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One of the downsides of presenting such a visionary solution to our global crisis is that it's hard to know where to begin, beyond raising awareness. The gap between where we are now, and where we'd like to go appears so great that it is not at all obvious how the transition...
The primary threat to nature and people today comes from centralizing and monopolizing power and control. - Vandana Shiva
When Donald Trump gets more air time than Bernie Sanders, the media misses the mark on grassroots change.
Shefali Tsabary's latest book argues that parents need to focus more on themselves and less on their children.
The belief that what currently exists must necessarily exist is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking. - Murray Bookchin
Recent research has shown cities what works. For starters, hire more female police officers.
On Structural Racism and Daily Inaction
I keep thinking since the horrific police assassinations in Dallas that we’ve been here before. It’s not that so many police officers have been summarily executed. It’s that a palpable tension still exists between police and black people in our country, despite the efforts of...
In the aftermath of the Leave vote, people will need to find ways to calmly hear each other and bridge divides. Ultimately, we will need to unite against the corporate forces that undermine our wellbeing, not against immigrants who are victims as well.
It's time to start imagining a society that isn't dominated by police
After tonight's ‪#‎BlackLivesMatter‬ vigil, I don't have the words to speak to how powerful and moving this event was. It appeared there was about
How can communities rethink ownership to remedy poverty? In this powerful talk, Eric Kornacki shares the story of his journey carrying lessons learned from Central American sweatshops to empower the transformation of a now-gentrifying neighborhood gripped in poverty in his...
When people ask me, “Who will protect us,” I want to say: Who protects you now?
Martin Luther King Jr. said it best in 1966: "[The] law cannot make a man love me, but it can restrain him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important also." Two years later, he was shot and killed in Memphis. But his dream that the United States legal system might...
Economic globalization is destroying livelihoods and replacing them with assembly-line drudgery. But there is a path forward.
My new film How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change debuted on HBO June 27th.
Social justice and democracy must be at the heart of Brexit negotiations. Progressives must unite to stop the UK turning into a Thatcherite wasteland
We live in the beginning phase of a global revolution which will turn societal conditions upside down. We cannot stop this transformation, but we can influence where it will go. Will the disintegration of the globalized systems lead to fascist violence and molecular civil...
My supporters and I want real change in this country.
In May 2013, my whole world shifted. At the time, I was living in Amsterdam and I began to feel the call to the Peruvian Amazon to work with the sacred plant medicine ayahuasca.
We live in a world that moves faster than we do. Trying to keep up can be an overwhelming task that at times feels hopeless, like we are falling further and further behind—but it doesn’t have to. We are fully capable of adapting to the changing times, and it begins with...
Despite countries such as Britain and the United States being five times richer than they were a century ago, we are working longer hours than ever before. And, argues author Rutger Bregman, overtime and overwork are deadly. Yet it doesn’t need to be like this – we can cut...
Just existing as a queer person is still a radical —and very dangerous — act.
I talk a lot about Basic Income, the concept that everyone should be provided a minimum guaranteed income to provide for basic human necessities (food, clothing, shelter). All over the world it is c
The novelist Terry Pratchett once wrote, “people think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it’s the other way around.” However it seems these types of dichotomies are often both/and more than they are either/or. It is true that we are shaped by the stories that we...
MORE THAN AT ANY OTHER time in history, a strong case can be made on pragmatic, utilitarian grounds that war is no longer necessary. Nonviolent statecraft need not be the dream of pacifists and dreamy idealists. It is within our reach. Simply opposing war and documenting its...
How to live passionately when we’re not sure how the story will end
How do you get people to do something about climate change? For years, the answer has been to prod people into thinking about their role in causing it, to guilt trip them into action. Because any human who happens to live in North America has taken advantage of central...
My interview with Tiziano Bonini has ben published in Italian at Che Fara. Here is the English version:
Brilliant comic sums up tough choices around EU Referendum
Unconditional basic income, a policy option that seems radical by American standards, is gaining new traction across Europe, Canada, and even a few places in the United States. Also known as “universal basic income,” the policy mandates a guaranteed stipend to every resident...
Cultivating a Beginner's Mind With traditional arts in Asia much emphasis is put on long-term practice and effort, so as to reach continuously higher levels of skill development. There is a deeper character training happening as well, to reduce the ego’s voice, let go of...
We seem to have forgotten that the human spirit is not satisfied by material progress alone. It’s time for us to reconnect with nature
United Natures explores the rights of Mother Earth, environmental philosophy, wisdom, spirituality, and the potential for a neo-indigenous future for humanity.
For the past twenty years, I have been carrying out experiments to find out how power is distributed in groups. I have infiltrated college dorms and children’s summer camps to document who rises in power. I have brought entire sororities and fraternities into the lab...
This documentary closely follows the eco-village Cabrum, a recent community in northern Portugal; Cooperativa Integral Catalana, in Barcelona, which practices self-management with its own coins, the Eco; and finally, the self-sustaining community Tamera also in Portugal. The...
For decades, we've been taught that economic growth and buying more stuff will make us happy—while trashing the planet. The good news is, there’s a better kind of happy: It starts with meaningful work, loving relationships, and a thriving natural world.
This is a shortened version of the award-winning feature-length documentary film, The Economics of Happiness. Cut down from 68 minutes to less than 20, it provides an introduction to the concept of localization - a systemic alternative to corporate capitalism - and shows how...
In facing up to the many profound crises of our time, we face a conundrum that has no easy resolution: how are we to imagine and build a radically different system while living within the constraints of an incumbent system that aggressively resists transformational change?...
My first impression at OuiShare Fest was a weird utopian blockchain mania: a poorly understood but massively hyped technology that will somehow fix all our social, political, and economic inequities. As I got to know some of the people here though, I started to see through...
One of my most popular courses at Swarthmore College focused on the challenge of how to defend against terrorism, nonviolently. Events now unfolding in France make our course more relevant than ever. (The syllabus was published in “Peace, Justice, and Security Studies: A...
In the last few months basic income—an unconditional cash payment to every member of the population—has been getting more and more attention in the media and social networks. Three items are especially interesting.
“Yes, it looks bleak. But you are still alive now. You are alive with all the others, in this present moment. And because the truth is speaking in the work, it unlocks the heart. And there’s such a feeling and experience of adventure. It’s like a trumpet call to a great...
An animated look at David Schweickart's proposal for a next system, grounded in democratic worker cooperatives and built around public control of financial capital.
It is a sunny April Saturday and I’m running late to an event. This itself is not remarkable – but this time it is because the street I’m looking for in Lambeth is not marked on my map. When I find the launch for Switched On London, I discover I’m not the only one puzzled by...
Parenthood lies deep within us. We are wired to help our little ones survive and prosper. Modern life, however, has removed us from our natural environment. It can be hard to raise a child in world of fear and distractions. Science and psychology bring back a big dose of...
Many changes happening around us remain unclear. We need better names and stories for them.
More than 1,500 community gardens have been started on vacant land in Detroit alone in recent years.
Among climate change activists, solutions usually center on a transition to renewable energy. There may be differences over whether this would be best accomplished by a carbon tax, bigger subsidies for wind and solar power, divestment from fossil fuel companies, massive...
Lodged between two of the most populated countries on earth — India and China — Bhutan may be small at 700,000 souls, but it has a mighty role to play in showing the world how to preserve the environment, while also cultivating happiness in its human population. In fact, the...
There is nothing more difficult to plan, nor more dangerous to manage, than the creation of a new system. For the creator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old system and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new one.” —...
In the struggle for a more just society, we will be aided, not hurt, by our shared nature.
Are we able to stop fracking and other threats to the environment from coming into our communities?  Are we able to protect local farming from sewage sludge or factory farming?  Are we able to protect workers and local economies from multi-national corporations?
Pia Mancini and her colleagues want to upgrade democracy in Argentina and beyond. Through their open-source mobile platform they want to bring citizens inside the legislative process, and run candidates who will listen to what they say.
What does "a good day" mean to you?
This short documentary is about the self sustaining community of Tamera, Portugal. In the film we speak with the residents of the community, who tell us how they made that originally dry land available for living, how they started organic agriculture, how they use biogas and...
How can we create participatory workplaces that make decision making more democratic and compensation and job assignments more equitable? In this new animation from the Next System Project, building off Robin Hahnel's paper for our New Systems series, we explore the answer...
Amsterdam collective Fiction Factory has developed a modular building system of cardboard components, which can be assembled in just one day to form houses or offices. Named Wikkelhouse, which translates from Dutch as Wrap House, the completed prototype comprises a series of...
Disobedience is a film about a new phase of the climate movement: courageous action that is being taken on the front lines of the climate crisis on every continent, led by regular people fed up with the power and pollution of the fossil fuel industry.
“How do we grow the economy?” is an obsolete question. Local initiatives across the world are looking for maturity instead as they rebuild caring, place-based communities and economies.
A New Story For Humanity presents a beautifully and sensitively woven tapestry of the rich diversity that is the human family. Featuring interviews on the essential topics of our time: from cosmology to ecology, from ancient wisdom to current thinking, from leadership to...
The world is a pretty screwed up place. So how do we fix it when we ourselves are broken? This is the question that rarely gets asked — and it is a keystone piece of the solution to all the global crises in the world. Global Warming? Can’t fix that and create healthy...
Have you ever noticed how we, as a society, use agricultural metaphors to talk about parenting and education? We speak of raising children, just as we speak of raising tomatoes or chickens. We speak of training children, just as we speak of training horses. Our manner of...
It’s true; musicians can be a catalyst for social change!  Watch the inspiring story about the first Permaculture Action Tour, with music producer The Polish Ambassador, that covered over 9,000 miles though 33 cities and 19 states, from San Francisco to New York City...
Political rhetoric in the U.S. is often characterized by sickly sweet appeals to democracy. Voting is held up as the foundation of democracy, or as the most useful or necessary method of political participation or expression. Judging by that rhetoric, and by the image of the...
If the left is to fight back against authoritarianism, we must bring together diverse movements working for social change.
Part of the way the U.S. Empire's elections are rigged is the corporate media's censorship of third-party candidates, despite their nationwide campaign efforts. The Green Party, running Dr. Jill Stein for President, has been totally ignored by the establishment. Abby Martin...
 When maximizing profits isn’t the only goal, companies can actually work better.
Last year, I was invited to give a talk on peace in Carbondale, Illinois. I was surprised to discover that in recent years, activists from across Carbondale had come together with a broad vision of what their community could one day become—a nonviolent city. They wanted a new...
The Blueprint project is an integrated response system especially applicable in emergency situations. The model includes permaculture practices, solar and biogas energy usage, natural building methods and water harvesting structures. We only offer what we use ourselves – for...
If we do not initiate the young they will burn down the village to feel the heat. - African Proverb The villages are burning.  Worldwide. An estimated $500 billion is spent yearly on teen dysfunctions in the U.S. alone: drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy and STDs...
Sometimes I feel this sense of "oneness" in my body and it's hard to describe, but I say 'we're all one' as a verbal way to describe the feeling. At other times oneness is an intellectual idea that I know to be true but I don't feel it in my direct experience.
Can a forest heal people? Explore the magic of nature. Come home. Be Healed.
Frank Barat reflects on today's attacks on his city, and argues that only more understanding can defeat terrorism and its root causes.
The world today is in crisis. Everybody knows that. But what is driving this crisis? It's a story, a story that is destroying the world. It's a story about our relationship to the world and to other humans, but we take this story for granted. We don't even see it as a story...
The world needs all of us to become healers. It needs us to nurture the sacred feminine and the sacred masculine that lies dormant to various degrees w
REVOLUTION LA is a political discussion group and revolutionary grassroots movement dedicated to building class-consciousness from the bottom-up through community education, outreach and empowerment.As the struggle of disadvantaged populations continues to widen through mass...
The Awakening of Humanity Occasionally in the course of human events, a new worldview emerges that transforms society. It happened when Jesus’ disciples were inspired by his life to believe in radical transformation of the person and theworld through love. It occurred in the...
“We do not live in an era of change, but in a change of eras” is the way Jan Rotmans from the University Rotterdam describes the structural changes impacting our societies. This is also the phrase Michel Bauwens chose to open his latest book yet to be published in English...
Most of the pain and killing and suffering comes from the hands of men in my age group. If all of a sudden all the men between 25-35 did half of what was on this list. If all the men in this age group dropped their weapons, ceased to objectify women and were more accepting of...
Are the ancient stories of the Native Americans coming true?
Leftist: "If you think something will change if you vote for a different politician then you might not understand how the system works..."
Anticapitalism isn’t simply a moral stance against injustice — it’s about building an alternative.
Homelessness, unaffordable urban real estate, devastating gentrification, and the housing bubble are all rooted in privatized housing.
An excerpt from his book "No Death, No Fear."
Are you passionate about the work that you do? What are you doing to maintain that? Being in action for the causes you are passionate about demands a lot and feeling burnt out at times is a normal reaction. Understand that experience as your innermost self calling you to tune...
How many of you can recall situations in which you felt unjustly treated or taken advantage of and you did not stand up for yourself? Or remember finding yourself in a situation where you felt small and insignificant? Or recall generally feeling overwhelmed? For me, it has...
“There is a place between passivity and violence. I’ll meet you there.” – Rivera Sun Nonviolent struggle is on the rise globally. Neither passive, nor inaction, this powerful way of working for change is proving Gandhi’s audacious claim that “nonviolence is the greatest...
Sex, drugs and rock&roll, now thàt used to be cool. Someone who wants to be cool today, grows his own organic vegetables. Hip and trendy, or is there more to it?
Ultimately the goals of a radical feminism and socialism are the same — justice and equality for all people.
Vote or Die. That's the dichotomy rap mogul P. Diddy popularized back in 2006 in an effort to marshal the nation's youth to the ballot box on election day. Fast forward two presidential elections later, as the American political machine gears up once again, how does Diddy...
“The creation of today’s market society was not the result of a sequence of spontaneous events but rather of state interference and violence.” – Naomi Klein in The Shock Doctrine Liberty! Human Rights! Choice! Prosperity! Freedom! These seemin
“Patriarchy has no gender.” ― bell hooks in Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom bell hooks’ quote is a clear reminder that patriarchy does not just describe male actions of domination, but also how some organizations and cultural narratives function. Patriarchy...
Nomadic Community Gardens breathe life into disused parts of cities, which become places where nature and community thrive. This short film shows one such project near Brick Lane in East London.
We recognize at the very root of many of our systemic issues is an economic system that measures progress and success in only one metric - growth or profit. Economic growth means consuming more resources each year than were consumed in the prior year, which means that more of...
Why does our empathy seem to have limits? Why can't we extend our compassion to the whole world?
U.S. military recruiters are teaching in public school classrooms, making presentations at school career days, coordinating with JROTC units in high schools and middle schools, volunteering as sports coaches and tutors and lunch buddies in high, middle, and elementary...
Loving-kindness meditation is also known as metta meditation.
In the search for a way to fight against discrimination and oppression, many young people in particular embrace identity politics. It can be an important first step towards the development of socialist consciousness – if it leads on to an understanding of the class nature of...
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