Debugging the System
A review of Manuel Arriaga’s Rebooting Democracy [A] long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT. Thomas Paine, Common Sense Rebooting Democracy … Continue reading
Plus ça change?
Can you guess which American party had this platform and when? The conditions which surround us best justify our cooperation; we meet in the midst of a nation brought to … Continue reading
A Lesson for Michael Moore
[and Noam Chomsky too!] Multimedia is rare on Fila Sophia but the occasion is special. Without looking for conspiracies or evil-doers, without cinema gimmicks, this 45-minute documentary (French with English … Continue reading
The Citizen Jury Illustrated: The Morris Climate Dialogue
A “Citizen Jury” means to embody the informed, face-to-face deliberation of an ideal democracy, not found either in elections or in legislative debates today. Below is a photo illustration of … Continue reading
Family & Polis
A review of Kennan Ferguson’s All in the Family This book follows the “contestation” line of political theory, exemplified by William Connolly, Chantal Mouffe, or Bonnie Honig, that owes much … Continue reading
An alternative to campaign-finance reform?
[First appeared on openDemocracy on April 22, 2014.] The still fresh McCutcheon v FEC Supreme Court decision, like the January 2010 Citizens United, has again set off the rage of … Continue reading
Should New Media Distinguish Idea from Opinion Journalism?
[Also appeared March 10, 2014 on Truthout here.] Old media separated non-entertainment journalism into a simple dichotomy: news and opinion. Today we—academics, journalists, and laypeople—include internet searches at some point … Continue reading
