Democracy and Pseudo-Science
Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy When I was thirteen, my mother died suddenly. On the rebound, my father married again to a German woman, whose family were great enthusiasts for the thinking of the Croatian-born seer and polymath, Rudolf Steiner. To that point, I had never heard of Steiner (my family, English, were Quakers), but in…
Read MoreThe Originality of OWS
The political movements of the left that I have participated in over many decades were almost always focused on or prioritized particular issues (wars, civil liberties, civil rights, poverty, collective bargaining, etc.) and/or particular subsections of the population (African-Americans, women, gay people, immigrants, etc.). The authorities almost always took advantage of that focus to separate…
Read MoreThe Ruses of Reason
Strategies of Exclusion Are animals “bons à penser” (good to think [with])?1 According to French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, the answer to this question is positive. As is well-known, Levi-Strauss’s claim referred to the specific role played by animals in symbolic thought. But if one asked the same question in a more general sense, the answer…
Read MoreGaza as Center
Behind the blinding media rhetoric and deceptive narratives and justifications, and digressions from root issues, the latest attacks on Gaza are part of a larger plan. Christian Palestinians voted overwhelmingly for Hamas in 2006. I was in the Jerusalem area, and in Ramallah and Bethlehem, and witnessed this unusual turn. It wasn’t the decisive factor…
Read MoreA Rambling Introduction
“I was a young writer and I wanted to take off . . .” Jack Kerouac, On The Road If you don’t know where you are going, surmised Lewis Carroll, ravishingly logical as usual, any road will get you there.[1] Yet long and winding roads aren’t always moseyed by rigid souls who imagine they know…
Read MoreRepression, Egypt-Style
February 18th marked a historic day for supporters of democratic reform in the Middle East. Egyptian democracy activist and reformist politician Ayman Nour, in prison since 2005 on flimsy charges of forging petition signatures to establish his El Ghad (Tomorrow) Party, was unexpectedly released. Citing health reasons, the Egyptian government gave no further explanation for…
Read MoreThe Way We Protest Now
It is increasingly evident that, in pivotal realms such as global economics and international affairs, the United States has lost its superiority – its capacity to lead. In fact, since the September 11 attacks, American democracy has been on a course of precipitous decline – a fact confirmed by two economically and morally draining foreign…
Read MoreThe British Small Arms Company: A Motorcycle Memoir
In 1965, my sophomore year at Manchester College in Indiana, I bought my first car, a 1957 Chevy crème over rust four-door sedan in perfect condition. I paid $750 in cash, most of my savings, to a tall man with black hair whose used car lot was a green field on a sloping hill that…
Read MoreOccupy Wall Street and the Challenge of the “New”
The occupation of Zuccotti Park (now, renamed Liberty Square) in New York City is an inspiring political action. As a symbolic act, it has focused attention on the geographic center of the financial industry that bears responsibility for the current financial crisis. It has drawn in thousands of Americans who have suffered as a result…
Read MoreRejecting the Founders’ Legacy: Democracy as a Weapon Against Science
Building a new country is hard work. Plato had interesting ideas about the model city-state, but his plans never got beyond the thinking stage. The American Founders, on the other hand, faced with the opportunity — indeed, the necessity — to do more than dream up theoretical blueprints for a new political system, actually constructed…
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