Choices Based On Selfish Concerns Have Led Us To The Very Brink Of Disaster by Graham Peebles

Image by Lorie Shaull via Flickr

by Graham Peebles
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London, England
July 13, 2017

Every day we are faced with numerous choices, some relating to practical issues and others based on more complex psychological demands – how to react, what to say and do. Whilst on the face of it choices appear to have been made, in the main we react habitually; many if not all of our decisions proceed from the past, and are in fact unconscious, conditioned responses to the challenges of the day.

The Poison of Commercialization Where Everything Is Regarded As A Commodity by Graham Peebles + Kate Tempest: Tunnel Vision

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by Graham Peebles
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London, England
June 30, 2017

In cities and towns from New Delhi to New York the socio-political policies that led to the Grenfell Tower disaster in west London are being repeated; redevelopment and gentrification, the influx of corporate money and the expelling of the poor, including families that have lived in an area for generations. To this, add austerity, the privatization of public services and the annihilation of social housing and a cocktail of interconnected causes takes shape. Communities break up, independent businesses gradually close down, diversity disappears and another neighbourhood is absorbed within the expensive homogenized collective.

Rapacious Consumerism is the Life-blood of Capitalism by Graham Peebles

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by Graham Peebles
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London, England
December 18, 2016

Commercialisation has poisoned all areas of contemporary life, and together with its partner in crime, consumerism, is the principle cause of man-made climate change.

Corporate Demons Possess Our Nation’s Soul

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The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
December 4, 2016

Corporate demons possess our nation’s soul. They crept in stealthily, full of trickery and deception, but now they’re lodged in place, as surely as if they had stormed our homes and halls of power with guns and tanks. Perhaps we’d recognize their coup if they had assassinated a flesh-and-blood president instead of merely stealing the souls of all our elected leaders.

Chris Hedges: Confronting the Signs of a Society in Decline

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

Depth Psychology Alliance on Sep 14, 2016

In this depth psychology oriented discussion powered by Pacifica Graduate Institute, Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist Chris Hedges speaks with Depth Psychologist, Bonnie Bright, Ph.D, about how, as both individuals and civilizations, we encounter cycles of growth, maturation, decadence, and decay, and death.

Chris Hedges: The Destructive Ideology of Capitalism

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on Aug 21, 2016

On this week’s episode of On Contact, Chris Hedges enters the capitalist labyrinth with Rob Urie, author of Zen Economics. Urie says the destructive way capitalism has harnessed natural resources and the political system makes it time to reimagine the way we understand and relate to the world around us, while RT correspondent Anya Parampil explores wealth disparities across the United States.

The Story of Microbeads

Image by NOAA Marine Debris Program via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

storyofstuffproject May 6, 2015

This 2-minute “explainer” shows how tiny plastic microbeads are designed to go down the drain and into our rivers, lakes, and oceans and [what] we can do to stop this ridiculous assault on our public waters.

TAKE ACTION: http://storyofstuff.org/plastic-microbeads-ban-the-bead/

Rise Up America, Rise Up! by Mohammed Mesbahi

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Dandelion Salad

by Mohammed Mesbahi
Share the World’s Resources
October 30, 2014

A letter to an American activist

The time has come when America must rapidly transform its values through a more inclusive and spiritual vision, based upon a just sharing of the world’s resources. It is up to you, the youth of America, to lead the way by organising a non-stop demonstration in every state, until that nationwide wave of peaceful protest eventually catches on globally.

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Christmas versus Xmas: A Political Reading by James Petras

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Dandelion Salad

by James Petras
Global Research
Dec. 28, 2013

Introduction

The transformation of Christmas from a story about a migrant working-class family fleeing state persecution, in the search for a safe haven and receiving support and solidarity to the biggest capitalist commercial bonanza of the year – has far-reaching political consequences.

Taking Christ out of Christmas

The fundamental ‘change’, engineered by the capitalist class in pursuit of profits, was to take the ‘Christ Story’ out of Christmas and to convert the weeks before and after into a consumer orgy.

The Man From the North: Shopping as an Act of Resistance by Rivera Sun

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The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
December 1, 2013

The Man From the North is a fictional writer in Rivera Sun’s novel, The Dandelion Insurrection. The novel takes place in the near future, in “a time that looms around the corner of today”, when a rising police state controlled by the corporate-political elite have plunged the nation into the grip of a hidden dictatorship. In spite of severe surveillance and repression, the Man From the North’s banned articles circulate through the American populace, reporting on resistance and fomenting nonviolent revolution. This article is one of a series written by The Man From the North, which are not included in the novel, but can be read here.

The Man From the North: Tis the Season To Wage Boycotts by Rivera Sun

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
November 24, 2013

The Man From the North is a fictional writer in Rivera Sun’s novel, The Dandelion Insurrection. The novel takes place in the near future, in “a time that looms around the corner of today”, when a rising police state controlled by the corporate-political elite have plunged the nation into the grip of a hidden dictatorship. In spite of severe surveillance and repression, the Man From the North’s banned articles circulate through the American populace, reporting on resistance and fomenting nonviolent revolution. This article is one of a series written by The Man From the North, which are not included in the novel, but can be read here.

The Story of Solutions

Dandelion Salad

storyofstuffproject on Oct 1, 2013

Image by steev hise via Flickr

The Story of Solutions explores how we can move our economy in a more sustainable and just direction, starting with orienting ourselves toward a new goal.

In the current ‘Game of More’, we’re told to cheer a growing economy — more roads, more malls, more Stuff! — even though our health indicators are worsening, income inequality is growing and polar icecaps are melting.

But what if we changed the point of the game? What if the goal of our economy wasn’t more, but better — better health, better jobs and a better chance to survive on the planet?

Shouldn’t that be what winning means?

Detroit Bankruptcy – American Dream to American Nightmare by Finian Cunningham + Richard Wolff: Detroit a “Spectacular Failure”

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by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from Strategic Culture Foundation
July 25, 2013

The recently declared bankruptcy of Detroit City could serve as an epitome of the rise and fall of not just American capitalism, but the capitalist system generally as an historical mode of production. It is a mode of production that is no longer viable as a way of efficiently organizing and sustaining society in the 21st Century. In fact, the system has become the nemesis of American and other societies across the world.

Noam Chomsky: We Have Huge Institutions Devoted To Making People Stupid

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Dandelion Salad

with Noam Chomsky

replaced video July 16, 2017

Ricardo Ruiz – Jul 17, 2015

Spinning Out Of Control by Lesley Docksey

by Lesley Docksey
Writer, Dandelion Salad
March 12, 2013

Image by tedeytan via Flickr

Being born ‘with a silver spoon in your mouth’ means that you start with an advantage that others don’t have: parents with money, property, influence, business connections and so on, connections that can last for generations.  A silver spoon that appeared recently was the exceedingly generous compensation paid to British slave owners when the UK abolished slavery in 1833, though not one penny went to the freed slaves.  The ancestors of many well-connected people (including David Cameron) benefited.