18,2016
Where can we look for the new ideas needed for a decent human future? The Next System Project gathers the work of people thinking the systemic challenges we face now and in the near future. From the project’s web site: Responding to real hunger for a new way forward, and building on innovative thinking and […]
Ecological News and Analysis
February 28,2016
When mainstream media don’t offer the critical analyses that we need to understand the multiple, cascading ecological crises of our time, where can we look for information and insight? There are many good sources, including Resilience.com. A project of the Post Carbon Institute, this website offers no-nonsense writing on energy, agriculture, and the economy. Collecting […]
Plain Radical: Living, Loving, and Learning to Leave the Planet Gracefully
October 05,2015
Third Coast’s Robert Jensen has published a new book, Plain Radical: Living, Loving, and Learning to Leave the Planet Gracefully, an account of his intellectual, political, and emotional relationship with his late friend Jim Koplin. A reviewer in the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes: If at the beginning of “Plain Radical” you wonder what kind of […]
Nuclear Threats, at Home and Abroad
August 23,2015
As politicians jockey for position on the Iran nuclear deal, the political and media conversations assume that Iran poses an existential threat that requires an international response led by the United States. Nuclear weapons surely pose a threat not only to peace but to our existence, but what nations pose the greatest threats? With his […]
Jewish Voice for Peace in the Austin American-Statesman
March 31,2015
Tuesday’s Austin American-Statesman arrived on local doorsteps with an op/ed by Bernice Hecker of the newly formed Austin chapter of the national organization Jewish Voice for Peace. Read the full article below or at the Austin American-Statesman. —– Bernice Hecker: Israeli election requires introspection for U.S. Jews Tuesday, March 31, 2015 print edition The hearts […]
Noam Chomsky on “The End of History?”
December 29,2014
Noam Chomsky, with his characteristic candor, ponders whether human civilization “may now be approaching its inglorious end” in an essay on the twin threats of war and ecological crises. That essay draws on a thought-provoking analysis by Arundhati Roy, “Is Democracy Melting?“: Arundhati Roy suggests that the “most appropriate metaphor for the insanity of our […]
Capitalism v. Climate
September 25,2014
Naomi Klein’s new book, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate, offers a blunt statement of today’s central problem: “[O]ur economic system and our planetary system are now at war. Or, more accurately, our economy is at war with many forms of life on earth, including human life.” The book, and a companion film directed […]
On Israel and Palestine
July 23,2014
Many people assume the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is particularly difficult to understand, perhaps even convoluted beyond a solution. When I started educating myself about U.S. foreign policy in the late 1980s — topics like Central America, Iraq and Iran, and corporate-led globalization — I avoided what I assumed was the dizzyingly complicated topic of Israel/Palestine. But […]
Look Beyond U.S. Mainstream Media’s Coverage of Venezuela
March 01,2014
Owen Jones of The Independent in the UK explains how attempts at expanding social justice in Venezuela are being undermined in his column “Socialism’s critics look at Venezuela and say, ‘We told you so’. But they are wrong.” “Does this mean that Venezuela is some sort of paradise?” Jones asks. No, but don’t count on […]