rebelpleb

“People, so the thought runs, ought to be discontented, and it is our job to multiply our wants and not simply to increase our enjoyment of the things we have already.” George Orwell, “Some Thoughts on the Common Toad” (1946) For the past twenty five years or more, I generally have not celebrated holidays, at least not in any traditional sense. There are a variety of reasons that I opted out of these festivities, some deeply personal. Mostly, I could not abide the existential emptiness of trying to connect with others or achieve happiness through consumerism. But more, in committing my life to the causes of ecological sustainability, environmental health, and justice, the maintenance of any modicum of integrity precluded my participation in the conspicuous consumption of resources and energy as well as the needless generation of excessive waste that all holidays entail. I found solidarity with those who had withdrawn before me, who promoted Buy Nothing Day in respo...

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it . -- Upton Sinclair   On my last day of teaching Environmental Studies, I posed a question to my students. I explained that for some time in my childhood, my father worked in the airline industry. “What does this have to do with the environment?” I asked. Sadly, even after an entire semester, few if any of my students could make the connection. Air transportation is one of the most polluting industries. Depending on the type of car you use and the amount you use it, one to two flights can generate the same amount of carbon emissions as a whole year of driving. From the consumption of fossil fuels, to the toxic substances utilized or emitted such as jet fuel and de-icing fluid, to all of the disposable products and packages within the plane and the airport, to so much more, there is nothing sustainable at all about air travel . Thus, for a part o...

Cartoon courtesy Tom Toro:  http://tomtoro.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/1-tom-toro-yes-the-planet-got-destroyed-but-for-a-beautiful-moment-in-time-we-created-a-lot-of-value-for-sh1.jpg Good afternoon students, parents, staff, teachers, guests, and of course the amazing class of 2018, arrayed before us here today. Congratulations to you for completing this stage in your lives and your education. Each of you is outstanding in your own right, but I want to commend you as a group. I have watched you throw yourselves, headlong, into every task, be it class discussions, presentations, Socratic seminars, group essays, skits, school plays, choir—anything really. Even if you were exhausted, depleted, overworked, flu-ridden, or otherwise indisposed, you embraced your work with determination and, well, gusto . Therefore, I’d like to thank you for working with me, and with all of us, day in and day out. You brought academic curiosity and a willingness to hone your critical skill...

Remember that silly game we used to play with fortune cookies from Chinese restaurants? Maybe people still play it. It’s the one where you read your fortune and tack on “… in bed” to the end of the sentence – like, “You will soon meet a mysterious stranger … in bed.” The supplemental phrase usually fits fairly smoothly onto the given fortune, and generates a few chuckles from listeners. Here’s a new game in a similar vein, but this one doesn’t engender much laughter. First, take a look at the statements below. See if you can identify which are true versus which are false. We can’t end poverty… We can’t end homelessness … We can’t feed the hungry … We can’t have livable wages … We can’t have a universal basic income so all people have the basic necessities to live … We can’t end sweatshop labor … We can’t work less … We can’t produce less … We can’t consume less … We can’t have universal, single-payer healthca...