This weekend, the Trumpists shut down the U.S. government, but the people were on the move. Women and also men of conscience across this country and the world celebrated the first anniversary of the Women's March, the demonstration that, in part because it took place just as Trump ascended office, was the single largest protest in the history of this country—and possibly the planet. But last Tuesday, a front-page article in The New York Times by Farah Stockman reported fractures in the Women's March action plans. Women's March Inc. (yes, they’re now incorporated, probably for fund-raising purposes), the high-profile group formed by organizers of last year's Washington DC event, have since then focused on national actions, while women across the country have been mobilizing locally, with their emphasis on this fall’s elections—particularly those in red and purple states. Now at first, months back, I naively thought What's the problem? Think global,...
The misuse of language induces evil in the soul. That's a statement attributed to Socrates, and you may have heard or read me quoting it before. It bears repeating. The etymology of the English word "language" tells quite a story. It stems from the Old French langage: "speech, words, oratory; a tribe, people, nation"; from the Latin vulgate linguaticum, from Latin lingua: "tongue," also "speech, language," from the pre-Indo-European root dnghu- "tongue." Interesting how closely related it is to "tribe" or "people," isn't it? You are what you say. The ultra-right’s assault on language has escalated to a linguistic battle–now being waged even across official Washington—in an attempt to shift public perception of key policies by changing the way the federal government talks and writes about climate change, scientific evidence, disadvantaged communities, and other issues. Surely we remember George Orwell’s chilling novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which the totalitarian state’s mottos were “War...
This is the season of Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas, and other holidays invoking the light, all renamed from ancient festivals, all born from the scientific reality of the Solstice: Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and simultaneous Summer Solstice south of the Equator. Here in the United States, where I am, it seems fitting that after 2017 we’ll be observing the longest, darkest night of the year. But never forget, the light does return. So let's hold our noses and burrow through this, fast as we can. Wildfires in California (Southern Cal, this time) rage on, as 2017's hurricane and flood and drought survivors try to piece their lives and homes back together—the now daily normalization of intensifying climate change still not properly identified as such in news reports. Trump's announcement of moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem (de facto declaring it the capital of Israel), alienated allies, delighted...
In the frigid winter of 1905, many of the craftswomen who exquisitely hand painted the world-famous Limoges vases and figurines went on strike in France—not over their low wages or long hours but because they were sick of being prey to the factory overseers’ sexual demands. Their protest was against a custom, the droit du seigneur (right of the lord), dating back to the Middle Ages, in which feudal lords—and, later, bosses—demanded sexual services from women subordinates. The Limoges porcelain workers won their fight only after the strikes turned violent and the army opened fire, killing one male supporter and wounding four others. A funeral procession of 30,000 workers, almost all women, carried flowers as a last homage to someone who had died fighting for their dignity. So #MeToo, brilliant and powerful as it is, is hardly new or, as we're witnessing, restricted to any one walk of life in a...
Ten years ago, the world's five largest companies by market capitalization were Exxon Mobil, General Electric, Citigroup, Shell Oil, and Microsoft. Today only Microsoft remains in the top five, where it has been joined by Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Alphabet (the parent company of Google). Yep, all tech companies, each dominating its corner of the industry. Amazon has a 74 percent share in the e-book market. Facebook and its subsidiaries Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger own 77 percent of mobile social traffic. And Google has a whopping 88 percent market share in search advertising. Welcome back to the early 20th Century, when the great jurist and later Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis argued for the necessity of ending monopolies, because he knew that in a democratic society the existence of large centers of private power was dangerous to the continuing vitality of a free people. We witnessed this ourselves in the behavior of...
So I was thinking about the difference between authority figures and authoritarian figures. Well, for starters, authoritarian figures live in constant fear of not getting, having, keeping, or of losing authority. Their validity has to come from outside, requiring cooperation—willingly or fearfully—from those who are subservient. Authority figures, on the other hand, derive their validity from elements of themselves, their character, knowledge, expertise and skills, their choice of how, when, where, and on whose behalf to exercise that authority. Their validity must come from within themselves to be authentically actionable. We’ve been told repeatedly that we have three grownups on watch, circling the madness that stalks the White House corridors these days. But all along we were uneasy about so many powerful positions traditionally held by civilians suddenly being held by generals, some of whom are even still on active duty. The Framers intended civilians to control the military—not the reverse....
