July 5, 2024

Civics

'By ourselves we are outside the human definition, outside our identity.'

"It is not simply that we are here, made of the same matter, sharing the same improbable planet; it is that the sharing makes us what we are, each of us a fractal of this immense and indivisible ecosystem of relationship, a golden strand in a tapestry whose only meaning is in the interweaving of its threads. 

"That despite this elemental interdependence we remain riven by conflict and division is the great paradox and the great tragedy and great opportunity for redemption. 

"In his agrarian essay collection The Art of the Commonplace, poet, farmer, and philosopher Wendell Berry dismantles the paradox to the building blocks of the tragedy and reconfigures them into a cathedral of redemption." - Maria Popova

ARTICLE: The Sunflower and the Soul: Wendell Berry on the Collaborative Nature of the Universe and the Cure for Conflict

Civics

The legitimacy gap in democracy is no accident. It’s a feature of the design.

ARTICLE: “Democracy” Was Never Designed to Work — But Something Better Is Emerging

Civics

Societies struggle to confront major challenges when so much wealth, decision-making power, and political influence are concentrated in a small group of technology companies.

ESSAY: The Little Book of Public Interest Technology

Civics

Why I still hold onto some of my flower-child hope

ARTICLE: Start Where You Are, But We’re Not All in the Same Place

Civics

We don’t have to wait for the whole system to change to begin living differently.

ARTICLE: What Must We Do To Be Free? On The Building of Liberated Zones