Monthly Archives: July 2011

Obama and Mozambique – inconvenient facts spoiling a racist storyline

Posted on July 23, 2011 by

Barack Obama is a meat puppet for the corporations, it’s true. And cool as Mozambique’s Frelimo government was from 1975 to the mid-80s (and relatively uncorrupt, according to clear-eyed observers like Joseph Hanlon) but made plenty of Stalinesque mistakes. My … Continue reading →

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Those pesky “cascading ecological crises”

Posted on July 22, 2011 by

Have just read a really interesting article from the June 2011 issue of the journal “Public Administration.” It’s called Institutional and Political Leadership Dimensions of Cascading Ecological Crises, and it’s by a bunch of scientists/policy wonks at the Stockholm Resilience … Continue reading →

Posted in apocalypse, competence, natural world, politics, science, technoscience | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Clock punching

Posted on July 22, 2011 by

Good to remember that something as “natural” as time is not so natural… The failure of France and Russia to radically alter the calendar to suit their national requirements has to be appreciated in the context of changes in time … Continue reading →

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Trained Incapacity – climate denialists, much?

Posted on July 21, 2011 by

Herman Kahn was a Doctor Strangelove character handily eviscerated by Noam Chomsky back in the day. Anyhow, here is a short piece he wrote slagging off humanities graduates. It has other applications as well, I would suggest… The Expert and … Continue reading →

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The Delirious Fascist Aesthetic

Posted on July 20, 2011 by

Attention Conservation Notice: Misusing the term “fascist aesthetic,” I goggle at the film “300” and the execrable TV show “CSI Miami.” Ah, the shiny surfaces and hard bodies. The jaw lines, the simplicity of the Good Guys and the Bad … Continue reading →

Posted in death, fear | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Youtube: The Consolations of Apocalypse

Posted on July 20, 2011 by

…and also the consolations of conspiracy. We love endings, being special, and the existence of a Father Figure (or Mother Figure). Sigh. WordPress is having one of its periodic refuses-to-embed tanties. Here’s a link instead http://www.youtube.com/user/dwighttowering#p/a/u/0/onV9kubST28

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Oh lord please don’t let me be misunderstood.

Posted on July 19, 2011 by

It’s easy to misunderstand lyrics (As Whoopi Goldberg says in frustration in the film Jumping Jack Flash – “SING ENGLISH, MICK”*). Singers howl, mumble and garble. Mondegreens, eh. But what about misunderstanding a whole song? Leaving aside cynical marketing ploys … Continue reading →

Posted in competence, framing | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Five dysfunctions of a team…

Posted on July 18, 2011 by

I am pretty sure this is from Patrick Lencioni… 1. The first dysfunction is an absence of trust among team members. Essentially, this stems from their unwillingness to be vulnerable within the group. Team members who are not genuinely open … Continue reading →

Posted in activism, bureaucracy, competence | Tagged , | 1 Comment

There’s no justice, there’s just us.

Posted on July 17, 2011 by

Pop Quiz – you are presented with irrefutable evidence that the planet is warming and that human activity is responsible to a very large degree. Do you a) re-examine your “Just World” beliefs (that bad things don’t happen to good … Continue reading →

Posted in a little self-knowledge, activism, apocalypse | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Movement building and the war of attrition…

Posted on July 16, 2011 by

This is something that was written almost ten years ago. Just before 911, in fact. EF! and the War of Attrition* *Attrition (mil) tactic of exhausting an enemy before attacking decisively Assuming we want EF! to get grow, we need … Continue reading →

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