Omnicidal Plutocrats

by George Monbiot One of the problems we face in persuading people to love and protect the living world is the language in which this love is expressed. Few of the terms we use vividly describe either the planet we are trying to defend or the threats it faces. Take “the environment”: a cold, abstract and distancing term that creates no pictures in the mind. Have you ever seen an “environment”? Or “climate change”, such a mild and neutral term to describe an existential catastrophe. It’s like calling an invading army “unexpected visitors”. I’ve been pressing for more effective language Read More



The world, the future, our hearts—everything grows smaller and harder from this war.

—-Anne Boyer, Resignation Letter from the New York Times I have resigned as poetry editor of the New York Times Magazine. The Israeli state’s U.S-backed war against the people of Gaza is not a war for anyone. There is no safety in it or from it, not for Israel, not for the United States or Europe, and especially not for the many Jewish people slandered by those who claim falsely to fight in their names. Its only profit is the deadly profit of oil interests and weapon manufacturers. The world, the future, our hearts—everything grows smaller and harder from this war. It is not only a war Read More



At the Occasion of the 75th Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s Assassination

Excerpt reposted from Dilip’s blog After the Truth – Shower I commented: The Mahatma is nodding his head in appreciation, I’m sure. An essay as sharp and correct as you always write and with a deeply moving end unveiling the predicament of the times we got ourselves stuck in… …… Italy, Germany’s Third Reich, the Peoples Republic of China, or the Islamic regimes of Iran or Saudi Arabia (I remain focused on the question of law, and do not intend to conflate the peculiarities of these regimes). Tyranny stamps out human freedom. Ideological tyranny attempts to strangulate the human mind Read More


A Guardian of Humanity, indeed…

….. Therefore I do not put my faith in any new institution, but in the individuals all over the world who think clearly, feel nobly, and act rightly, thus becoming the channels of moral truth. Our moral ideals do not work with chisels and hammers. Like trees, they spread their roots in the soil and their branches in the sky, without consulting any architect for their plans….. Reposted from Dilip’s blog with thanks, tom


Ideology and Totalitarianism

by Dilip Simeon, 2014 NB: this piece deserves attention by anyone interested into the the state of the present. t.a. Ideology as a law of motionIdeology means the logic of an idea. The dictionary defines it as a system of ideaspertaining especially to political or economic systems, and lays stress on the tendency ofideologies ‘to justify actions and be maintained irrespective of events.’ Ideologies alsotend to carry an attachment to absolute truth, for which another term could be certainty.The Marxist use of the term associates it with ‘false consciousness’ – which raises thequestion of how we may distinguish false from Read More


Giraffe Heroes turn into Guardians of Humanity and going incognito

(English below) «Stick your Neck Out» war und ist in Amerika das Motto der für ihren couragierten und hartnäckigen Kampf für das Gemeingut ausgezeichneten Giraffe-Heroes. Vor bald fünf Jahren wurde ein europäischer Ableger, die Giraffe Heroes Foundation (GHF) vom Verfasser dieses Artikels hier in Basel gegründet. Die Geschichte des Giraffe Heroes Project ist 40 Jahre alt und geht zurück auf die noch heute aktiven Gründer Ann Medlock und John Graham: Ann war und ist eine hervorragende Schriftstellerin, Journalistin, Feministin; ihr Mann John, ex-Diplomat, schmiss seine vielversprechende Karriere mit 39 Jahren hin, als er erkannte, dass die Interessen der Herren, denen Read More




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