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Property ownership in a small farm future
Property ownership in a small farm future And so we come to the thorny issue of landownership and property rights in a small farm future, which I discuss in Chapter 13 of my book. A lot of people I encounter profess complete disdain for the very idea of ‘owning’ land, usually along the lines of […]
History shows that societies collapse when leaders undermine social contracts
History shows that societies collapse when leaders undermine social contracts The ruins of the Roman Forum, once a site of a representational government. Credit: Linda Nicholas, Field Museum All good things must come to an end. Whether societies are ruled by ruthless dictators or more well-meaning representatives, they fall apart in time, with different degrees […]
The Social Contract Between Government and People Is Unraveling – Quicktake
The Social Contract Between Government and People Is Unraveling – Quicktake Numbers, budgets, charts and graphs about government finances. That’s what we do here. We try to understand where public money should be spent and what it accomplishes. Through that lens, it’s difficult to know where to begin on what has befallen the Chicago area […]
The JackPot Chronicles Scenario 1: Force Majeure
The JackPot Chronicles Scenario 1: Force Majeure This is the second instalment of The Jackpot Chronicles: Four Possible Post-Coronavirus Scenarios. Force Majeure means: a chance occurrence or superior force that renders a contract unenforceable and frees all parties from their obligations under it. We are frequently told that there exists some manner of “Social Contract” to […]
State of Apocalyptic Nature: A Contract with Gaia
State of Apocalyptic Nature: A Contract with Gaia As for the individual, every one is a son of his time; so philosophy also is its time apprehended in thoughts. It is just as foolish to fancy that any philosophy can transcend its present world, as that an individual could leap out of his time or […]
2019: The Three Trends That Matter
2019: The Three Trends That Matter Look no further than Brexit in Britain, the yellow vests in France and the Deplorables in the U.S. for manifestations of a broken social contract and decaying social order. Among the many trends currently in play, Gordon Long and I discuss three that will matter as 2019 progresses: 2019 Themes (56 […]
Culture of Cruelty: the Age of Neoliberal Authoritarianism
Culture of Cruelty: the Age of Neoliberal Authoritarianism George Orwell’s nightmarish vision of a totalitarian society casts a dark shadow over the United States. As American society has moved from a welfare to a warfare state, the institutions that were once meant to limit human suffering and misfortune and protect the public from the excesses […]
The Curse of Totalitarianism and the Challenge of an Insurrectional Pedagogy
The Curse of Totalitarianism and the Challenge of an Insurrectional Pedagogy Introduction The forces of free-market fundamentalism are on the march ushering in a terrifying horizon of what Hannah Arendt once called “dark times.” Across the globe, the tension between democratic values and market fundamentalism has reached a breaking point. [1] The social contract is under assault, […]
Power and Compassion
Power and Compassion Time to tackle a topic that’s very hard to get right, and that will get me quite a few pairs of rolling eyes. I want to argue that societies need a social fabric, a social contract, and that without those they must and will fail, descend into chaos. Five months ago, I […]
