Society

Saying goodbye to tomorrow

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Today is the last day on Earth, according to some New Age interpretation of the Mayan calendar. This belief has caused endless suffering and useless expensive purchases by people trying to “beat the clock” and find somewhere safe to spend their last few hours. Cheap places have suddenly become outrageously expensive, because someone said “Hang out there!” during your final hours. However, saying “Goodbye to Tomorrow” has a long history that goes beyond this moment in time. Humans are famous for planning the end of not only their own anticipated deaths, but because that is just too commonplace, they have to anticipate the death of everyone and everything around them…So for those who believe that Today is the last day on Earth I say: ”So long, it’s been good to know you.” For the rest of us, let’s continue to work for change, with the utmost of care, and always anticipate that Tomorrow MIGHT come.

Conflict and change in the era of economic decline: Part 5 – A theory of change for a century of crisis

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If groups seeking to make the post-carbon transition go more smoothly and equitably are to have much hope of success, they need a sound strategy grounded in a realistic theory of change. Here, briefly, is a theory of change that makes sense to me.

Enacting Democracy

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The recovery of reason, the theme of last week’s post here on The Archdruid Report, has implications that go well past the obvious. One of the examples that comes first to mind is also directly relevant to the theme of this series of posts, and it unfolds from an experience that many people have mentioned to me in recent years: the inability of Americans with different beliefs to sit down and have a constructive conversation about their disagreements.

Hurricane Sandy relief turns to protest

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The stakes are high for people in the Rockaways. More than month and a half after Superstorm Sandy, winter is setting in and many of the ten thousand residents of this Queens neighborhood still lack heat or electricity…Now, supported by Occupy Sandy volunteers, residents of the Rockaways are starting to fight back.

Young Reno activists demand bikeable streets – And get them

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“I’ve never had my driver’s license,” Kevin Campbell says. A curly-headed 22-year-old with a Movember ‘stache, Kevin is the newest staff member at the groundbreaking Reno Bike Project. There’s a reason he’s never driven: A few years back, he was struck by a car while walking in a crosswalk.

Book Review: Walkable City: How downtown can save America, one step at a time

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Jeff Speck’s new book, Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time, is worth a read for its acerbic wit, alone. The author fits a remarkable collection of data and anecdotal evidence from his long career in urban design (which included a four-year stint at the helm of the National Endowment for the Arts’ design department) into a mere 260 pages while maintaining a tone that is both punchy and urgent. It’s not often that I’ve found people who can make the discussion of parking minimums entertaining, but Speck has a way with words.

Peak Moment 224: Dignity Village – A Community By and For the Homeless, part 2

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“No violence. No theft. No drugs or alcohol. No constant disruptive behavior. Everyone must contribute to the village.” While finishing our tour, Jon Hawkes lays out the five agreements residents must abide by, all forged by real-world experience. What would it be like if our entire society followed these rules? Celebrating its tenth anniversary, Dignity Village is an organically evolving, self-organizing intentional community — and a model for others.

Austerity – at whose cost?

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There are only two ways out of the real dilemma involved in this structural crisis. One is to establish a non-capitalist authoritarian world-system which will use force and deception rather than the "market" to permit and augment the inegalitarian world distribution of basic consumption. The other is to change our civilizational values.