This summer, I've had the opportunity to dive deeply into the words and ideas of some great social and political thinkers. What I've appreciated about what I have read is the integrity, care and honesty that has characterized their work. Each text has prompted serious reflection in me and contributed to a more expansive and conscious world view. The gift is that my own notions of citizenship continue to be refined, and I become more aware of how I can contribute.
The guiding questions for me are: What is my relationship to what is happening in my community, my region, and my planet? and What are my responsibilities in light of my understanding of what is happening? By giving me a grounding in the latest research and frameworks that can help my thinking and actions to be more integrated, I have found that my summer reading choices are better equipping me to engage with my community in a proactive way.
I worry about the state of social and political discourse that I experience around me. I see a lot of reactive news programing, instant access to information that fails to leave room for deeper contemplation and thought, and a highly polarized debate. Yet the issues facing us today are so complex and serious, that they require so much more from us. It truly is in the best interests of those in powerful positions to keep the majority of citizens ignorant and disengaged. The more you know and understand about the state of the world - most notably in relation to the poor and in relation to the environment - the more indignant you feel and the more powerfully and passionately you respond to calls for change. Change is always threatening for those who benefit from a current social order. This dialectic has been played out in social movements for centuries.
One act which is empowering and sustaining comes from giving oneself the time to really understand one or more of the key issues facing a community - whether local, global or both. Knowledge really is power. Knowledge coupled with conscious action acts as an immune response to a troubled, diseased situation.
Every little cell counts.
What I've Been Reading...
Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt.
The force of his writing takes you into his well thought-out arguments for how to restore social democracy in the 21st century. How did we get to this current moment of intense political and social dysfunction? Judt helps the reader to understand the road we've travelled, and illuminates the one we can yet choose to walk.
Days of Deception, Days of Revolt by Christopher Hedges and Joe Sacco
Hedges has a way of exposing that the Emperor not only has no clothes, but has no conscience. Documenting the stories from the "war zones" of unfettered capitalism, Hedges and Sacco force the reader to face and truly understand how dismally we fail our own humanity when we enable profit to matter more than people or the environment.
Everything Under the Sun: Towards a Brighter Future on Small Blue Planet by David Suzuki and Ian Hanington
This book acts as a primer on a number of environmental issues facing our world, as well as outlining what the latest research has to say, and what we can do to turn things around. Real and hopeful at the same time. You get a clear picture of what is happening to our precious ecosystems without becoming completely disempowered at how dire the situation really is. No free passes here -there are constant reminders about what each of us can do to shift the balance in a life-affirming direction.
Relational Reality: New Discoveries of Interrelatedness That Are Transforming the Modern World by Charlene Spretnak
As a teacher, I found her chapter on parenting and education alone to be worth the cost of the book. I've loved Spretnak's work for many years; she is an original thinker who brings the feminine dimensions of life to the forefront without compromising critical thinking and analysis. In her latest reflections, she points to emerging (and re-emerging) understandings of life's systems that are revolutionizing how we organize our societies.
The guiding questions for me are: What is my relationship to what is happening in my community, my region, and my planet? and What are my responsibilities in light of my understanding of what is happening? By giving me a grounding in the latest research and frameworks that can help my thinking and actions to be more integrated, I have found that my summer reading choices are better equipping me to engage with my community in a proactive way.
I worry about the state of social and political discourse that I experience around me. I see a lot of reactive news programing, instant access to information that fails to leave room for deeper contemplation and thought, and a highly polarized debate. Yet the issues facing us today are so complex and serious, that they require so much more from us. It truly is in the best interests of those in powerful positions to keep the majority of citizens ignorant and disengaged. The more you know and understand about the state of the world - most notably in relation to the poor and in relation to the environment - the more indignant you feel and the more powerfully and passionately you respond to calls for change. Change is always threatening for those who benefit from a current social order. This dialectic has been played out in social movements for centuries.
One act which is empowering and sustaining comes from giving oneself the time to really understand one or more of the key issues facing a community - whether local, global or both. Knowledge really is power. Knowledge coupled with conscious action acts as an immune response to a troubled, diseased situation.
Every little cell counts.
What I've Been Reading...
Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt.
The force of his writing takes you into his well thought-out arguments for how to restore social democracy in the 21st century. How did we get to this current moment of intense political and social dysfunction? Judt helps the reader to understand the road we've travelled, and illuminates the one we can yet choose to walk.
Days of Deception, Days of Revolt by Christopher Hedges and Joe Sacco
Hedges has a way of exposing that the Emperor not only has no clothes, but has no conscience. Documenting the stories from the "war zones" of unfettered capitalism, Hedges and Sacco force the reader to face and truly understand how dismally we fail our own humanity when we enable profit to matter more than people or the environment.
Everything Under the Sun: Towards a Brighter Future on Small Blue Planet by David Suzuki and Ian Hanington
This book acts as a primer on a number of environmental issues facing our world, as well as outlining what the latest research has to say, and what we can do to turn things around. Real and hopeful at the same time. You get a clear picture of what is happening to our precious ecosystems without becoming completely disempowered at how dire the situation really is. No free passes here -there are constant reminders about what each of us can do to shift the balance in a life-affirming direction.
Relational Reality: New Discoveries of Interrelatedness That Are Transforming the Modern World by Charlene Spretnak
As a teacher, I found her chapter on parenting and education alone to be worth the cost of the book. I've loved Spretnak's work for many years; she is an original thinker who brings the feminine dimensions of life to the forefront without compromising critical thinking and analysis. In her latest reflections, she points to emerging (and re-emerging) understandings of life's systems that are revolutionizing how we organize our societies.
