Moment Of Clarity

This taken from ‘Virtuous Circles: Values, Systems and Sustainability‘. 

“There are two basic reasons underlying the food, energy, water and climatic crises:

1. The systems that have evolved to supply us with our basic needs are totally dependent on fossil fuels; the inevitable consequence of this is large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as solid waste and water and air pollution. It is especially unsustainable given that the era of cheap energy, crude oil and natural gas in particular, is about to end

2. Our current way of providing basic needs – be they food, water, waste management or energy – involves industrialised systems that are linear, centralised and globalised. In the linear approach, it is assumed that at one end of a system there is an unlimited supply of energy and raw materials (which there isn’t), while at the other the environment has an infinite capacity to absorb pollution and waste (which it hasn’t). The inevitable result is resource shortages on the one hand and solid waste, climate change and air pollution problems on the other.”

Defacing Beauty

A Victorian on advertising..

“Shall woodland aisle and flower-paved pasture plead,
For loving head and reverent touch in vain,
But every unclean huckster may profane
Heaven’s sylvan shrines with sacrilegious greed?
By lust of gain divorced from Nature’s heart,
And quitting primrose brake and babbling brook
For sordid joys of meretricious mart,
Now they return, invade each shady nook,
Each fair seclusion, and with impious art
Deface the innocent Beauty they forsook…”

Former Poet Laureate Alfred Austin

h/t Guy Shrubsole

Link Loving 04.12.11

• Design for Social Sustainability: a framework for creating thriving communities. The Young Foundation.
• Must leaders be nice to succeed? Jena McGregor.
• Kathryn Schulz: Don’t regret regret.
• London police have built the Berlin Wall in London. And then taken it down again.
• A collection of life lessons. Amazing learning shared by Chris Corrigan.
• Make them ‘in’ on the joke. Seth Godin.

Power Is Less Self-Sufficient Than Passion

“In all its might, power is less self-sufficient than passion; passion generates its own power. Passion is in itself a kind of power that is by its very nature a kinetic force.”

Fantastic piece in the New York Times by Aung San Suu Kyi.

h/t Charlotte Millar.

Link Loving 03.12.11

• Caroline Lucas is named the most influential MP of 2011.
• Genuinely astonishing. An Illinois man could be sentenced to 75 years in jail for filming police.

Link Loving 02.12.11

• The Otesha Project is hiring a Strategic Director.
• European social democrats have now lost 19 out of 24 elections since the fall of Lehman brothers. Olaf Cramme.
• 18 ideas that will shape 2012. Arianna Huffington and Chris Anderson.
• Interested in campaign strategy/social movements? Make sure to read Daniel Vockins‘ new blog.
• How inequality fuelled the crash – and is halting recovery. Clifford Singer.
• How about some new environmental narratives. They don’t all have to be The Lorax. Michelle Nijhuis.
• How do you get more than 20 million AK47 assault rifles out of Africa? Finance their destruction through the creation of a luxury brand. Naturally.

The Council Of Elders

The Council of Elders is  a newly organised, independent group of leaders from many of the defining American social justice movements of the 20th century. They’re exploring every possible, helpful way in which they can connect together the continuing flame of the democratising movements of the 20th century with the powerful light of the emerging movements of the present time.

Here they are supporting Occupy Wall Street.

Link Loving 01.12.11

• Panther Baby – the story of Jamal Joseph, who exhorted students at Columbia University to burn their college to the ground in the 1960’s as part of the Black Panther movement and is now the chair of their School of the Arts film division.
• Humanity at it’s best. The story of a victim man who treated his mugger right. Julio Diaz.
• 29/11/11 – A turning point in British history. Paul Mason.
• What’s next for Occupy? Electoral power. George Lakoff.
• Richard Wilkinson (he of The Spirit Level), gives his talk at TEDGlobal.
• An insightful short documentary about Oscar Wilde.
• Who is making money on food speculation? New Internationalist.
• Charlie Rose – an update on Occupy Wall Street – a ‘moment’, not yet a ‘movement’.

We Have Nowhere To Go – Will You Open Your Door?

“Set space free from the constraints of emptiness”. An absolutely cracking video from SomewhereTo___.

Link Loving 30.11.11

• Bill McKibben hits the road and travels through America’s heartland. The man just doesn’t stop.
• Russia’s silent election campaign. Grigorii Golosov.
• Thoughts on the student movement. Liam McNulty.
• Looks like we’ll be having political ads on our mobiles. Emily Schultheis.
• An interview with the psychologist and linguist, Steven Pinker on violence, language and Twitter.
• Did the suburbs eat my community? John Mulrow.
• And speaking of suburbs – check out the trailer for this disturbing documentary –