The Long View
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by Adam Tooze in London Review of Books…America’s more liberal-minded spokespeople may talk about America limiting itself to defending a small yard with a high fence. But what is inside that fence is clearly everything that matters to state power in the current moment.
by Matt Novak in Gizmodo.com…It’s all about protecting against China, but there’s the added benefit of protecting against Trump.
by John Ganz in Unpopularfront.news…I think we are in a crisis of hegemony moment: neoliberalism is dying, but its replacement is yet to be born. And, as in pre and post-hegemonic times, the field of politics is fragmented and incoherent, there’s no hegemonic class or portion of a class that’s able to lead, so everything reverts to “the economic-corporate phase,” when different social interests seek their own short-term benefits rather than coalescing behind a vision of social development.
by Jon Henley, et al. in The Guardian…Apps and booklets are offering advice on how to build a bunker, stockpile food and live without electricity in case the worst happens
by Otto Scharmer in Medium…What does that tell us about democracy? Democracy is under strain globally, with mass misinformation eroding citizens’ ability to perceive and respond to the realities they face.
by Michael P. Lynch in MIT Press…When we’re lulled into giving up on truth, we give up on critical thought — even dissent itself.
by Richard Heinberg in resilience.org….Today the world faces historically unique stresses that are likely to be increasingly polarizing for many societies. These stresses can be divided into three groups—environmental, economic, and technological. After examining these, we’ll explore two questions: first, is democracy inherently more polarizing than autocratic forms of government? And second, are democracies or autocracies better at handling crises?
by Adam Tooze in Chartbook…What is needed is not more border controls and militarized policing, but a pooling of governmental resources amongst the stronger players in the region including USA, Mexico the richer Caribbean states and Colombia, not to oppose, but to facilitate, support and invest in the extraordinary human energy, grit and determination that is the counterpart to those remittance flows.
by Brandy Zadrozny in NBC News…The U.S. presidential election comes at a time of ideal circumstances for disinformation and the people who spread it.
Millions live on subsistence rations delivered in packets with Modi’s face printed on them. India is a very rich country with very poor people. One of the most unequal societies in the world. For its pains, Oxfam India has been raided too. And Amnesty International...
by Adam Tooze in Chartbook….Proximity brings safety and harmony only if you have sorted out your neighborly relations. That is far from being the case between Mexico and the USA.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, delivered this speech during the opening plenary of the Beyond Growth conference
By David Brooks, The New York Times…f you ask me now what the Biden administration is for, my answer would be different. Today, its main purpose is to prepare the nation for a period of accelerating and explosive change.
Daniel Ellsberg, now 91, says “I’m leaving a world in terrible shape and terrible in all ways that I’ve tried to help make better during my years.”
The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, has always been more than a little problematic. But in recent years, the annual gathering of the rich and powerful has become an increasingly wasteful exercise in vanity.
A string of attacks on power facilities in Oregon and Washington has caused alarm and highlighted the vulnerabilities of the US electric grid.
People are shooting, sabotaging and vandalizing electrical equipment in the U.S. at a pace unseen in at least a decade, amid signs that domestic extremists hope to use blackouts to sow unrest.
A more nuanced depiction of voters and issues can help newsrooms better report on elections and political campaigns.
We live whipsawed by “polycrisis.” That’s the word historian Adam Tooze uses to describe multiple, simultaneous systemic crises that intensify as they collide, resulting in dire and deadly disruptions.
I believe, as wrote Yehuda Amichai, that the world was created beautiful for goodness and for peace, like a bench in a courtyard (in a courtyard, not a court!). I believe that the world was created for tenderness, hope, love, solidarity, passion, joy.
Omega founder Michael Lerner and guest Philip Yun engaged a discussion about the nature of the struggle ahead for democratic governance in the new world we are facing.