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A Practical Utopian’s Guide to the Coming Collapse

A Practical Utopian’s Guide to the Coming Collapse
David Graeber [from The Baffler No. 22, 2013] What is a revolution? We used to think we knew. At moments like this, it generally pays to go back to the history one already knows and ask: Were revolutions ever really what we thought them to be? Already by the time of the French Revolution, Wallerstein notes, there was a single world market, and increasingly a single world political system as well, dominated by the huge colonial empires. A quarter of the American population is now engaged in “guard labor”—defending property, supervising work, or otherwise keeping their fellow Americans in line. Revolutions are thus planetary phenomena. Until 1968, most world revolutions really just introduced practical refinements: an expanded franchise, universal primary education, the welfare state. It’s fashionable nowadays to view the social movements of the late sixties as an embarrassing failure. The ironies are endless. Future Stop I’ll take an obvious example. It would explain a lot.

Permaculture Voices Podcast | Permaculture Voices Conference: 4 Day Mega Event. March 13-16, 2014, Temecula, CA Formally The Permaculture Voices Podcast Honest, hard conversations about farming, business, and life with those trying to make a living doing something that they love and dealing with life in the process. You’ll hear from experts who are far down their respective paths and people just like you who are starting out and making a go of it and learning as they go. I’ll dive deep into each story, looking at the why and the how, leaving you with practical tools, tips, and techniques that you can put into use right away to be part of the change by doing your work. Remember… though you may not be able to change the world, you can change your world, so go for it.. Support via Patreon or PayPal DO THE WORK – The Daily Podcast Growing and Selling Microgreens with Chris Thoreau: Thinking About Growing Microgreens as a Business – The Tedious, Detail Oriented Reality of Growing Microgreens – Episode 3 How Chris Thoreau Started, Build, and Grew a Thriving Microgreens Business – Episode 1 Greens. The b Reels:

50 Astounding Facts About Rainforests (INFOGRAPHIC) Rainforests play a critical role in the maintenance of our planet's good health. Not only are they home to more than half of the world's species of flora and fauna, rainforests are also the source of about 40 percent of the planet's oxygen supply. They also help to maintain the Earth's fresh water levels, as well as regulate temperatures and weather patterns. Sadly, despite being so rich, diverse and life-giving, humans continue to wreck these priceless habitats through deforestation. "Every second, a slice of rainforest the size of a football field is mowed down. According to the National Geographic, rainforests could vanish from the planet completely within the next century if current deforestation rates continue. To learn how you can help save the rainforests, visit the websites of environmental groups like Greenpeace and the Nature Conservancy. Suggest a correction Contact Us Use this form to alert a HuffPost editor about a factual or typographical error in this story.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy abduction (Igor Douven) Abelard [Abailard], Peter (Peter King) Abhidharma (Noa Ronkin) abilities (John Maier) Abner of Burgos (Shalom Sadik) Abrabanel, Judah (Aaron Hughes) abstract objects (Gideon Rosen) accidental properties — see essential vs. accidental properties action (George Wilson and Samuel Shpall) action-based theories of perception (Robert Briscoe and Rick Grush) action at a distance — see quantum mechanics: action at a distance in actualism (Christopher Menzel) adaptationism (Steven Hecht Orzack and Patrick Forber) Addams, Jane (Maurice Hamington) Adorno, Theodor W. (Lambert Zuidervaart) advance directives (Agnieszka Jaworska) Aegidius Romanus — see Giles of Rome Aenesidemus — see skepticism: ancient aesthetic, concept of the (James Shelley) aesthetics aesthetics of the everyday (Yuriko Saito) affirmative action (Robert Fullinwider) Africana Philosophy (Lucius T. Outlaw Jr.) B [jump to top] C [jump to top] D [jump to top] Damian, Peter (Toivo J.

Elusive Entropy We’ve all heard it. We think we understand it: entropy is a measure of disorder. Combined with the Second Law of Thermodynamics—that the total entropy of a closed system may never decrease—it seems we have a profound statement that the Universe is destined to become less ordered. The consequences are unsettling. Sure, the application of energy can reverse entropy locally, but if our society enters an energy-scarce regime, how can we maintain order? It makes intuitive sense: an energy-neglected infrastructure will rust and crumble. A narrative has developed around this theme that we take in low entropy energy and emit a high entropy wake of waste. But wait just a minute! The Measure of Entropy From a thermodynamic standpoint, the total entropy of a system has a simple definition. This is very closely related to the heat capacity of a system or object. Where is the Disorder? Informational Entropy The fans went wild. Gee, von Neumann couldn’t have been more right. What’s the Difference?

DROM "That debt is neither inevitable nor ethical is one of the powerful assertions of Strike Debt, whose brilliant manual is both a practical handbook and a manifesto for a true debt jubilee: an economic rebirth in which the indebted are freed and financial institutions are reinvented. It's a stunning intersection of ferocity (against the debt industry) and compassion (for the people whose lives are broken by debt). In years to come, we may look back on it as a landmark in social transformation; right now it is both useful and exhilarating." —Rebecca Solnit, author of A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster and Wanderlust: A History of Walking "The impact of the neoliberal assault on the U.S. population in the past generation has rightly been designated a 'failure by design.' —Noam Chomsky, author of Hopes and Prospects and Making the Future: The Unipolar Imperial Moment "This manual is a practical guide that will aid anyone who is struggling with debt.

Giordano Bruno: The Forgotten Philosopher You must acknowledge that you have read the following disclaimer in order to view documents in the Historical Library. The Historical Library contains writings written before 1970, only. For material written during or after 1970, please refer to the Modern Documents section of the Secular Web Library. This Historical Library is provided for those doing research into the history of nontheism. All of the Historical Library authors are dead--and in many cases have been so for several decades. To acknowlege that you have read and understand the Historical Library Disclaimer and that you will not contact us about any Historical Document in our Library, enter the word "yes" in the box and click . NOTE: A cookie will be set that will expire when you close your browser.

Florida Makes Off-Grid Living Illegal It’s no secret that an opposition to sustainable living exists. Earlier this year, Texas state brought several SWAT teams to a sustainable community and threatened to shut it down. Each one of the community members were initially handcuffed at gunpoint. This time, it’s Robin Speronis that’s come under fire. In the end, she was found not guilty of not having a proper sewer or electrical system; but was guilty of not being hooked up to an approved water supply. So what exactly is off grid living? “It means living independently, mainly living independently of the utility companies. Our potential as a human race is quite extraordinary, we just don’t realize it. The only problem with off the grid living is that corporations lose their ability to control others. We’ve accepted the monetary system, and deem it necessary for the proper function of society. “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle.

6 Myths About Renewable Energy, Busted! Imagine a world free of oil accidents, coal pollution and nuclear waste. A world where we wouldn’t have to feel helpless in the face of climate change, because we did everything we could to prevent further warming. A world where energy was clean, safe and available for all. That world is within our reach now. The evidence is in: Renewable energy is viable, reliable, and ready to go – all that’s needed for a clean energy revolution. On this page we’ve grouped together some of the most common myths about renewable energy, explaining why they are just that – myths that don’t stand up to reality. But here’s the thing, although we’ve busted the myths here, we need you to make the myth busting go beyond this page. Please share it widely. Now, let’s get going! In recent years the costs of wind and solar energy have declined substantially. • Citigroup: The age of renewable energy is beginning. The Hidden Costs of Coal and Nuclear 1. 6. What is a smart grid? Download the Revolution

The World According to The Automatic Earth - A 2013 Primer Guide Dorothea Lange River Food June 1936 Memphis, Tennessee. Original caption: "Coon dawgling." The Automatic Earth (TAE) is now five years old (as of January 22). That's five years of wide-ranging discussion on a huge range of issues, in the process of developing the biggest possible big picture of our present predicament. We are reaching limits to growth in so many ways at the same time, but it isn't enough to understand which are the limiting factors, but also what time frame each particular subset of reality operates over, and therefore which is the key driver at what time. Our job has been to explore those subsystems, how they fit together, and which will be the key driver in the short, medium and longer term, in order to prioritize action. We are known primarily as a finance site because finance has the shortest time frame of all, hence we focus on it. Dorothea Lange Wayfarers May 1937 Mother and child of Arkansas flood refugee family near Memphis, Texas. Ponzi Finance: Deflation:

Noam Chomsky: Ecology, Ethics, Anarchism (Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)Also See: Noam Chomsky | The Prospects for Survival There can be little doubt about the centrality and severity of the environmental crisis in the present day. Driven by the mindless "grow-or-die" imperative of capitalism, humanity's destruction of the biosphere has reached and even surpassed various critical thresholds, whether in terms of carbon emissions, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, freshwater depletion, or chemical pollution. Extreme weather events can be seen pummeling the globe, from the Philippines - devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in November of last year - to California, which is presently suffering from the worst drought in centuries. JAVIER SETHNESS FOR TRUTHOUT: Professor Chomsky, thank you so kindly for taking the time today to converse with me about ecology and anarchism. NOAM CHOMSKY: Indirectly, but I think it's actually more general. In my view, anarchism is just the most advanced form of political thought.

Peak phosphorus will be a shortage we can't stomach Here’s the good news. We probably don’t have to worry about peak oil just yet, as it isn’t going to run out anytime soon. The bad news is, as the IPCC has recently reported, we can’t afford the costs of what liberating all that carbon into the Earth’s atmosphere would do to the climate. So we will have to leave it in the ground and come up with alternatives fast. The really bad news is that we may not even have to worry about peak oil or dangerous climate change – instead we can fret over peak phosphorous. Phosphorus is present in all cells in all forms of life because it makes up part of the backbone of DNA – you can’t make DNA without phosphorus. Many plants do just fine by consuming the natural levels of phosphorus in the soil, but modern intensive farming methods quickly suck up phosphorus, which needs to be continually replaced. Did farmers have this problem in the past? Click to enlarge Unsurprisingly it depends on who you ask. Will we starve or will we cook the climate?

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