By Wade Lee Hudson
As political violence permeated the United States and spread across the globe, in 1969 the influential political philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote On Violence. This small, passionate book analyzed the nature and sources of violence, offered some prophetic speculations, and challenged many widespread assumptions — including some that I had embraced but now reject. This re-evaluation will lead me to rewrite some of the content on this site.
What America Would Look Like in 2025 Under Trump (behind paywall), The New York Times, Feb. 2, 2022, Thomas B. Edsall.
What will happen if the political tables are turned and the Republican Party wins the White House in 2024 and the House and Senate along the way?
One clue is that Donald Trump is an Orban worshiper — that’s Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, a case study in the aggressive pursuit of a right-wing populist agenda…
Kitschelt’s last point touches on what is sure to be a major motivating force for a Republican Party given an extended lease on life under Trump: the need to make use of every available tool — from manipulation of election results to enactment of favorable voting laws to appeals to minority voters in the working class to instilling fear of a liberal state run amok — to maintain the viability of a fragile coalition in which the core constituency of white noncollege voters is steadily declining as a share of the electorate. It is an uphill fight requiring leaders, at least in their minds, to consider every alternative in order to retain power, whether it’s democratic or authoritarian, ethical or unethical, legal or illegal. (read more)
Throw Them All Out: How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off of Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison, Peter Schweizer. “One of the biggest scandals in American politics is waiting to explode: the full story of the inside game in Washington shows how the permanent political class enriches itself at the expense of the rest of us. Insider trading is illegal on Wall Street, yet it is routine among members of Congress.” (1/20/2022: Pelosi opens the door to stock trading ban for members of Congress.)
The Trouble with Cultural Evolution, Massimo Pigliucci. “Ultimately, it is still very much an open question whether we can develop a coherent Darwinian theory of cultural evolution, or whether it may be better to abandon the analogy with biological evolution and recognize that culture is a significantly different enough beast to deserve its own theory and explanatory framework. Of course, cultural evolution is still tied to biological evolution, for the simple reason that we are both cultural and biological creatures. But we may have a long way to go before untangling the two and arriving at a satisfactory explanation of how precisely they are related to each other.”
The Rise of A.I. Fighter Pilots, Sue Halpern. “Artificial intelligence is being taught to fly warplanes. Can the technology be trusted?… Stop Killer Robots, a coalition of more than a hundred and eighty non-governmental organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the World Council of Churches, has urged nations to adopt a legal treaty controlling the use of lethal autonomous weapons. The U.S. is not among the nearly seventy countries that have so far signed on….” Posted on Americans for Humanity in Economic/Big Tech.
Comments from Michael Johnson on The System, Systemic/Overview, Systemic/Problems, and Systemic Solutions.
The One Thing TV Characters Don’t Talk About, Jordan Calhoun. “The topic of money requires the most awkward suspension of disbelief in fiction.” Posted on Americans for Humanity in Cultural/Resources.
The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash (Official Documentary). “YouTube Originals presents The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash stands among the giants of 20th century American life. But his story remains tangled in mystery and myth. This documentary, created with the full cooperation of the Cash estate and rich in recently discovered archival materials, brings Cash the man out from behind the legend. Taking the remarkable Folsom Prison recording as a central motif and featuring interviews with family and celebrated collaborators, the film explores the artistic victories, the personal tragedies, the struggles with addiction, and the spiritual pursuits that colored Johnny Cash’s life. The Original Score to the documentary is available now, featuring essential Johnny Cash recordings & original score by Mike McCready incorporating exclusive interview soundbites with Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, and others. https://JohnnyCash.lnk.to/TheGiftOST. Posted on Americans for Humanity in Cultural/Music.
Reimagining the Public Defender, Sarah A. Seo. “In Free Justice, Mayeux provides a historical example of a community-based public defender’s office that sought justice outside the courtroom. The Roxbury Defenders Committee, established in 1971 in a predominantly Black and poor neighborhood in Roxbury, Massachusetts, did fight vigorously for its clients in court. Its lawyers were known for “their eagerness to file motions, take cases to trial, and challenge actions taken by police and prosecutors,” all of which were possible because they strictly limited their caseload. But the Roxbury defenders also advocated for prisoners’ rights, hosted know-your-rights workshops for the community, published a neighborhood newsletter, and broadcast a weekly call-in radio show, as well as running a twenty-four-hour hotline for those who needed to speak to an attorney right away. As Mayeux puts it, the lawyers in the Roxbury office “reimagined the public defender not merely as a substitute for retained counsel…but as a friendly neighborhood resource.” Such legal services go beyond adversarial representation to further both individual and social justice.” Posted on Americans for Humanity in Political/Criminal Justice.
You Can’t Optimize For Rest, L. M. Sacasas. “…There are two key points. First, our exhaustion—in its various material and immaterial dimensions—is a consequence of the part we play in a techno-social milieu whose rhythms, scale, pace, and demands are not conducive to our well-being, to say nothing of the well-being of other creatures and the planet we share. Second, the remedies to which we often turn may themselves be counterproductive because their function is not to alter the larger system which has yielded a state of chronic exhaustion but rather to keep us functioning within it. Moreover, not only do the remedies fail to address the root of the problem, but there’s also a tendency to carry into our efforts to find rest the very same spirit which animates the system that left us tired and burnt out. Rest takes on the character of a project to be completed or an experience to be consumed. In neither case do we ultimately find any sort of meaningful and enduring relief or renewal.” Posted on Americans for Humanity in Systemic/General/Articles.
The Happiness Project — “In 2009, Gretchen Rubin’s breakout book, The Happiness Project, became a New York Times #1 bestseller and revolutionized the way people approach personal development. Over the last decade, she has taken her approach to creating a happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative life off those pages and into the daily lives of her readers and listeners through her books, blog, podcast, online courses, and weekly newsletter.” Posted on Americans for Humanity in Personal Growth/Advocacy-Services.
By Michael Johnson
“I have put 40 years into building and sustaining an urban intentional community of substantial size—the Ganas Community in Staten Island, NY. We began with seven, reached 100 in the 90s, and settled in at around 65 ever since. I have also studied collective action groups out in the regular world, especially worker co-operatives and solidarity economic groups.
So, do I have anything useful to pass on? I think so. At least a couple.
For me there is one lesson that stands out above all others in starting a community or collective action group: the group that starts and sustains the project has to learn how to talk to each other about the problems they have with each other.