Can dictators solve our problems?
As our difficulties increase, a new crop of dictators or quasi-dictators in various realms of our society will emerge, offering to solve our problems. Increasingly, I think we will let them try.
Politics
Wishful delusions
During the last political campaign I attended a conference by a representative of the French left-wing organization Attac. I was tired and, to tell the truth, it was boring. It was one of the things you have to do when you are into politics. The theme of the conference was “building a new world” and the speaker was particularly keen to convince us that the people from the Third World rejected our way of life and were ready to adopt, if not degrowth, at least some kind of voluntary frugality.
Complaining about mosquito bites while a crocodile bites our leg
I am not an oil industry apologist, but recognize that I live in an oil-centric world, own a car, enjoy air travel and partake in the daily smorgasbord of food, services, and novelty made possible in the cheap energy age. To me, given the problems our country and government face, blaming Exxon for high gasoline prices and excessive tax subsidies is akin to complaining about a mosquito bite on your arm when a crocodile has your leg in its mouth.
Bolivia: Nature cannot be submitted to the laboratory or the market
The answer for the future lies not in scientific inventions but in our capacity to listen to nature. … Humanity finds itself at a crossroads: Why should we only respect the laws of human beings and not those of nature? Why do we call the person who kills his neighbor a criminal, but not he who extinguishes a species or contaminates a river? Why do we judge the life of human beings with parameters different from those that the guide the life of the system as a whole if all of us, absolutely all of us, rely on the life of the Earth System?
All Hail the PUBLIC Library
This is not the time to take the word “public” out of the public library. It is time to put it in capitals.
World – April 30
– Europeans shift long-held view that social benefits are untouchable
– Europe’s Nationalists Waiting in the Dark
– Chomsky on Iraq, corporations and financialization of the economy
– McCarthyism in Manama? (Bahrain)
I, Consumer?
Where have all the people gone? Not to mention the citizenry, human beings, neighbors, inhabitants, individuals, men, women, adults, children, workers, employees, employers? Suddenly, everywhere, gone, all of them. Their places taken by consumers.
ODAC Newsletter – Apr 29
Rising petrol prices and huge oil company profits combined to put pressure on President Obama this week. Prices are reaching around $4.00/gallon, levels not seen since 2008 and a psychological barrier for many Americans whose entire infrastructure is designed around the motor car.
Alternatives to Nihilism, Part Three: Remember Your Name
Since the crisis of industrial society is being driven by social and economic habits that foster the extravagant use of energy and other resources, it would seem to be obvious that using much less of these things ought to be the foundation of any reasonable response. The fact that so many proposed responses advocate doing almost anything imaginable but using less energy and other resources points straight toward the tangled heart of contemporary nihilism, and suggests a way out.
Bringing economies down to earth
What was so disturbing about the recent history of Iceland, and in this it merely represents a microcosm of the globalised economy, is the way that there needed to be no apparent connection between the size of the real economy and the size of the financial economy.
The dollar? We’ve got that sinking feeling…
There is little doubt that a weak dollar is the “unofficial” policy of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Even as I write this, I can hear the feverish, fearful cries of the Dollar Collapsers, the Gold Bugs, the Hyperinflationistas, and many others calling out to me, telling me in no uncertain terms to buy gold, silver, oil, corn, wheat—anything with tangible value I can get my hands on. But like the vast majority of Americans, I am not in position financially to buy any of these things. I must use dollars. As CNBC tells me, if I don’t like a weak dollar, I might as well get used to it. Get used to it?
San Francisco passes progressive urban agriculture policy
This week, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed one of the most progressive pieces of legislation for urban agriculture in the nation. The new legislation has amended the zoning code to allow agricultural activities in all parts of the city, as well as defining the parameters by which urban agriculturists can sell their products.
