A s my title suggests, I present what most Americans don’t know and those who do know are reluctant to acknowledge. One percent of Americans have wealth exceeding that which seventy-five percent of other Americans have. This miniscule minority obviously possesses privileges the vast majority of Americans lack. This one percent has political power thanks to … [Read more...] about The Privileged Minority and the Struggling Majority
Focus on Pages
The "Focus On" section provides in-depth information and opinion on many facets of sustainability. (Although these topics may appear quite distinct and separate, it’s important to remember that they are interconnected and interdependent in multiple ways — in general, the 4 basic principles of ecology apply to all complex systems.)
When you select a Focus On… topic, the system will select all the articles and posts in that category with the most recent pages at the top, just under a brief introduction to the topic. (Many articles appear in multiple categories.)
Background & detail information is organized into the main categories listed in the left sidebar.
The Graveyard of Empires
O n May 1st, the date Donald Trump signed onto for the withdrawal of the remaining 3,500 American troops from Afghanistan, the war there, already 19 years old, was still officially a teenager. Think of September 11, 2021 — the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and the date Joe Biden has chosen for the same — as, in essence, the very moment when its … [Read more...] about The Graveyard of Empires
Be Very Revolutionary
I would like to invite everyone to think and reflect upon the intersectional ways in which so many of us are marginalized, and the ways we continue to fight to abolish the systems of oppression responsible for so much of the injustice that, while many have the privilege of assuming it is a new phenomenon or of having learned about this recently, it has existed for as long as … [Read more...] about Be Very Revolutionary
Skylab and the Sit-Down Strike in Space
It was a one-of-a-kind event: in 1972, during a mission on the Skylab space station, a group of American astronauts, frustrated by an unreasonable work schedule, organized their own version of a sit-down strike in space. They won all their demands, but in the end, NASA had its final revenge. In 1972, NASA launched “Skylab”, a space station cobbled together from the empty … [Read more...] about Skylab and the Sit-Down Strike in Space
A Few Comments on the Origins of Great Wealth
F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “The rich are very different from you and me,” to which Ernest Hemingway replied, “Yes, they have more money.” Another retort might be a variation on the quote attributed to Honore de Balzac, “The secret behind every great fortune is a great theft.” There are 657 billionaires in the United States whose combined wealth grew more than $1.7 trillion over … [Read more...] about A Few Comments on the Origins of Great Wealth
We Must Fight the System, Not Each Other
Once a year on our immigration anniversary, my mother and I reflect on our journey from Iran to the United States. In the past, we would celebrate the freedoms we were given in America, embrace the struggles we endured as immigrants to settle in a new home, and learn not only a new language, but also a new way of living, a new culture, a new dream. But if you ask me to … [Read more...] about We Must Fight the System, Not Each Other
Class Conflict and the Amazon Union Drive in Alabama
Karl Marx identified the central contradiction of capitalism as the antagonistic relationship between workers and their capitalist employers. As Michael Yates has put it, “the essence of this relationship is the exploitation of the workers, the extraction of a surplus by the employers from their labor, necessary to fuel the accumulation of capital in a milieu of intense … [Read more...] about Class Conflict and the Amazon Union Drive in Alabama
The Pandemic Housework Dilemma Is Whitewashed
Since the start of the pandemic, an old dilemma has been revived: the unequal gendered division of housework in the home. For middle-class workers who have been working from home to avoid the coronavirus, the home now functions as an office, online school, gym, leisure space, and whatever else is necessary, which has doubled — if not tripled — the housework to be done. … [Read more...] about The Pandemic Housework Dilemma Is Whitewashed
Notes on Anti-Semitism, Zionism and Palestine
In his classic work, The Jewish Question, A Marxist Interpretation, that was published posthumously in France in 1946, the Belgian Marxist, Abram Leon, (active in the resistance during the Second World War, he was captured and executed by the Gestapo in 1944) invented the category of a ‘people-class’ for the role of the Jews who managed to preserve their linguistic, ethnic and … [Read more...] about Notes on Anti-Semitism, Zionism and Palestine
Palestine Can’t Breathe
Another cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians has been announced ending another round of violent assault on the latter. The settler colonial Jewish supremacist regime in Israel killed 275 Palestinians, 248 of them in the Gaza Strip, 26 in the West Bank and Jerusalem, one inside Israel, including 66 children in Gaza, and at least 6,200 others injured. Israel reported 13 … [Read more...] about Palestine Can’t Breathe