The Omega Glory

This speech (pdf) defies description.  Before you read it, ask yourself: If human society (and most humans) were to cease existing in 200 years, would that bother you?  The organization The Long Now, on whose work the article is based, presents a fascinating, and very needed, concept.

Sustainability is, by its very nature, forward-thinking.  The Long Now posits that one of the reasons that people do not act in ways that are mindful of future generations is that they have not been encouraged to think about the future.  Many people’s dreams of the future stopped at Disney’s visions circa 1950 and our society has already far exceeded most of those, so what is left? 

Envisioning a future is a huge part of creating it.  I love that there are a bunch of not-but-almost-crazy people out there who write their dates as 12/19/02007; that in itself displays much-needed optimism.

Unhappy Meals

This NY Times article from January 2007 effectively summarizes eating advice and the justification thereof for a diet-crazed modern world that is totally removed from food.  The author, Michael Pollan, is the most well-known face in agricultural anthropology.

Against the Grain

by Richard Manning 

This book is a thoroughly researched history of human food production and consumption as well as a commentary on this history.  The author traces this history beginning with the human-caused extinction of New World megafauna thousands of years ago up through the cultivation of almost all of earth’s arable land.  He spends a significant amount of time on the costs and benefits of early agriculture on the population as well as the societal structures that are inherent to agriculture but were foreign to hunter-gatherers.

The author does an excellent job of highlighting the subconscious aspect of food production and consumption—the predatory instinct subverted within all modern humans and the visceral reaction of the tongue to ripe, fresh fruit.  Much of his objection with modern agriculture is that it removes humans from the food production process and therefore deprives us of a significant part of what makes us human.  He also explores in detail the environmental damage caused by agribusiness.

This book is phenomenal, and it brought me into contact with the concept of permaculture, for which I am eternally grateful.  Also because of this book I now call caucasians “wheat-beef people” and recognize that most American-made food products were, at one point, corn.  The book is available here.

Capitalism 3.0

by Peter Barnes 

This book focuses on the dichotomy of private vs. public ownership.  It defines many modern problems as the result of property ownership rights and provides a historical, legal and theoretical primer on property rights.  It goes on to propose new norms of property ownership that would ameliorate the problems that current norms create.

This book is a phenomenal tool for understanding American capitalism.  It is well-reasoned and even-handed.  The author’s feelings are clear but always based on well-reasoned justification rather than dogmatism, which is important since the proposals that are made in this book are nothing less than revolutionary.

As I am not well qualified to offer an opinion on the proposals presented by the author I will not attempt to do so.  However, this book widened my perspective significantly and has colored many of my interests since I read it.  It is available online as a pdf or can be purchased through Amazon.