Christianity

Prophets Against Profits! What Occupy Wall Street Gets Right

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As the global economic downturn continues into its fifth year, growing dissatisfaction among the public with our malfunctioning economic system has changed the tone and agenda of American political discourse. A number of economists and commentators are asking questions about the future of that economic system and are considering rather unorthodox approaches to address its current failings. NYU economist Nouriel Roubini recently wrote a piece, “Is Capitalism Doomed?,” in which he claims that Karl Marx was “right in arguing that globalization, financial intermediation run amok, and redistribution of income and wealth from labor to capital could lead capitalism to self-destruct.” Roubini recommends investment in “human capital, skills and social safety nets” to prevent economic catastrophe, including “unending stagnation, depression … and massive social and political instability.”

Buddhism

How Mindfulness Can Overcome the Greed of the 1 Percent

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I have led mindfulness and loving-kindness meditations at Occupy Boston. Meditation is, of course, valuable as a refuge from stress. Participating in an occupation, which may involve living outdoors under threat of possible arrest and police brutality, can certainly be stressful (I myself am only a day visitor to the Occupy Boston encampment). But I believe mindfulness can actually address the core problem that the Occupy movement confronts, i.e. the greed of the wealthiest 1 percent. The thesis of my eBook, Occupy the Moment, is that greed is literally an addiction, a distortion of the brain systems that govern habits and rewards.

Education

Berkeley Students Plan Strike in Wake of Police Violence

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The videos of police violence that have gone viral on the internet show only half the story. The other half took place at a general assembly later that night, when hundreds of students, community members, and professors voted to call for “a strike and day of action on Tuesday, November 15, in all sectors of higher education.”

Non-Violent Communication (NVC)

A Day At Occupy Oakland: Finding the Leader Within

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The November 2 General Strike in Oakland was already up and running when I ascended the stairs from BART at 8:30 a.m. The traffic through the intersection was as it is every Wednesday morning. The only difference was that there was a platform set up at the corner with music playing and a few people speaking into the microphone, trying to awaken the people in their tents, and gather a crowd from the people passing by.. A few people were dancing behind the platform and others were standing around – waiting for something to happen, or walking around passing out various newspapers and fliers. But, who are the people on the platform? Somehow they seem to be the ones in charge – the organizers, the ralliers – but really, who is in charge?

General News

Evangelical Leader Criticizes the Tea Party's Radical Individualism

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Members of the Tikkun Community might be interested the Rev. Richard Cizik’s piece in this morning’s Washington Post. In short, Cizik criticizes the emerging alliance of Christian Right leaders with the Tea Party. Whether the Christian duty to love our neighbors is compatible with a political movement that embraces radical individualism and rejects the ethic of collective responsibility is a central question as the GOP attempts to cement the Tea Party and the religious right into a cohesive base. Cizik goes on to explain the obvious contradiction between the two right-wing camps. Tea Party activists and Republican leaders have consistently targeted for cutbacks vital government programs that protect the poor, the elderly, children and other vulnerable Americans.

Education

50 Proposals for Reform and Reclamation in Solidarity with the Wall Street Protesters and the 99 Percenters

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Among other things, I teach business ethics at the university level. I have also been a consultant to Wall Street firms for some 20 years, and have worked in various capacities on the Street since I graduated from high school, in 1979. I know a few things about what ought to be; I know a few things about what is. I visited the Wall Street protest site in New York City, at Zuccotti Park, on Saturday, October 1. Subsequently, I read Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times column on the subject of the protests, known as “Occupy Wall Street” or, alternatively, the “99 Percenters” (the protests have in recent days and weeks spread across the country, taking on other names).

Non-Violent Communication (NVC)

An Open Letter to the Occupy Movement

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There’s plenty of room in this struggle for a diversity of movements and a diversity of organizing and actions. Some may choose strict Gandhian nonviolence, others may choose fight-back resistance. But for the Occupy movement, strategic nonviolent direct action is a framework that will allow us to grow in diversity and power.