It’s no secret that there’s a divide between the global North and South. Most people know about the huge wealth gap between the industrialized and so-called “developing” worlds, and that rates of pollution, resource use, greenhouse gas emissions – and much more – vary widely between them. But there’s another gap, one that’s rarely discussed […]
Resisting the Technocratic Paradigm
Ever since the release of Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’, people in our circles have been waxing rhapsodic about its message: finally, a powerful global figure is explicitly calling for fundamental structural change. Unfortunately, the media has pigeon-holed the encyclical as a “climate change” document, and so Francis’ deep and broad critique of the modern […]
A Tribute to Eduardo Galeano
“Plastic delights, plastic dreams. In the paradise promised to all and reserved for a few, things are more and more important and people less and less so. The ends have been kidnapped by the means: things buy you, cars drive you, computers program you, television watches you.” — Eduardo Galeano, from Upside Down: A Primer […]
Mental Health and Globalization: An Alternative Theory on the Mental Health Crisis
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a sick society.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti I have a secret that I usually keep locked up inside of myself, hidden from even those who know me well: I suffer from depression. At times it is a deep, bottomless depression, an intense loneliness, serious end-of-the-world-thoughts […]
Big Picture Activism
This piece is excerpted from Localization: Essential Steps to an Economics of Happiness, a new publication from Local Futures. Despite the countless grassroots projects already under way, the global economic juggernaut can seem too powerful to stop. But because more and more of us are becoming aware of how disastrous the global economy is […]
Beyond ObamaCare: From Healthy Profits to Healthy People
As the New Year approaches, the political agenda in the United States is still overrun with last-minute squabbling over the Affordable Care Act, known more familiarly as ObamaCare. Framed erroneously as a dichotomous debate—left versus right, socialism versus capitalism, government versus business—the real flaws of the law have been effectively concealed in political melodrama. The […]