Sunday, September 23, 2012

The Crisis of Civilization

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New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 38-39 -- September 23, 2012


This fortnight in New World Notes, radio programs #238-239, September 25 & October 2, 2012

The Crisis of Civilization
(in two parts)

In brief

U.K. political analyst Nafeez Mossadeq Ahmed has written and narrates an engaging documentary film, The Crisis of Civilization. In it, he surveys (by my count) seven serious global crises that are now besetting Western Civilization as we know it.

Ahmed argues that the seven are very much interrelated. So none can be fixed (or even much improved) without addressing the other six.

Looking at the big picture, we can see that Western Civilization cannot continue on its present path. It is unsustainable. We cannot keep pumping oil, warming the planet, acidifying the oceans, depleting the soil, destroying civil liberties, acquiring resources by military force, engaging in endless wars, taking land from subsistance farmers, and basing the world economy on financial speculation.

We can make intelligent plans to change to a more sustainable way of doing things. Or we can maintain the status quo until the catastrophe comes. I predict the latter, but Ahmed is encouraging the former.

The seven interconnected crises are
  • climate change
  • peak energy
  • food production and distribution
  • economic instability
  • international terrorism
  • militarization
  • destruction of civil liberties
Clips from old films enliven Ahmed's discussion, which is pretty interesting in itself.

We'll hear selections from the documentary.

In Part One (NWN #238) Ahmed looks at economic instability and terrorism.

In Part Two (NWN #239), he examines militarization and destruction of civil liberties. And we'll read a good essay by Bruce Dixon, of Black Aganda Report, on how Obama and Romney agree on almost every issue.

Another thing they've agreed on: not to mention six of the crises we're identifying--and not to say anything sensible about the seventh, terrorism.

Above: Nafeez Mossadeq Ahmed. Below: Obama as Patton.

Notes, credits, & links

The Crisis of Civilization was produced and directed by Dean Puckett.

The film is available, without charge, online: http://crisisofcivilization.com/ .

The complete text of Bruce Dixon's essay, "Closer Than You Think: Top 15 Things Romney and Obama Agree On," is here.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "radar") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview:
Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Above: VP candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan.
Below: The 2012 drought in the U.S. Midwest--the "corn belt"--
is likely a result of global climate change.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • October 9 -- Dave Zirin on American Football
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Corporate Plunder and Popular Revolt

To download an audio file (save it on your hard disk): Click on this link for instructions.

New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 36-37 -- September 8, 2012


This fortnight in New World Notes, radio program #236-237, September 11 & 18, 2012

Corporate Plunder and
Popular Revolt
(in two parts)

In brief

Journalist Chris Hedges traces the rise of the Corporate State, the destruction of democracy, and the corporate plunder of society. And he surveys successful examples of nonviolent popular rebellion.

In Part One he discusses how corporations subverted democracy in the US since 1914. And he takes us to some of America's "sacrifice zones"--areas devastated by unrestrained corporate plunder. He concludes with a scathing critique of the Democratic Party for selling out the people to the corporations.

In Part Two Hedges discusses the Obama Administration's assault on civil liberties--a way of suppressing both dissent and popular resistance to corporate plunder, he believes. He ends with examples of nonviolent popular resistance toppling oppressive systems--for instance in East Germany and Czechoslovakia.

Above: Joe Sacco (illustrator) and Chris Hedges (writer).
They co-authored Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt.
Below: Occupy Wall Street, 2012.

Notes, credits, & links

Chris Hedges spoke in Seattle on June 29, 2011. Our installments contain most of the full talk, broadcast by Mike McCormick on Mind Over Matters.  Thanks yet again to Mike.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "radar") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview:
Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Above: Streetcorner in Camden, New Jersey, by Joe Sacco. Below: Copenhagen, 2012.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • September 25 & October 2 -- The Crisis of Civilization
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Police State USA?

To download an audio file (save it on your hard disk): Click on this link for instructions.

New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 35 -- Labor Day, 2012


This week in New World Notes, radio program #235, September 4, 2012

Police State USA?

In brief

Has the US become a "police state" ... or are we just rapidly heading in that direction? Law professor Francis Boyle says we're already there, and it is dissenters--not "terrorists"--who are being targeted by the state.

We'll also look at two recent reports documenting illegal and often violent acts by the New York Police Department--(1) in their CIA-assisted spying on Muslim citizens and (2) in their harassment of law-abiding Occupy Wall Street protesters.

Above: Occupy Boston, Fall 2011

Notes, credits, & links

Francis Boyle interview excerpted from Jeff Blankfort's "Takes On the World" program. Many thanks. Jeff's complete installment is here.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "spreading chestnut tree") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview:
Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • September 11 & 18 -- Chris Hedges on Corporate Plunder and Popular Revolt
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net