Democratic Forest Trusts (PDF)in Watson, Alan; Dean, Liese; Sproull, Janet, comps. 2006. Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Eighth World Wilderness Congress Symposium; 2005 September 30-October 6; Anchorage, AK.Democratic trusts with leadership elected by citizen-members promise to solve many of the problems afflicting both traditional government and corporate ownership of forestlands. This article explores these issues in some depth.Complexity and the Dream of Human Control of Eco-Systems (PDF)in Watson, Alan; Dean, Liese; Sproull, Janet, comps. 2006. Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Eighth World Wilderness Congress Symposium; 2005 September 30-October 6; Anchorage, AK.The title captures it. I then explore the kinds of institutions compatible with both nature and the modern world that are implied from this analysis.Rethinking the Obvious: Modernity and Living Respectfully With Nature (PDF)The Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy, Winter, 1997.Modernity is usually considered a wrong turn in terms of respect for and sustaining the environment. I argue the reality is more complex, for modernity has freed us from personal dependence on agriculture, ended the economic value of children, radically reduced the likelihood of large scale wat, and shifted much production to intellectual rather than material capital. This partially decouples society from nature, which gives us important opportunities as well as problems.Towards an Ecocentric Political Economy (PDF)The Trumpeter, Fall, 1996.This paper begins my effort at showing how liberal modernity can be harmonized with an ecocentric perspective on our relationship with the natural world. It is a corrective to much “free market environmental” literature that sacrifices Nature to money as well as to anti-liberal attacks by well-meaning but economically naïve environmentalists.Unexpected Harmonies: Self-Organization in Liberal Modernity and Ecology (PDF)The Trumpeter, Journal of Ecosophy, 10:1, Winter 1993This is my initial paper exploring how what I term ‘evolutionary liberal’ thought can be an important means by which society and nature can be brought into greater harmony. The other Trumpeter papers build on it.Deep Ecology and Liberalism: The Greener Implications of Evolutionary Liberalism (PDF)Review of Politics, Fall, 1996.Liberal thought and deep ecology are usually regarded as mutually exclusive. But the “evolutionary” tradition offers a way to integrate the two through commonalties in the work of David Hume, Michael Polanyi, Arne Naess, and Aldo Leopold, providing a stronger foundation for liberalism while strengthening the case for an ecocentric ethic.(Related subjects: Ecology)Saving Western Towns: A Jeffersonian Green Proposal (PDF)in Writers on the Range, Karl Hess and John Baden, eds., University Press of Colorado, 1998.Developmental pressures in the rural and small town West involve three groups: long term residents, new arrivals, and environmentalists. Today their interests often conflict. This conflict is in part the outcome of institutions which prevent harmonizing competing interests. The concept of developmental trusts, both for rural regions and for small communities offers a means whereby these interests can be harmonized for the benefit of all concerned.(Related subjects: Politics)Social Ecology, Deep Ecology, and Liberalism (PDF)Critical Review, 6: 2-3, 1992.Murray Bookchin is considered a leading radical environmental theorist. However, his analysis is incapable of leading humankind towards a more respectful and sustainable relationship with the natural world. Criticisms of Bookchin from both the deep ecology and evolutionary liberal perspective complement one another, pointing the way towards a better understanding of how modernity relates to the environment.The paper as a whole offers an early discussion of issues that are more clearly addressed in later papers, particularly Deep Ecology and Liberalism (1996) and the three Trumpeter articles in 1997, 1996, and 1993. However, there are other ideas in the article which have not been developed more thoroughly elsewhere.
The case of Martha Coakley gets stranger and stranger. I am grateful to Chas Clifton for bringing this to my attention. I did some Googling about, and in the process found a post discussing the issue over at Wild Hunt. Here is what appears to be a good discussion of Coakley and the ritual abuse issue, along with her disgusting role in it. An exhaustive compilation of sources can be found here.
The recovered memory issue, which sits at the core of this “ritual abuse” allegation, is a very tricky one. Its potential for abuse is huge, but there might be a little something to it. Once I had an experience with a psychologist that could be termed the recovery of a long denied memory. I was about 50 and the event, if it happened, must have been in the first few years of my life.
What is intriguing to me is not only my surprising response to a question the psychologist asked in a moment of extreme stress (a single word about a single person) but also that nothing else ever emerged. Not even enough to tell who the person was out of a possible two, nor what happened. Yet the so-called recovered memories used in trials are remarkably detailed. That fits the argument that the “recalled memories” were manipulated.
Perhaps most revealing with respect to Coakley was the conditions she imposed on people she allowed to be released after years of confinement. They could not talk to the press nor could their lawyer be used to help another family member. These conditions have nothing to do with guilt or innocence and a great deal to do with covering up abuses of power. What was Coakley hiding? We have seen a lot of such abuses and we do not need another Democrat inclined to do the same. There already are more than enough Democrats and Republicans of that ilk.
posted January 16, 2010 at 3:56 pm
This whole thing reminds me of the “Satanic Panic” in Bakersfield, CA, back in the 80′s, not to mention the MacMartin Pre-School trial down in LA, which one of my cousin’s kids had to go through!
GODS! the whole thing makes me NAUSEOUS!!!!
posted January 16, 2010 at 8:15 pm
I am sorry for the people of Massachusetts for this terrible choice. Wonder why this woman was chosen? No strong sane Democrats in Massachusetts?
I do not live in the state but have been struck by the woman’s coldness that comes across on the TV.
Again I do feel sorry for those in Massachusetts.
posted January 17, 2010 at 2:09 pm
There does seem to have been a binge of this. My homestate, Washington, was not immune. Wenatchee Washington was ignited in a firestorm based on the word of a young girl. It was possibly the most Salem-like atmosphere of all. A good overview is at the Religious Tolerance site: http://www.religioustolerance.org/wenatche.htm
posted January 18, 2010 at 9:12 am
If it were my home state I suspect I wouldn’t vote. People deride non-voters, but in this case both candidates are so deplorable I think that not voting is a legitimate option. The other possible option is a write-in. But if a large number of people refrain from voting whoever wins can’t really claim a mandate.
Best,
Jim
posted February 12, 2010 at 7:12 pm
I am an SRA Survivor. I am 50 yrs. old and had God reveal some horrific, truly unspeakable memories to my (non memory) childhood, about 6 years ago. It has been the most difficult thing I have had to face, walk through and let Him heal, in my life, but coming out the backside of it all already is the greatest freeing peaceful feeling I have also ever had in my entire life. I hope to write a book someday but I do know this, I am determined to not let the pain and the past go to waste so my short term goal is to just walk alongside others, loving them, validating them and helping them bear the burden of their memories or that which haunts them. Ultimately, I want to be a counselor for SRA survivors or those who think they “might” be but are not sure. It’s the most difficult thing to deal with because of all the programming and internal threats they layered inside as a baby and child. But God is bigger. And because of that, so am I. Look for me in the months and years to come. I am Esther and I am going to lay my life down for these people in one way or another. Starting with my own children and family. Thank you and God Bless.
posted May 5, 2010 at 9:15 pm
Amirault was found guilty in this case and his conviction was upheld by several attorney generals and governors until this day. His victims recently came forward as adults and stated again he was guilty.
Victims’ statements
http://web.archive.org/web/20010807011330/http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010802/us/preschool_abuse_3.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20020224045327/http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/054/metro/Witness_praises_Amirault_decision+.shtml
http://abusearticles.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/common-vs-amirault-424-mass-618-page-624.jpg