real utopias

We might like to think that we have completely original minds, but we are easily influenced by others and have an "unknowingness" of how our "human mind meld" works.    ([VIDEO] The Human Mind Meld: The Perils of Unfiltered Knowledge Transfer

The Christmas issue of the Spectator ran an editorial entitled "Why 2012 was the best year ever". It argued against the perception that we live in "a dangerous, cruel world where things are bad and getting worse". Here is the opening paragraph: "It may not feel like it, but 2012 has been the greatest year in the history of the world. That sounds like an extravagant claim, but it is borne out by evidence. Never has there been less hunger, less disease or more prosperity. The west remains in the economic doldrums, but most developing countries are charging ahead, and people are being lifted out of poverty at the fastest rate ever recorded. The death toll inflicted by war and natural disasters is also mercifully low. We are living in a golden age."

Citizens need access to a variety of critical media sources so that they can properly evaluate the world they live in and make informed decisions about what they believe should be done next.

Schumacher responds to a question from the audience on how to increase participatory democracy. Question & Answer Panel at Great Circle Center, 3/19/77. (Peter Gillingham Collection, E. F. Schumacher Library Archives.)

When designing citizen engagement mechanisms I always consider sortition (or randomization) as a mechanism of participant selection. Nevertheless, and particularly in the #opengov space, my experience is that this idea does not resonate a lot: it sounds less sexy than crowdsourcing and more complicated than over-simplistic mechanisms of “civil society engagement”.

Today all over the world people -- men and women -- will rise in solidarity and call for an end to violence against women. Why is this happening?

Michel Gondry is just full of surprises in 2013. He kicked off the New Year with a short film, dropped a fairly gorgeous trailer for his upcoming "Mood Indigo" and one project he told us way back in 2011 would be finished "within two years.

At some point, there is a tilt; there always is. Then we shall settle down into our new historical system. Wallerstein foresees one of two possibilities: more hierarchy, exploitation and polarization; or a system that has never yet existed, based on relative democracy and relative equality.

Tuesday February 12, was the first day of production under worker control at Viomichaniki Metalleutiki (Vio.Me), a building materials factory in Thessaloniki, Greece, which was abandoned by its bankrupt owners two years ago. Facing thirty percent unemployment and a dismal future for their community, workers in a series of mass assemblies decided to occupy the factory and operate it under direct democratic workers’ control.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013 is the official first day of production under workers control in the factory of Viomichaniki Metalleutiki (Vio.Me) in Thessaloniki, Greece. This means production organized without bosses and hierarchy, and instead planned with directly democratic assemblies of the workers. The workers assemblies have declared an end to unequal division of resources, and will have equal and fair remuneration, decided collectively. The factory produces building materials, and they have declared that they plan to move towards a production of these goods that is not harmful for the environment, and in a way that is not toxic or damaging.

BERLIN (IDN) – An eminent Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda is calling for an “expanded nuclear summit” in 2015 to solidify momentum toward a world free from nuclear weapons and become the launching point for a larger effort for global disarmament aiming toward the year 2030.