Since almost all of you forgot to read my diary of last February about Hutchinson, Mellor, and Olsen's The Politics of Money, I'm going to try to encapsulate the wisdom contained therein in a series of bullet points, with links added.  Maybe I was too long-winded back then.

(Crossposted at Docudharma)

This is a new review of Bill McKibben's book of last year, Deep Economy, from a critical-theory perspective; it's informed by a fair reading of McKibben's opus, observance of a recent speaking appearance by the author, and a reading of his DKos diaries.

There are a lot of citations of Bill McKibben on DKos; kudos to hof1991 for an oh-so-brief review, and to Gmoke for his 350 ppm or bust diary.  And of course to Bill McKibben himself.

posted on Flickr by lollyknit

Since politicians regularly visit DailyKos.com, I decided today to write a letter to them, expressing just how bizarre the current political situation is.  For the most part, this diary is a link-fest: don't just read the diary itself, check out the links.

This is a politicized summary of a project I've been doing at the Pomona College Natural Farm, an urban one-acre farm in southern California and the subject of a previous essay on Docudharma.  The focus of this essay will be mustard, and mustard-growing.  There will be more such essays.

(reposted from Docudharma)

This diary was suggested by two recent pieces on abrupt climate change: Joseph Romm's piece on Salon.com (The cold truth about climate change), and a paper in the journal Risk Analysis which was seized upon by columnist John Tierney in a column for the New York Times: "Global Warming Paradox"?  I discuss these articles in order to suggest that there is a general state of denial as regards the social and economic causes of abrupt climate change, thus to suggest that therein lies the discovery of social and economic solutions.

(crossposted at Docudharma)

This is a review of Hutchinson, Mellor, and Olsen's The Politics of Money, a critique of the money system that contains lots of good material, especially insofar as the authors' discussion of the money system can be used to debunk the Republican dross about the sacredness of capitalism, but also insofar as the authors suggest a number of alternatives to the money system we currently have.

(crossposted at Docudharma)

This is my take on Duncan Earle and Jeanne Simonelli's (2005) book Uprising of Hope, an ethnography of the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico.  I conclude by suggesting that there are political lessons to be learned from Zapatistas, especially insofar as they go about their everyday lives.

(original photo taken by "Alma_Roma", San Cristobal de las Casas, August 12, 2006.)

Zapatistas -- Wikimedia public domain

(crossposted at Docudharma)

This is a book review of Joan Martinez-Alier's 2002 classic "The Environmentalism of the Poor."  This is a book about the history of environmentalism that tries to fit the struggles of native peoples into that history.  

My last review was of a recently-published biography of Sup Marcos, the EZLN (Zapatista) figure; my next review will to a certain extent integrate the insights of Zapatismo into Martinez-Alier's framework.  This, to a certain, extent, forms the knowledge background for my interest in people's movements (centered on, but not exclusive to, peasant movements) as a counterweight to the environmental predations of the mainstream of capitalist industry.

(Crossposted at Docudharma)

This is a review of Nick Henck's book on Sup Marcos, the military leader of the EZLN, the subversive movement in Mexico.

(Photo from the account of Whodisan215)

(Crossposted at Docudharma)

This is a short review of two biographies of Hugo Chávez, current President of Venezuela.

(from Idealterna on Flickr)

Mostly I am interested in comparing and contrasting the two biographical styles.  Marcano and Tyszka are much like journalists, whereas Jones has a somewhat pro-Chávez axe to grind.  In the end I find Jones more straightforward.  I am also interested in depicting Chávez against the background of Venezuelan political economy, in which a rich few garner all of the profits from Venezuela's enormous oil reserves while the poor majority have in the past found themselves shut out of the benefits in times when the price of crude oil has been high.

(crossposted at Docudharma)

This is a review of Alf Hornborg's The Power of the Machine, a book by a professional anthropologist offering a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary critique of our global society.

The review is in four parts: the first part is an introduction to critical theory, the second part will detail Hornborg's main concern, which is that we are trapped in a "fetish" of economic "machines," and that this is why we keep offering "technological" and "capitalist" solutions to problems like abrupt climate change.  The third part is a short critique of his central concept, "machine fetishism," and the conclusion will summarize the book chapter by chapter.

(crossposted at Docudharma)

This is a literary essay examining the question: "Why do people do what they do?" in an economic context.  Its starting point is the three-fold explanation given in Wilk and Cliggett's new text of economic anthropology, Economies and Cultures: people do what they do because 1) of economic self-interest, 2) for the sake of other people, or 3) with moral/ ethical motives in mind.  I use that framework as a starting point to examine what sort of economic motives would be best in light of the ecological crises of the present, and of the advanced state of capitalism and of "capitalist discipline" as it has shaped our society.

(crossposted at Docudharma)

This is a much-overdue review of Mark Lynas' book Six Degrees, which suggests a series of warnings as to how the future climate will be changed by abrupt climate change.

(crossposted at Docudharma)

This is a review of Peter Barnes' book Capitalism 3.0; Barnes, an eco-entrepreneur from the flowing meadows of northern California (where I got my Master's degree), still "believes in" capitalism, but offers a number of ideas worthy of consideration to non-capitalists as well, as well as a fairly sketchy version of capitalist history and a theory of the commons that, though sloppy on the details, is worthy of consideration.  Barnes' book can be regarded as an especially ethical example of a current vogue in thinking: eco-capitalism, and it will here be both praised and critiqued as such.

(Crossposted at Docudharma)

(Crossposted at Docudharma)

I thought that a discussion of Hudson's book book would be pertinent in terms of recent discussions of indebtedness and in terms of Hudson's role in the run-up to next year's elections.  

Michael Hudson's site says he is "President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), A Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and author of Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (1972 and 2003) and of The Myth of Aid (1971).

In 2007, Dr. Hudson has been appointed Chief Economic Policy Adviser for the Kucinich for President campaign and is writing a new tax policy for the United States.

This is a review of Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine, a detailed, journalistic history of neoliberalism which emphasizes its connection to "shock therapy," torture, and other means of tearing down people and society so that they can be rebuilt along the lines of "perfect," ideological models.  My review differs from others in that it focuses upon important themes and close analysis of key quotes within the book.

(crossposted at Docudharma)

This is an attempt to unmask the paucity of thought implied in political "realism" as typically portrayed on DKos and elsewhere.  It concludes with a plea for "unrealism" in politics.  Realism has punted in Iraq, civil rights, health insurance, and education; can we expect it to do any better with climate change?

(crossposted at Docudharma)

Crossposted at Docudharma

This is a defense of OPOL’s diary "Why I Am A Radical."  Some of the respondents thought that OPOL wasn't "really a radical," others thought that   our "solution" to present-day political problems should focus on the election of Hillary or Obama or Edwards or whomever, more others just cheered another well-decorated OPOL diary.  Here I wish to set radicalism on the bedrock of economic thinking incited by Karl Marx in the Preface to "A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy," and compare the words of OPOL to those of Vijay Prashad, from his book "Fat Cats and Running Dogs."