Sociate

She gave an excellent speech recently which has received some radio play and is available here and here in full text. A sample:

Democracy, the modern world's holy cow, is in crisis. And the crisis is a profound one. Every kind of outrage is being committed in the name of democracy. It has become little more than a hollow word, a pretty shell, emptied of all content or meaning. It can be whatever you want it to be. Democracy is the Free World's whore, willing to dress up, dress down, willing to satisfy a whole range of taste, available to be used and abused at will.

and a bit further on:

The U.S. government has already displayed in no uncertain terms the range and extent of its capability for paranoid aggression. In human psychology, paranoid aggression is usually an indicator of nervous insecurity. It could be argued that it's no different in the case of the psychology of nations. Empire is paranoid because it has a soft underbelly.

Its "homeland" may be defended by border patrols and nuclear weapons, but its economy is strung out across the globe. Its economic outposts are exposed and vulnerable.

If you can, find and listen to the speech. It is vibrant and direct.

// posted by Jerry @ 1:59 PM

Tom Munnecke has a groovy idea, a little social experiment: if many people do something small and inexpensive, like smiling to one another, might it propagate broadly and cause something larger?

This Friday, September 12, is the day of the experiment, which you can read more about here. It's a bit like Dave Barry's Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19), only different. More serious, if that makes any sense at all in this context.

Please pass the word, or we'll keelhaul ye!

Here's more on Tom and his broader initiative, GivingSpace.