counter-institutions

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Deal or No Deal? – II

January 27, 2009 Shawn P. Wilbur
I’m trying to feel my way around this moment in the politics of the US, which is supposed to be historic and charged with the potential for CHANGE, groping for something in the still-scattered flurry of symbolic and practical bits being tossed around as our “New Deal” that might actually respond to what seems to me a very serious, systemic crisis. My readers should know the punchline: All real change comes from the people themselves, acting together in mutual relations. But we probably satisfy ourselves with the punchline a bit too often, without exploring all the ways to get there. […]
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Looking at the wrong depression, and finding the wrong solutions? – I

January 20, 2009 Shawn P. Wilbur
The question: If America needs specifically political heroes, and specifically political solutions in the present crisis, why, aside from our general lack of historical memory, are we looking to FDR and the New Deal as a model, rather than say, Potato Patch Pingree? “Who?” you ask. . . Before I answer, do me a favor: Set aside all the easy responses to the rather vague proposals of the Obama administration, and all the visceral responses to governmentalist bullshit which sometimes stop us from digging into problems, take a minute to read Kevin Carson’s most recent C4SS column, and then ask […]