Beliefs or images of reality, as distinct from reality
How to manage a societal crisis: that is the question. Or, is it a question at all? Why is it so difficult for a society of ostensibly free people to work together to make life better? To be accurate, we humans are in quite a pickle these days. With looming climate chaos before us, we … More Tyranny vs Leadership: Authoritarian Exploitation or Mutual Aid for Survival
“Outside,” shouted one of the surfers on seeing a new “set” of bigger waves forming further out to sea than the small swells passing them but deemed not worth riding. Always, they looked for a bigger better-formed wave to catch. The world today is looking outside in the hope that a second wave of the … More Here Comes the Second Wave
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced to the surface some very peculiar ideas about American values. Those values have changed significantly since the explosive century of industrial consumerism. As industrial extraction, production, and consumption expanded through the twentieth century, right up until the pandemic, economic change has transformed the character of the old “rugged individualism” as … More Public Health, Personal Liberty. and the Scourge of Interdependence
Ideologies defend the status quo; utopias propose perfect futures to replace the difficulties of life in the present. Strangely, sometimes the two get all mixed up together. That is the case today. The corporatist culture frames a utopian future as its ideology used to justify “staying the course” of the present globalized economy of endless … More The Ideology of Utopian Dreams Confronts the Looming Dystopian Future
It seems that the title to Naomi Klein’s book, This Changes Everything, has taken on even greater meaning now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Klein’s book is about the politics of the climate crisis. But the title applies equally to the sudden appearance of the novel coronavirus that spread so rapidly and extensively … More The Ethics of Pandemics
What is all this confusion over facemasks? Everyone knows that medical personnel wear facemasks to avoid infection and to limit infection of others. Yet, with blatant self-contradiction, the CDC issued “guidelines” recommending that citizens not wear medical facemasks during the COVID-19 pandemic. A facemask can’t hurt you. At the same time, the CDC proclaimed their … More Unmasking the Masquerade
Yes, yes, and yes. From its claims at least, Delta Airlines appears to be ahead of the crowd in progressive thinking about the huge contribution airlines make to carbon emissions, and their failure to curtail them. Yet, does Edward H. Bastian, Delta’s CEO, really believe that Delta can reduce jet aircraft emissions from burning jet … More Is Delta Airlines Progressive, Delusional, or Deceitful?
Do you pay attention to the tech news, especially in relation to the financial markets? The idea of self-driving cars and trucks and their near and long-term prospects gets a great deal of attention among the pundits. But why? Okay, at one level it reflects the growing operational power of artificial intelligence (AI)and neural networking … More Autonomous Vehicles: Why?
In a number of posts, I have discussed various social illusions such as the idea that the extractive industrial consumer economy could just keep growing permanently, as so many economists implicitly insist. That deeply flawed illusion rests on some equally defective assumptions. Many people also believe that as industrial materials reach a state of depletion … More Let’s Get Real: What is Sustainable in Markets, the Biosphere, and Society?
What’s so complicated about Medicare for All, one might ask, especially since only two real factors are involved: coverage and funding. However, big money in politics is never simple. The so-called “moderate” Democratic candidates for the party’s presidential nomination, who are in the “deep pockets” of Big Money donors, have made healthcare reform quite complicated. … More The Medicare-for-All Terror Trope
Robert MacNeil Christie, Author 