Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Mason’s new book, Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere: the New Global Revolutions, surveys activist actions and encampments from Tahrir to Syntagma Square in Athens to Zuccotti Park and finds that each one was driven by a group of overeducated and underemployed young people jacked into technology like no revolutionaries since The Matrix.
There’s room in the movement for everyone who cares, whether their bent is for deadly serious de-industrialization, “fun and sexy” protests, technological innovation, or even, yes, going out walking.
Don’t stand there asking what to do! Look around, roll up your sleeves and get busy! Offer your talents to the task. If you can write, start writing and share your thoughts with ever wider circles of readers. If you can farm, start an organic CSA. If you are an engineer, you should be focusing on renewable energy.
– Seniors in Walkers Shut Down Local Bank of America
– ‘Occupy’ Protesters in New Hampshire Seek Visibility Ahead of Primary
– NY Times reporters look back at OWS (video)
– First Feature Doc About Occupy Movement
– What a Bunch of Farmers Can Teach a Bunch of Occupiers About How to Keep on Going
– What OWS can Learn from South Africa’s United Democratic Front
– Occupy Wall Street and Transformational Strategy
– The Challenge of the Era of Technological Abundance
– Foreign Affairs: Globalization and the Threat to the West (an elite change in direction?)
– Republican Climate Hawks Sighted in New Hampshire (video)
– Matt Taibbi: Iowa: The Meaningless Sideshow Begins
– Obama’s Pentagon Strategy: A Leaner, More Efficient Empire
– Harder for Americans to Rise From Lower Rungs
– Complete with Threats and Astroturf, Big Oil Preps for Election Year Push
– TV: I Vote 4 Energy (spoof of API ad)
– Canada: Climate Criminal
– Why is an oil stock owning Congress member pushing to end EV tax credits?
– In Depth with Author and Journalist Chris Hedges (video)
– Vengeance vs Forgiveness: This Eternal Struggle
– Guy McPherson: Taking a hike
– Fascist America? Not Exactly
My resolution for 2012 is to be naive — dangerously naive.
In a few short weeks a rag-tag group of under-thirties has been able to transform the global conversation about economic issues by focusing on three basic points, all of which are essential for stopping runaway climate change and ecological overshoot.
– Nigeria union chiefs urge general strike amid fuel protests
– Global unrest: how the revolution went viral
– Hungary set for protests over constitution
– Stephen Cohen: Russian Protests and the Soviet Union’s Afterlife
There’s hope that the U.S. will break free from this “global suicide pact” and develop a fundamentally different economy. My prediction for 2012: decentralized forces, formed in response to the unsustainable and unfair economic situation, will begin to fundamentally change how our national economy works. People in the Occupy Wall Street movement and groups working on human rights, public health, clean energy, and social and tax justice are laying the groundwork for a shift to a steady state — a dynamic and sustainable economy that pursues prosperity and full employment without GDP growth.
Last year ASPO-USA brought together a host of leading thinkers and their predictions for what to expect in 2011. While not all the predictions were on target, last year’s thinkers and leaders on energy issues were remarkably prescient, accurately anticipating among other things Arab Spring, the flow of energy prices, the re-emergent world food crisis, and the next step in the Transition movement. While foreseeing the future is a delicate exercise, there are real trends that are evident to eyes prepared to see. Here are their thoughts about the coming year. A Hopeful New Year to all from ASPO-USA!
