How Do You Talk About The Actual End of the World?
With poetry You can write About the end Just as with the Copernican revolution, or the establishment of modern democratic states, or the idea of equality between men and women,…
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I attend my first COVID-era gathering. It was weird.
On Saturday, for the first time since God knows when, I attended a large scale event with thousands of other humanoids in attendance. The event was rife with the utter…
Canada’s progressive tilt—mitigating first-past-the-post
From 2006 to 2015 we endured a decade of Conservative rule even though the Conservatives never won the support of even 40 percent of Canadian voters. Such are the idiosyncrasies…
Climate change tops voters’ priorities … seriously
The most recent Angus Reid Institute poll on Canadians’ priorities and voting intentions had at least one big surprise. That, at least to this observer of the Canadian mind, was…
The Sociology Of Delusion
Automation is going to eliminate most jobs. That could spell tyranny and neofeudalism, and the birth of a highly stratified society, where the priviledged few live in material comfort, the…
Five Monkeys, and The Art of War:Or, How To Launch A Successful Revolution
Gandhi said, “Cowards can never be moral.” And he was right. Cowards always choose personal comfort over conscience. The question then, is, how to instill courage in the people, at…
MB Podcast – The Upcoming Election?
he latest episode of the Magpie Brûlé podcast is now live. In this episode, I am joined by my new co-host Alise Mills. We talk about the rumours of a…
Climate Criminals Have Names
The climate criminals in the US Government have names, listed off by an Exxon lobbyist, but still they aren’t being held to account. The world we live on is burning.…
A better world, and a better life
How do we build a better world? How do we build a better nation, a better community, a better life? The answer is the same in all cases. Alertness, always…
Retrieved from the memory hole: Our collective imagination
Here is a note from the memory hole, to jolt us back to a sense of reality: which means, a sense that all things truly are possible – with the…
Green Emergency
We’re getting closer to what appears to be an inevitable election in a couple of weeks, and just to be safe, all of the parties are getting ready to compete…
On Justice Warriors, and The Death of Freedom
When I hear people talk disdainfully or scoffingly at what they refer to as “justice warriors”, I have to cringe – not because they are right, although to some degree…
The Power Elite: What Every Thinking Person Needs To Know
C. Wright Mills’, The Power Elite, is unquestionably one of the most important books ever written in sociology, social theory, social philosophy, social psychology or political-economy – and it of…
Skip the hip, Olympics, and stick with real sports
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics are nearing the half-way point. A few of you will be bleary-eyed from watching synchronized three-man fencing at 4 a.m., or something like that. Most of…
The Global Co-op Movement: The Better Way – and, The Way Ahead
I used to think that co-ops were a nice idea, very practical, a nice little niche for a few people around the margins and the periphery, with strong ideals, doing…
Burning up the credits
Purchasing carbon offsets is a popular way to act against global warming, or at least to alleviate one’s conscience. An offset allows a business, government or individual to pay someone…
Talking Jagmeet Singh’s Letter to the Governor General on True North Politics
Yesterday I joined CTV News Channels “True North Politics” panel with Jennifer Burke from Shoal Lake, Ontario, along with Susan Smith and Andrew Brander. We talked about NDP Leader Jagmeet…
“Why are we building houses if we don’t have enough water?”—A big lesson from a little town
Oakley, Utah, is small but appealing. Nestled in the mountains beside the Weber River less than an hour’s drive east of Salt Lake City, the town offers an attractive bargain…
A Potential Hitch in Someone’s #elxn44 Plans?
We’re in the dying days of July and the August long weekend is right around the corner. Given all the speculation and talk around when the next Federal election will…
The Last Empire
It is the illusion of powerlessness among the people which upholds every empire – for a time. But the illusion eventually wears off. No empire lasts forever. Every empire falls…