Questions Nov 9-11

We still need to schedule Nov 16-18. If no one chooses to report on those dates, I suggest we crowd-source our content: let's each find a book, article, website, or video (etc.) to share, write about, and discuss. 

Nov 11

• Have we just experienced four years of a "shock doctrine" presidency? Are more shocks in store? 235
• "Trump represents a crisis that could echo through geologic time." 236 Will his administration's environmental legacy be of that scale? Or will its termination mitigate that impact? (See "legacy" article...)
• Will Trump have been the crisis "sparking progressive transformation" that "catapult(s) us forward"?
• Do you agree that "simply resisting" is inadequate, that "we also need a bold and forward-looking 'yes'"? 237
• Is the wave of youthful activism represented by Greta (and Stuart's 8th-graders) more a resistance movement or a Yes movement?
• Is neoliberalism the principal source of our problems? (see article...)
• Do you agree that we have a "gig and dig economy"? 240
• Can you suggest a better motto than "Leave the oil and gas in the ground, but leave no worker behind"? 241
• Can an American politician run effectively on a platform of making reparations to the Global South?

• What do you think of Losing Earth? [NYT Mag] Should we take a closer look next week?
• Was Nathaniel Rich right or wrong about the late 80s ("the conditions for success could not have been more favorable"... “Nearly everything we understand about global warming was understood in 1979.”? 243f.

• Is "human nature" our biggest climate problem? Or is capitalism? 245, 247, 250
• What do you think of Time's "Planet of the Year"?
• If "meeting the challenge of climate change would have required imposing stiff regulations on polluters while investing in the public sphere to transform how we power our lives, live in cities, and move ourselves around," are we more or less prepared to meet that challenge now than we were three decades ago? 249
• Do you agree that "a new form of democratic eco-socialism" is our "best shot at collective survival"? 251

 

• Do you agree that Puerto Rico's woes are due mostly to "decisions made by people working for powerful interests" and not "acts of God"? 255
• Will we now have a "timid Democrat in the White House"? 260
• Are we ready for "a more probing conversation about the limits of lifestyles" devoted to consumerism? 264
• How do we get our issues out of "silos"? 268
• Has Hollywood yet made a responsible and constructive environmental film? 274
• Will we need something like a WPA Federal Art Project to "reframe" the way most people think about the scale of change required to meet our climate/social justice challenge? 276
• What do you think of the "postcards from the future"? Can such short films change hearts and minds?
• What do you want to read and discuss next? More Wendell Berry? The Long Now? Or should we each just find something and share it?

Nov 9

• We last met under a cloud of uncertainty about the election outcome and its consequences for the "human game." Is it yet possible to declare "a single, overarching lesson" that begins "Never underestimate the power of _____"? 191
• Do you recall your post-election state of mind four years ago? In retrospect, did subsequent events meet your expectations or confirm your fears?
• Do you expect to see a substantial "redistributive agenda" vigorously pursued in the years ahead? 192
• Will the nation finally turn a corner on racism and misogyny, post-Trump? 192
• Do you expect the Biden-Harris administration consistently to apply the Black test? Did the Obama administration? Will Congress be any less recalcitrant? 194
• Is intersectionality really possible? Can all crises be prioritized equally? Or is this a rhetorical symbol? 

  

 

• Thoughts on the discovery of a new Australian coral reef?