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Tuesday, September 24, 2002
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This week I am working on my concept of synergic containment. This is a follow up to my article No Knives, No Guns, No Killing! on the necessity of disarmament. Then back to my book on Human Intelligence. Heres what's at SynEARTH this morning.
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David Korten writes: The language of economic dysfunction has become so common that when I use the term “the global suicide economy” in my talks, I rarely need to elaborate. Most people are now aware that rule by global corporations and financial speculators engaged in the single-minded pursuit of money is destroying communities, cultures, and natural systems everywhere on the planet. Until recently, however, most people responded with polite but resigned skepticism to my message that economic transformation is possible. Now, with the revelations of high-profile corporate fraud and corruption, I sense a dramatic change. While the political power brokers talk of new rules and penalties to restore confidence in financial markets, members of religious orders and congregations, community groups, city officials, business people, and young activists are talking about the possibility of far greater changes—of creating truly new economies. They speak of real wealth as a sense of belonging, contribution, beauty, joy, relationship, and spiritual connection. They share their dreams of a world of locally rooted living economies that meet the material needs of all people everywhere, while providing meaning, building community, and connecting us to a place on the Earth. (09/24/02) | |
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Peter Corning writes: A global superorganism may well be emerging even as traditional nation-states are devolving. The history of the European Union suggests that an explicit "vision" of a global superorganism can serve as an important motivator and catalyst for this process. However, this is only the beginning, and deep problems currently exist. To quote the distinguished 20th century evolutionary biologist, Theodosius Dobzhansky: "The future is not vouchsafed by any law of nature, but it can be striven for." (09/24/02) | |
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Reason Wilken writes: There are many ingredients of a good drama. Among them are tragedy, irony and suspense. Thus, it comes as no surprise that the current legal system provides plenty of fodder for shows like The Practice and Law & Order. In the course of one episode an individual guilty of murder can walk free or an innocent person can be found guilty ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. The testimony of a key witness may be thrown out on a technicality, and a defense attorney may pledge the innocence of their (guilty) client. Things are not always as they seem inside a courtroom, which provides plenty of plot twists for producers and writers. But if one is to look beyond the drama, is our current system of crime and punishment really “just”? It seems like there must be a better system of justice available, one in which a convicted killer could not be absolved of responsibility by pleading insanity. The newly proposed synergic organization called the Life Trust may be one such alternative. (09/23/02) | |
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Bill Moyer speaks: 'Something is deeply wrong with politics today,' I told anyone who would listen. And I wasn't referring to the partisan mudslinging, or the negative TV ads, the excessive polling or the empty campaigns. I was talking about something deeper, something troubling at the core of politics. The soul of democracy-the essence of the word itself-is government of, by, and for the people. And the soul of democracy has been dying, drowning in a rising tide of big money contributed by a narrow, unrepresentative elite that has betrayed the faith of citizens in self-government. This wasn't something I came to casually, by the way. It's the big political story of the last quarter century, and I started reporting it as a journalist in the late 70s with the first television documentary about political action committees. More recently, at the Florence and John Schumann Foundation, working with my colleague and son, John Moyers, we saw how environmental causes were being overwhelmed by the private funding of elections that gives big donors unequal and undeserved political influence. That's why over the past five years the Schumann brothers-Robert and Ford and our board have poured both income and principle into political reform through the Clean Money Initiative-the public funding of elections. I intended to talk about this-about the soul of democracy-and then connect it to my television efforts and your environmental work. That was my intention. That's the speech I was working on six weeks ago. But I'm not the same man I was six weeks ago. And you're not the same audience for whom I was preparing those remarks. (09/23/02) | |
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New York Times -- BRAZIL: When Jorge Viana was elected governor of Acre State, he embarked on an ambitious experiment that has gained growing support here and abroad. Rather than simply raze the jungle, as his predecessors had always done, he promised instead a "government for the forest" and the people who live there. ... Mr. Viana, 42, a forestry engineer, leads an unusual coalition, the Acre Popular Front. Its goal, he said in an interview here, is to make the state "a kind of Finland of the Amazon." The alliance includes left-wing parties and environmental organizations, Indian tribes and intellectuals, rubber tappers and Roman Catholic lay groups. "Trees are our biggest resource, our vocation and patrimony, not an impediment to modernization, and we need to learn how to exploit the forest without destroying it," Mr. Viana said. "If we treat the forest like a garden, as a renewable resource, we will grow faster than if we cut it down." (09/23/02) | |
6:14:13 AM 
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© TrustMark
2002
Timothy Wilken.
Last update:
10/1/2002; 6:08:28 AM.
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