Newtopia - 04/2005 April
The first in a two-part series that combines the authors practical experience with his theoretical insights into community life and many of the most profound and enduring issues faced by alternative communities.
Going Out of Context with the Friends of the New Paradigm
"My Valentine's Day had been another of my father's stroke scares. For me, life wasn't about anything that made an entertaining story happening the last four months. Living in the forest allowed long walks along the creek, but there wasn't much plot to that. Living in the Bible Belt where my relatives voted for Bush didn't leave much room for zany adventures. It was instead about being of service. I was very happy I could do it, but it was hard to leave my vibrant life behind."
The Silence of the Scams: Psychological Resistance to Facing Election Fraud
What if it was discovered, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a widespread pattern of election fraud was in place in the United States, with higher spikes in swing states, including hundreds of dirty tricks unreported in the media, adding up to numbers which might shift the outcome of the last presidential election, and that most Americans didn't know or didn't want to know
Paradise Of Plagiarism: The Internet, Copyright, and the Mystery of Amari Hamadene
In spring 2005 a plagiarism scandal cast a shadow over the online poetry world. Wild theories sprouted quickly. Who was this Algerian poet named Amari Hamadene who apparently had worked hard to build a reputation as an up and coming talent by stealing other people's poetry.
A few millennia hence, when archeologists dig up our present world to discover who we were, they will have more than the historical record of these times to go on. History will tell them what we were doing. But our blockbuster movies will tell them something arguably more important what we were dreaming about.
by Ronnie Pontiac and Tamra Spivey
When he died in December 2003, most of his acquaintances knew Kevin Weremeychik as Chopper, Moby's roadie for five years. Chopper worked for other artists, too, of course, from Ric Ocasek to Tura Satana. They also knew that any spare moment he had, whether waiting around for something to do at Ocasek's studio, or sitting on an amp backstage at a Moby concert, was spent drawing. Chopper drew pensive gargoyles, and he created a cartoon series of dry humor and social observation called Jesus and Moses. But his magnum opus was The Essayist.
We Cant Separate the Inseparable
The German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe once said, "God is in the details." This is a wonderful slogan for a spiritual activist. The demonstration of our spiritual work must find expression in our every word, choice, and action. We cannot separate the spiritual from the worldly
"Prayerful Moon Blues"
by Tom Goforth
"Gulag of the Mind"
Phillip Darrell Collins
Yankee Independence: Henry David Thoreau and the Birth of American Counterculture
State-Sanctioned Spending: The Crushing Guilt of Consumerism and Debt
Through the Dragons Mouth: Exploring St. Louis City Museum
The City Museum redefines visitor participation, but the experience it provides also has profound larger implications as a new set of values emerge, principles we can use as guidelines to enrich many of the institutions of our society
The Psychology of Abu Ghraib: Elite Thought and Iraqi Prisoner Abuse
The case of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib is the product of ruling class thought, which has metastasized and spread throughout Americas military establishment.
Democracy Or Colonial Dictatorship
After two months of wrangling and haggling over a new Iraqi government, the US got what it wants, a US government. The Iraqi people are saying: How could we have elected those people And those are the people the US will continue to protect. At gunpoint, the Iraqi people have been denied the right to govern their country and live in peace
The Carter-Baker Election Commission: Corporate Conflicts of Interest and Bi-Partisan Myopia
by Linda Schade and Kevin Zeese
The last two presidential elections revealed that American democracy is in distress. A full public airing is much needed and the stature of the Carter-Baker Commission promises to garner the national attention and respect required to truly grapple with the scope of the problem. That is, until people begin to look at the make-up of the Commission and it's agenda.
The Downloadable Future : Australia's Culture Jamming Digizine 'Undergrowth'
Hungry for change The future is now free to download in your own home, watch world cultures jamming at the fulcrum. Culture Jam is a term given to the art of using media to comment on the media itself. Instead of opposing the media, culture jammers and activists become the media, in order to incite change. This is the underground of Australian electrofringe creativity, and its rife with insight into dominant cultures globall
Mobilize Against the Poster Child for War Profiteering
Interview with Scott Parkin, a Community Organizer for Houston Global Awareness and Organizer of the May 18 Halliburton Shareholders Meeting Protests in Houston, TX
One State, Two State; Red State, Blue State: The Myth of a Divided America
America is no more divided than it ever was, but our leaders and our corporate media seem to want us to believe it is; irreconcilably divided along inconsequential social issues
Regulated Resistance: Is it possible to change the system when you are the system
Does the American anti-war movement really have the ability to bring about change when they are closely monitored, financed, and regulated by the same system they purport to oppose (pt.1 in a two-part series)
The Traitorous Patriot, The Cosmic Bus Ride
It all begins with the execution Im watching on a floor-model television. As a six-year-old boy living in Shiraz, Iran, Ive never seen anything quite like the televised spectacle. When my mother, four years earlier, married an Iranian man who moved us from Akron, Ohio to ancient Persia, I dont think she could anticipate all those small, troublesome differences in culture that might affect American children freshly transplanted to third-world countries. Differences like the execution of state prisoners on public television, for instance.
Joking that Id be ground up to mince meat on one of the serious "shout" political talk shows, I got back this response, "Just remember: STAY ON MESSAGE! Hone your points and refine them as much as you can. ALWAYS anticipate what the opposition will say and have your rebuttal points read
From the New Deal to the Dirty Deal: Doubtful Elections in George Bush's America
by Elizabeth Jordan and Oliver Terence Dawshed
Time for Another Corporate Media Mea Culpa