Category Archives: Social Justice

antiwar, Nonviolence, Occupy Wall Street, Peace, Royal Book of the Week, Social Justice

Pauling & Ikeda’s False Dilemma of Absolute Pacifism

December 27, 2013 Peace Couple Leave a comment

The second excerpt in The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace.from Linus Pauling & Daisaku Ikeda‘s 1992 book A Lifelong Quest for Peace forms the books twenty-first chapter. This dialogue continues the Post-Vietnam to the Present (1975- ) section of the book. In previous essay titled Immorality of War: Pauling & Ikeda, I discuss their credentials including Pauling’s Nobel Prizes both in Chemistry and Peace, along with Ikeda’s 1983 United Nations Peace Award.

This 3 1/2 page conversation does not make a cogent argument against absolute pacifism. Both speakers make the obligatory reference to Hitler; discuss the difficulties of being a pacifist in a non-pacifist world; and determine that unsurprisingly that Einstein was not an absolute pacifist. Paradoxically in an essay that argues against pacifism, they conclude with a discussion of how Japan has advanced quicker in economic and individual health due its not diverting national resources into a military economy.

The Hitler argument is that pacifism would be useless against the Nazis. It is usually raised by those who are fearful of the concept of pacifism. I would not expect this argument from these authors or to be promoted by the editors of this collection. Continue reading Pauling & Ikeda’s False Dilemma of Absolute Pacifism →

antiwar, Nonviolence, Occupy Wall Street, Peace, Photos, Royal Book of the Week, Shopping, Social Justice

New eBook by The Wilders… Occupy Wall Street: What Just Happened?

October 29, 2013 Augustus Leave a comment

The Occupy movement is over two years old! Kimberly and Ian Wilder of Peace Couple are excited about their new eBook: Occupy Wall Street: What Just Happened? In the eBook, Occupy is explored through original reporting, photographs, cartoons, poetry, essays, and reviews. OWS:WJH? includes an essay analyzing the “One Demand” concept, and its relationship to peace as a platform item. The collection of essays and blog posts records the unfolding of Occupy into the culture from September 2011 to the present. Authors Kimberly Wilder and Ian Wilder were early supporters of Occupy, celebrating the occupation with their websites, YouTube videos, Flickr photos, and more. The Wilders are proud to reflect on and celebrate the changes created by the American Autumn.

The eBook is currently available on Amazon for Kindle; Barnes & Noble Nook; iTunes iBookstore; and Smashwords independent EBook seller for only 99¢, and anyone can read it using their Kindle/Nook Reader, smart phone, or computer. and now More platforms to come.

A list of free eBook readers for computers and mobile devices is at the bottom of this post.

The Introduction to the eBook begins as follows:

Is Occupy Wall Street dead?

The short answer is “No.” Occupy is very much alive. Continue reading New eBook by The Wilders… Occupy Wall Street: What Just Happened? →

Food, Music, Occupy Wall Street, Royal Fashion, Royal Song of The Day, Social Justice, Video

Jen Chapin on Occupy, Parenting, Food, and Creativity

July 30, 2013 Augustus Leave a comment

OnTheWilderSide had a free-flowing chat with Jen Chapin about her new album, Reckoning. We covered topics ranging from Occupy to parenthood.

We started our discussion with Chapin by asking her about the balance between the intimate and the political on the new album, Reckoning. The album includes songs on both ends of the spectrum, such as Insatiable about never-ending war and “Don’t Talk” which praises making love as a needed form of marital communication.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWnouX5VSrg]

Chapin described the intimate and the political as “a balance I am always trying to strike.” She saw it as something stretching back through her life:

Read the rest of the article on the original website.

Food, Nonviolence, Occupy Wall Street, Peace, Royal Book of the Week, Social Justice

Review: “Share or Die!”, Millennials’ Response to Scarcity

June 14, 2013 Augustus Leave a comment

The world view envisioned in the anthology of essays, Share or Die!, Voices of the Get Lost Generation in the Age of Crisis, is one in which human interaction is re-shaped by Generation Y (the Millennials). This new kind of interaction is to be based upon sharing, using a mixture of high-tech and high-touch. Serendipitously, about the same time as our review copy of the book appeared in the mail, an example of what the book was hoping to achieve also arrived in the mail.

Read the rest of the review at onthewilderside.com Continue reading Review: “Share or Die!”, Millennials’ Response to Scarcity →

Nonviolence, Occupy Wall Street, Photos, Social Justice

“Share or Die!” Arrived

May 7, 2013 Augustus 1 Comment

From "A Post College Flowchart of Misery and Pain" on Shareable. — From “A Post College Flowchart of Misery and Pain” on Shareable.

I received an email today from the Schumacher Society(“Small is Beautiful”) providing an report on the continuing success of the Mondragon Co-ops. Along the same lines, my review copy of Share or Die!, Voices of the Get Lost Generation in the Age of Crisis, edited by Malcolm Harris with Neal Gorenflo, arrived in the mail today. The book is not as foreboding as the title seems. It is about the need to build a collaborative society in order for Gen Y to flourish in an extractive economy. I will be putting aside the copy of The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace that I have been writing essays on in this space in order to read through the essays, and cartoons, in Share or Die! To give you a flavor of the book, please see the cartoon from the inside cover, posted at right.

This is how the editors describe their collection of essays and art: Continue reading “Share or Die!” Arrived →

Royal Rants: Critiques of the monarchy, Social Justice

EFF: Congress Shamefully Passes CISPA; Stop US Senate

April 21, 2013 Augustus Leave a comment

from the Electronic Freedom Foundation

U.S. House of Representatives Shamefully Passes CISPA;

Internet Freedom Advocates Prepare for a Battle in the Senate

CISPA - The solution is the problem — CISPA – The solution is the problem (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)

Today, Internet freedom advocates everywhere turned their eyes to the U.S. House of Representatives as that legislative body considered the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act.

For the second year in a row, the House voted to approve CISPA, a bill that would allow companies to bypass all existing privacy law to spy on communications and pass sensitive user data to the government. EFF condemns the vote in the House and vows to continue the fight in the Senate.

“CISPA is a poorly drafted bill that would provide a gaping exception to bedrock privacy law,” EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl said. “While we all agree that our nation needs to address pressing Internet security issues, this bill sacrifices online privacy while failing to take common-sense steps to improve security.”

The legislation passed 288-127, despite a veto threat from Pres. Barack Obama, who expressed serious concerns about the danger CISPA poses to civil liberties. Continue reading EFF: Congress Shamefully Passes CISPA; Stop US Senate →

antiwar, Nonviolence, Peace, Royal Book of the Week, Social Justice

Daniel Berrigan & Thich Nhat Hahn discuss Communities of Resistance

March 9, 2013 Augustus 1 Comment

Daniel Berrigan and Thich Nhat Hahn‘s 1975 dialogue Communities of Resistance: A Conversation is the eighteenth chapter of The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace . This dialogue leads off the Post-Vietnam to the Present (1975- ) section of the book. Hahn and Berrigan’s hopes for communities of resistance springs from their own experience with religious communities in the Buddhist and Catholic faiths, respectively, and with the experiences of their late mutual friend Thomas Merton.

We have already discussed Merton’s essay The Root of War is Fear from a previous chapter in the same book. In it, Merton defines the calling of a Christian to “work for the total abolition of war.” Merton reminds us that the place to end war is within ourselves. My comments in the post about Merton’s essay could easily be applied to Berrigan and Hahn: Continue reading Daniel Berrigan & Thich Nhat Hahn discuss Communities of Resistance →