Unwinding Democracy: What It Means for Climate Change
Democracy survives by the consent of the governed. It requires rules that are fair, just and followed—by everyone. Should the three branches ever become one, democracy will be lost.
building resilient societies
Gandhi is Still Relevant – and Can Inspire a New Form of Politics Today
Seventy years after Gandhi’s assassination on the streets of New Delhi, Ramachandra Guha’s new book, Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914-48, reopens a familiar debate around his legacy. What was Gandhi’s message? What were his politics? What can we learn from him today? And is he still relevant?
Ruth Sapsed on Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination
We’ll talk about children leading. That doesn’t mean that we don’t do anything. That means that we’re trying to listen to what they are interested in and come alongside them with those interests.
10 Stories of Transition in the US: Justice and Diversity in Transition
Instead, we must learn to check our privilege, reach out beyond the usual suspects, and build more diverse coalitions, based on trust, mutual benefit, and common cause. In this way, our Transition Movement will become, more and more, a “just transition.”
Society As Platform — A New Frontier in Complexity Science
Our evolved history as a species has not prepared us for what is happening now. It is time to start seeing culture as a complex system that evolves according to Darwinian principles.
Human and Planetary Health: Ecosystem Restoration at the Dawn of the Century of Regeneration
We are facing a knife’s edge, between a future that is abundant of collaboration with [more than human] nature, or decades of decline and unspeakable, unthinkable situations that we want to avoid. The way to start navigating the path towards the positive is to be in love with life and each other every day a little bit more.
‘Regeneration’ Hits the Mainstream, But What about the Deeper Practice?
The speed at which the regeneration meme is spreading into all aspects of society and infiltrating the mainstream is breathtaking and faster than I would have anticipated when I told my colleagues in Gaia Education in early 2014 to take a closer look at Bill Reed’s article from 2007 ‘Shifting from sustainability to regeneration’.
The Midterms Show the Way to Victory is Through Vision, not Reactivity
The midterm election brings activists both good news and bad news, but one thing is certain: Reactivity lost. Focusing on the terribleness of Trump did not win the day.
We Weren’t Made for Endless Work
Josef Pieper suggested that our fixation on busyness stems from modern man’s suspicion of grace: “man seems to mistrust everything that is effortless; he can only enjoy, with a good conscience, what he has acquired with toil and trouble; he refuses to have anything as a gift.”
Citizens’ Assemblies (excerpt)
Imagine a group of people of different ages who meet in order to settle some matter important for a city, a country or for the European Union. This group was not selected through elections but by lot. They make decisions from the position of supreme authority which in democracy are ordinary people.
Discover the Joys of Keeping The Biotime Log
Biotime, or biological time, runs at a very different pace and rhythm to human time. It can be observed by recording events in the natural world. These can be as varied as the day the first spring bulb opens, the last frost before summer, or the first sighting of a species of bird or insect in a new habitat.
Jacques Ellul: A Prophet for Our Tech-Saturated Times
By now you have probably read about the so-called “tech backlash.” Facebook and other social media have undermined what’s left of the illusion of democracy, while smartphones damage young brains and erode the nature of discourse in the family. Meanwhile computers and other gadgets have diminished our attention spans along with our ever-failing connection to reality. The … Read more
