The prophets take a side. In The Prophetic Imagination, Walter Brueggemann explains how the ancient Hebrew prophets diverged from the imperial courts of Pharaoh and the royal courts of the later Israelite kings. As well as imagining new ways for society to take shape, he says, the prophets took sides. They were partisan because their […]
Becoming a modern patron
The artists who made the Renaissance the Renaissance were well-funded by European merchants and city rulers who’d made their fortunes through war, commerce, and taxes. Today, it doesn’t take multi-generational assets to become a patron. Anyone with a few dollars can support good art now. And there’s a new opportunity to help. Filmmaker Leslie Foster […]
How the system eats people
I first learned about hydroelectric power in primary school, when along with solar and wind it seemed like our best answer to the energy needs of the future. My school books didn’t tell me about the human costs. In the United States, the dams of the Penobscot River fouled waters that the Penobscot Nation had fished […]
Don’t shut down
New opportunities present themselves at every stage of life. Approach the aging process with courage and hope. Honor that which you have been, welcoming new possibilities for wisdom, objectivity, and greater knowledge of the Spirit. Realize that as time passes, new ways of receiving and reflecting God’s love will open.” —Intermountain Yearly Meeting of the […]
More visible and less understood
I first read the phrase “context collapse” from civic tech analyst Zeynep Tufekci and sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom. For more than six years, Zufekci and Cottom have each written about how social media popularity collapses the boundaries between digital audiences. By becoming extremely popular (“going viral”), information shaped for one audience can rapidly become information […]
The way power works
“Ouch.” That’s what I wrote in the margin of Arundhati Roy’s The End of Imagination today when I read Roy’s critique of the political system in India, the electorate’s party choices, and the pervasive oppression of “counter-terrorism.” In the post-9/11 world, power works in very consistent ways whether in India or the US: power represses, and repression […]
