The mass media continue to present the issue of climate change as if it were an unsettled scientific topic for political debate. Of course, the mass media are owned by the very corporations that have externalized the real costs of their pollution of the environment. If the real costs to people and the planet were … More Climate Science or Social Science?
I never quite understood the logic of the “laws of war.” The idea of a “just war” is a little more complicated, but also weak. Stanford historian Ian Morris’s recent book* claims war has reduced human violence over the past ten thousand years. Sometimes a really counter-intuitive but brash idea can garner a lot of … More War, Wealth, and Waste
Slow Food; Slow Money; Slow Life. Such concepts are anathema to the frenzied culture of the dying industrial age. But these ideas are becoming popular among a small but growing class of folks who are simply tired of ‘the rat race.’ “Slow” is closely aligned with the simplicity movement. What do they mean, why should … More Runaway Capital and the Necessity of SLOW
What is the point in viewing and attempting to understand the events in Ferguson, Missouri, over the past few weeks? Is it about: 1) another unjustified killing of a black youth by a police officer; 2) an unruly teenager whose behavior escalated a situation that led to his death; 3) a history of bad relations … More Victims, Protesters, Bully Boys, and Looters: On Missing the Point
The concept goes way back in the intellectual history of the West, also the East. Simply put, “creative destruction” suggests that in the creation of the new, something of the old is destroyed. Innovation often makes “the old ways” of doing things obsolete. Not surprising. Examples abound in the history of the growth economies of … More Creative Destruction Transformed
The entire edifice of today’s system of predatory extractive capitalism rests on a foundation of not mere sand but a major destabilizing false premise. Economics in denial seems to be driving the world economy to a terminal collapse. The most fateful and flawed fiction of modern life is the idea of Man pitted against Nature, … More Culture Hack: The Clash of Capital with the Natural World
We’ve all heard the old saw that “to a man with only a hammer for a tool, everything looks like a nail.” Video of the escalating massive military incursion onto the streets of Ferguson, MO, reminded me of that metaphor again last week. Suddenly, U.S. mass media has awakened to the militarization of local police … More Gaza, USA; Ferguson, Palestine: Pounding nails in Freedom’s Coffin
The corporate cheerleaders of the last stages of the dying unlimited-growth economy still argue that “growth” is necessary for a healthy economy. The role of growth in our economic culture seemed secure, until the cracks in its foundation grew ominous. Now it’s a big question. As the argument goes, capital growth spurs technological innovation, which … More Capital Contradiction: The Fundamental Flaw that Dooms the Corporate-Growth Economy
The recent police killing of a young black male which has gained national media attention is in most ways not unique. We never hear of most of them. What distinguished Michael Brown’s murder and generated so much outrage was the fact that it was so clearly a “killing of choice,” not of necessity. It’s not … More The Incredible Darkness of Being…Confronted by a Racist Cop
Globalization is widely touted in the mass media as both inevitable and good. But why? It is claimed that products are more efficiently produced, labor is more productive, technology is improved by greater innovation, and capital is more efficiently allocated. But wait, there’s less! According to Paul Hellyer, former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, “Globalization … More The Happiness Factor: What’s the Point of Having an Economy anyway?
Robert MacNeil Christie, Author 