Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Once it deeply sank into my consciousness that politics means nothing much other than simply “decision-making in groups”, it was clear I had a hold of a very simple and basic concept which would enable me to think clearly and freshly about … well, politics.
We know it is empirically possible to achieve a just and sustainable world economy. But our hope can only ever be as strong as our struggle.
The critical importance of water transportation is coming into focus as lack of water cripples river and canal navigation.
We are taught to judge one another based on what we contribute economically, but Ethan defies these expectations. I wonder if I manage to communicate to strangers how, in spite of his “profound disability”, Ethan is still a profoundly dynamic and important individual.
My garden is a plenum – a spatially continuous living community which includes me, its caretaker – and I intuitively experience it as such while simultaneously perceiving a visual panorama, an audible space filled with the music of cicadas, crickets and birds as well as an expanse of floral perfume.
It is sad that we have pulled so far away from experiential learning that we think summer is for vacationing and autumn is when we go back to the grind… that school is a grind confined in a classroom… that learning is confined to childhood.
In this sense, a post-capitalist and post-domination society will require its own set of institutions, whose creation must begin from today.
A world of radical democracy and equality — of “public luxury and private sufficiency,” with much less hierarchy and much more free time — would enable historic advances in the quality of life for the masses even if some consumer goods disappear from the menu.
Each situation is adjudicated according to whatever opposition has been mustered and whatever degree of engagement the state chooses as well as the anticipated value of the proposed project. Thus, in concept and practice, the original votes in the UN for Free, Prior and Informed Consent were toothless.
On this episode, Nate is joined by Graham Palmer, a scholar and engineer in the field of energy. While this show frequently covers the importance of energy itself, this discussion focuses on how the ability to store and access energy has critically shaped societies.
What the future holds for us is certainly not certain. As you embark on a journey, you don’t really need a goal, but you need a direction and the means to travel, even if it is just your feet.
Human and earthly limits, properly understood, wrote the conservationist Wendell Berry, are not confinements, but rather inducements to fullness of relationship and meaning.
