tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145179162012-01-16T16:33:55.827-05:00Entertainment, Emotion, Love, Empathy, Ethics, and Saving the WorldMetta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.comBlogger3371100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-67058965107687217802011-08-08T20:59:00.003-04:002012-01-10T13:57:03.108-05:00

Psychologists tell us that happiness comes from giving yourself over to a cause greater than yourself. Well, do I have a humdinger of a cause for you!  Thirty years ago millions of people were engaged in it: to abolish nuclear weapons. In Toronto the movement was centered in this church. Upstairs in the chapel we founded the Canadian Disarmament Information Service. A hundred persons a day came

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-22594108944892980102011-07-27T17:56:00.002-04:002012-01-10T14:10:02.632-05:00

The International Peace Bureau (IPB) sends out a newsletter every month, recounting its member organizations’ activities and especially significant developments in the world that reflect the prospects for peace. You can read them at www.ipb.org. Here are some of the events that have been mentioned during the last few months: Several of the items dealt with the arms trade. For example, in March it

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-45153434979233653832011-07-11T18:43:00.008-04:002011-07-12T15:21:15.508-04:00

Yesterday I got into an argument with a woman friend, whom I'll call “Aysa.” We were in a restaurant with another woman friend, who didn't get into the dispute, partly because she had not seen The Tree of Life, which had set Aysa and me off onto our dispute. We both loved the film, about half of which was a tour of the cosmos—gorgeous images of galaxies, volcanoes, dinosaurs, cells, and blood

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-4381673955375358042011-07-01T00:46:00.000-04:002011-07-01T00:46:16.143-04:00

Metta Spencer At a meeting tonight on bad policing at G20, I rudely noted that demonstration organizers also had duty to make all protesters pledge nonviolence. This was not received well. They said it was up to the cops to make people behave. I said it's up to all of us. Gandhi stopped all demonstrations for a year after protesters acted up. His satyagrahis had to be EXTREMELY disciplined.

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-45887956835548981562011-04-08T16:08:00.000-04:002011-04-08T16:08:56.117-04:00

I want to quote this passage of Albert Einstein, which was published in "Cosmic Religion and Other Opinions and Aphorisms,” (Mineola, N.T.: Dover, first published in 1931) p 46: The religions of all the civilized peoples, especially those of the Orient, are principally moral religions. An important advance in the life of a people is the transformation of the religion of fear into the moral

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-24817805360567922132011-04-06T10:39:00.001-04:002011-04-06T10:42:33.858-04:00

Mary Wiens, a producer for CBC's “Metro Morning” radio show, produced a series of seven-minute programs about nonviolent struggle, which were recently broadcast over the course of a week. She came to my home and interviewed me, among others. The whole series is now available for  you to hear on-line. I am in the first and third segments, if that matters. I think the whole series is a valuable

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-68501855364163534612011-04-06T10:17:00.004-04:002011-04-06T11:38:07.925-04:00

CBC News producer Jennifer Clibbon, who has lived and worked in Russia periodically since the mid-1980s, published this interview with me on the CBC web site. (See http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/03/01/f-gorbachev-80th-birthday.html). She was especially interested in the state of civil society and the future of democratic reform in Russia today.  CBC News: Gorbachev has been

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-9799081985604462872011-04-06T10:08:00.004-04:002011-04-06T11:35:54.317-04:00

As a member of the steering committee of the International Peace Bureau, I went to Barcelona a couple of weeks ago for a meeting. I knew that some members already expected us to call for nuclear reactors to be shut down, world-wide, and I wasn’t ready to vote on that issue. I said that it would take me another month of serious study to reach a decision for myself, so the matter was referred to a

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-35936227983757760722010-11-16T17:22:00.004-05:002010-12-30T23:43:26.073-05:00

To her friends and mine, I need to write about Janet Salaff. If you decide to forward this to other friends of hers, feel free to correct any mistakes I may make or add observations or recollections of your own. I began this as a message to members of the study group that met at my place when we were all preparing for oral exams in Berkeley long ago. On Thursday, Nov. 4, I had invited seven

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-64848679900370742062010-10-22T13:56:00.005-04:002010-10-28T13:20:27.344-04:00

Chandler Davis has a new book out: It Walks in Beauty (ed. by Josh Lukin. Aqueduct Press, 2010). Last night there was a book launch at the Judy Merrill Science fiction library at the Toronto Public Library on College Street. Chandler's book includes both science fiction and essays in which he recounts his experience as a leftist in the United States during the forties and fifties. Eventually he

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-76818472301606251022010-10-12T12:24:00.003-04:002010-10-12T13:26:11.793-04:00

Speech to International Peace Bureau, Oslo, September 2010 In 1982 I began visiting the Soviet Union and then kept returning and interviewing hundreds of people for the next 28 years. Today my book The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy is supposed to be released. I’ll give you a peek. In those days it made sense to classify Eastern public opinion in four categories: Sheep, Dinosaurs, Barking

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-21617420860338391952010-10-12T12:19:00.001-04:002010-10-12T13:13:15.141-04:00

On Our Way to Nuclear Disarmament: Speech to Physicians for Global Survival Surveys suggest that about three-quarters of the human population want nuclear weapons to be abolished. Why have we been unable to do so? I’ll list five reasons, which will suggest an agenda of five preconditions that must be resolved. I won’t discuss the technology of the bombs or the diplomatic steps toward abolishing

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-87169893963631069702010-08-14T07:58:00.002-04:002010-08-14T08:02:11.386-04:00

There's no obvious way to distinguish Tigers from other Tamils, but we must do so before admitting them to Canada. I took in a refugee family, who lived with me in various combinations for six years, during which time the father became a (or the) leading Tiger in Canada. Tigers were collecting/extorting millions of dollars here to buy weapons. Had they not done so, the war would have ended

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-54973852634241787552010-07-26T02:57:00.003-04:002010-07-30T20:34:42.268-04:00

Here I want to reflect on one of life’s great conundrums: how to treat others who make serious mistakes. It is a religious problem in that we recognize forgiveness as our own spiritual goal (though it is not always obvious what forgiveness entails). It is a social problem, in that our organizations and intimate relationships require measures of social control. It is a legal problem, in that

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-17063549847621592762010-07-08T17:29:00.000-04:002010-07-08T17:29:25.333-04:00

When we start discussing global governance, the first proposal that comes up is to strengthen the United Nations: get rid of the veto in the Security Councils, rotate a wider group of its member States, and add a house to represent NGOs and other voluntary organizations. Those are fine proposals, but here I want to add other suggestions. We have inherited a “Westphalian” world—one in which the

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-34498192151520924162010-06-09T19:57:00.000-04:002010-06-09T19:57:13.476-04:00

Intelligent eating is becoming harder to do every day—mostly because information is uncertain and keeps changing about what is healthful and what the effects of various foods are on our planet. Moreover, human bodies differ significantly. For example, I have diabetes and am healthiest when I almost eliminate carbohydrates. We are told that the most beneficial thing a person can do for the planet

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-19413813472969482402010-05-30T14:23:00.002-04:002010-05-30T14:24:45.287-04:00

I keep getting into arguments with my friends about whether humankind is doomed. There are people, you know, who insist that billions of people are going to perish, either because of climate change or peak oil. I disagree, and I’m bored with the conversation. Yes, we are vulnerable, but not necessarily from those two factors, singly or in combination. Along with Vaclav Smil, I think there are two

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-65491258552410187842009-12-11T23:14:00.001-05:002009-12-11T23:16:54.620-05:00

155 Marlee Ave. Apt. 201 Toronto M6B 4B5 All is well here, but I have decided to postpone my Christmas and New Year festivities until May. I’m working hard to get my next book, The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy, to Lexington Press in March and I need every minute of the time. So I’m skipping the tree, gifts, parties, and even my traditional New Years Day bash this year. I expect the

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-24562853969846272112009-08-15T14:58:00.006-04:002009-08-15T15:50:34.304-04:00

I haven't been blogging here much since I got on Facebook and Twitter. Sorry.But I'm in a dialogue with the Globe and Mail's excellent columnist Doug Saunders about — of all things — religion. It seems to me his notion of religion is determined by contact with mainly theologically illiterate persons. He thinks religious journalists shouldn't be allowed to write about religion because they are

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-50558268878859425242009-05-24T02:37:00.005-04:002009-05-24T11:13:07.411-04:00

My friend Joy Kogawa just phoned me and rehearsed to me a speech that she’s supposed to give in a few weeks. It’s about the memoir she is writing, Gently to Nagasaki, and it offers a spiritually moving glimpse of healing.Joy’s topic is reconciliation and forgiveness. She contrasts two attitudes toward the bombing of Hiroshima: self-justification and remorse. Most Americans took – probably still

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-89368821058007402462009-05-11T18:58:00.005-04:002009-05-22T08:52:15.132-04:00

Why does democracy need to be defended all the time? And why are the critics of democracy mainly old lefties? It is embarrassing to have to keep justifying democracy when my co-defenders are right-wingers with whom I have very little in common. It is my own friends and colleagues who continue challenging the connection between democracy and peace. Why?Please tell me, dear friends, why you are

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-26535836584286402422009-04-27T14:41:00.003-04:002009-04-27T14:45:55.326-04:00

Or Rose Gottemoeller, Gary Samore, Ivo Daalder, Valery Churkin, Mohamed ElBaradei, or Sergei Ordjonikidze? You would want to lobby them, wouldn’t you? But would you know what to say?Lucky you. I will suggest a line of conversation about nuclear disarmament with each of these powerful people.First, Ellen Tauscher. She used to be a California congresswoman but is becoming Obama’s Undersecretary

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-68062325648873511402009-04-01T21:28:00.003-04:002009-04-01T21:38:16.406-04:00

The news from Afghanistan gets worse and worse, offsetting the brightness of last week’s announcement of Obama’s new approach. (Even that announcement contained worrisome elements, but the overall emphasis was on development, which has to be the most liberal way of solving such predicaments.)But now there are two ugly stories. Yesterday the Taliban (maybe a Pakistani branch, though I’m not sure)

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-39211059823720302462009-02-01T00:39:00.004-05:002009-02-01T00:49:04.462-05:00

Everybody is giving Obama advice about solving the problems in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Iraq The basic idea (which he already gets) is that it’s all one big package. It’s not even hyphenated. Some ideas are worth noting that I’ve read today in the New York Review of Books and George Friedman’s Stratfor newsletter. So listen up, Barack!We'll start with Iraq and work our way eastward. The

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-4935743493120380072009-01-05T00:02:00.004-05:002009-01-05T00:26:49.460-05:00

I sent this to lots of people and intended to post it here but forgot to do so. Now I've received an extensive reply that is worth posting from my friend Arent Greve in Norway. So I'll post my letter and show his as a comment to it -- an extremely important comment in that he has important information about greenhouse gas emissions which I did not know. Be sure to read his comment, therefore.

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-23162915511867741542008-12-31T21:51:00.006-05:002008-12-31T22:24:11.488-05:00

I have a long-running, passionately argued debate with a dear friend whose values once were very similar to my own. No longer. Now she has changed her life to a simplified, rustic style that will (maybe someday almost) lower her “ecological footprint” to a “sustainable” level. She sends me little discreet messages encouraging me to follow her example.But I won’t. I try not to live wastefully in

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-903207768624865482008-12-26T22:19:00.005-05:002008-12-26T22:27:55.334-05:00

So now Putin-Medvedev have come right out and made it plain. They want a totalitarian state, with themselves at the helm. And it seems that they will get it. They are going to enact a law saying that Russians who criticize their country will be treated as traitors. Since their party holds the vast majority of seats in the Duma, this law will certainly pass. I will be a terrible liability to my

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-8987249536728105932008-12-22T21:49:00.003-05:002008-12-22T22:05:54.220-05:00

Now that Deep Throat has died, another unsavory side of the Watergate story is coming out. George Friedman of Stratfor pointed it out — though I suppose he is not the only person who has realized what had happened. Anyway, Friedman’s article is the only version I have heard.It seems that Mark Felt (see photo) had been the number three man in the FBI, deeply loyal to his boss, J. Edgar Hoover.

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-26040583915751132352008-12-06T23:58:00.003-05:002008-12-07T00:13:34.077-05:00

My two all-time favorite journalists are Gwynne Dyer and Doug Saunders. Coincidentally, both of them have offered surprising analyses lately about the war in Afghanistan. And neither of them suggests any answer to the question that their analyses immediately brought to my mind.I’ll start with Dyer, whom I don’t read very often anymore because no Toronto paper carries his syndicated column. But he

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-5356416437606484442008-10-20T11:59:00.004-04:002008-10-20T12:10:32.578-04:00

I went to a conference of geographers this weekend and learned one fascinating fact: France is larger than either Canada or Russia.The reasoning goes this way: All the land that is more than, say, 1.5 miles away from a road is useless. Nobody lives there. You can't farm it or mine it. It does nothing for you and might just as well be absent. So imagine a map that erased all that land. France

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-34408617518738571892008-09-23T00:13:00.003-04:002008-09-23T00:44:47.984-04:00

For a long time I felt puzzled, trying to figure out the main basis on which people are taking sides in the current US presidential election. Now I know.The most obvious political cleavage is based on race. Some people will never, ever vote for a black person. I don’t think it’s possible to guess with much accuracy how widespread this kind of racism is, but it will surely affect the final tally

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-55588140108202424982008-09-03T21:45:00.006-04:002008-09-03T23:49:06.467-04:00

I have received an e-mail comment on my previous blog, “Is it Moral to Promote Democracy?” from a friend (whom I’ll call “CD” because I haven’t asked his permission to name him in a public way). My reply here will be in the form of boldface insertions within the text of his letter. However, the most important comment should come first. I was astonished to read, at the end of his letter, CD’s

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-34304505039072169722008-07-27T02:02:00.006-04:002008-07-28T12:27:13.865-04:00

I just received another one of those letters. A concerned peacenik friend of mine is suddenly feeling uncertain about whether it is okay for us to be helping to spread democracy. As it happens, this is the issue that I went to Russia to investigate, and I’ll write the final chapter of my book about it. For now, let me try to state my position.We are in a period now that is aptly called a “

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-88674808150075573242008-07-19T15:06:00.006-04:002008-07-23T16:07:33.139-04:00

I’ve been reading the big speech that Al Gore made this past week. Bless him! (See photo.) He’s a wonderful man and without his leadership we’d really be facing almost certain catastrophe. This week he issued a huge new challenge, but without making it clear what would be involved. Below, I will show the entire text of his speech, which is available on You Tube and his own web site, Algore.com.

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-8193160257577012762008-07-09T23:09:00.005-04:002008-07-10T00:13:52.084-04:00

Imagine that you have been in prison all your life. The guards feed you but there’s no possibility of freedom. But then along comes a warden who unlocks the door and leads you out of the prison. Do you thank him?For eighteen years I’ve been contemplating this question. The fact is, of course, that most Russian people hate Gorbachev and are completely baffled when a foreigner expresses immense

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-38729397516905082052008-06-08T08:34:00.007-04:002008-06-08T09:17:09.771-04:00

Today is Saturday and I have been invited to the countryside, where unless it rains we will inspect the country estate of some long-dead nobleman. The past remains especially present here in Russia. I think it is because Moscovites have so much empty time to fill while out of doors and are surrounded by architectural reminders. They spend about three hours every day traveling, or even more if you

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-15713458354504281902008-06-06T07:30:00.008-04:002008-06-08T15:13:24.090-04:00

Tonight I will have dinner with a leader of the brave “Mothers of Soldiers” committee. I’m doing one or two interviews almost every day. Yesterday it was Yuri Dzibladze, a democracy and human rights organizer, and Andrei somebody at Greenpeace. Before that it was Sergei Kapitza and Mikhail Lebedev of Pugwash, and before that Grigory Yavlinsky, the leader of Yabloko Party. There had also been

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-82007913842212666902008-05-30T12:42:00.005-04:002008-05-30T12:55:40.571-04:00

I started coming to Russia in about 1982, during a particularly difficult period in the Cold War. The NATO countries were deciding to install new Intermediate Range Nuclear Missiles and nuclear cruise missiles in Europe in response to the Soviet placement of new SS20 missiles. Both of these developments increased the danger of nuclear war, whether by design or misunderstanding. A great

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-13534364672140694602008-04-28T16:36:00.003-04:002008-04-28T16:45:47.985-04:00

Today was terrific. I finagled a switch in my ticket so as to take a "Florence on Your Own" trip instead of the walking tour for which I had a reservation. Then when I got there I found a "Hop on, Hop Off" city bus with seats on top of a double decker. There are two routes -- one for one hour going around Florence, the other a two-hour drive that includes Fiosole. For 20 Euros I could take both

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-75049141608987346452008-04-26T15:20:00.005-04:002008-04-26T15:36:32.293-04:00

I’m going to try to write a generic letter, but it may not be possible. The laptop still conks out unpredictably, making me re-boot. My trip has reinforced my co-dependent love relationship with this machine. In Ft. Lauderdale I discovered that it had kicked the bucket, and only yesterday did I get to see a repairman, for only one hour, so he could fix only part of the problem. It seemed to be a

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-52020304768627436382008-04-07T11:54:00.004-04:002008-04-07T20:41:32.444-04:00

I just spent the weekend in a conference and AGM of a peace organization in which I am active. I was disappointed but not at all surprised when the business meeting turned stressful. Had I given it any thought, I would have predicted exactly this turn of events —on the basis of both my own past experience and of observed behavior on the part of the most prominent member of the organization — a

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-70708359514115513272008-03-28T23:51:00.006-04:002008-03-29T00:42:02.185-04:00

I’m reading a lot about Russia these days, and today I watched Charlie Rose interview Vitaly Churkin, that gorgeous white-haired hunk (see photo) who is Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations. He has been around since perestroika days, when he mainly sounded friendly, but now he displays the same truculent tone that I’m sensing in most of the Russian commentators I’m reading. They all seem

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-35067624496866450392008-03-24T01:27:00.002-04:002008-03-24T01:42:04.476-04:00

Everyone is talking about the uprising in Tibet. A producer from the CBC called me to be a guest to discuss the subject on the early morning radio show “The Current.” He paired me up with an animal liberation activist, Jerry Vlasic, who was chosen specifically because he supports the use of violence. Maybe he wanted me to attack this guy, but I thought he defeated himself without any help from me

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-49555247017231667722008-03-15T23:30:00.003-04:002008-03-15T23:38:08.337-04:00

I’m reading a lot about Russia, trying to get ready for the trip I’ve scheduled — I leave home in one month and will be away until mid-June. I don’t think I’ve been there since 1997, and a lot has changed, obviously. For one thing, there will be the new president, Dmitry Medvedev. Everyone assumes that he will obey his mentor, Vladimir Putin, but I’m more curious about the differences that will

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-77874417842077024492008-03-09T22:55:00.004-04:002008-03-09T23:13:44.492-04:00

Today’s New York Times Magazine is devoted almost entirely to articles addressing philanthropy. (Even the cooking article was about donations by restaurant owners and chefs.) It was a pretty interesting issue. I read much more of it than I normally do on Sundays. Some of the stories analyzed the rational effectiveness-monitoring of billionaire donors. Another one was about the substantial impact

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-91298414659817184042008-03-08T22:48:00.003-05:002008-03-08T23:13:20.231-05:00

“Pander” is a nasty word. It means to “gratify or indulge an immoral or disgraceful desire, need, or habit, or a person with such a desire.” Yet the TV host Steve Paikin (see photo) just used that term on the air as if it were not pejorative. He was referring to the current “Naftagate” scandal that may turn out to cost Barack Obama the US presidency. It certainly seems to have cost him victory

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-14183190189139034852008-03-01T22:39:00.004-05:002008-03-01T23:20:35.503-05:00

For the past few weeks I’ve been addicted to CNN — at least while the Democratic candidates are holding forth. Especially Obama. Gosh, I’m almost like that young girl who proclaims “I’ve got a crush on Obama!” (I understand that one of Barack’s little daughters was disturbed by watching the “Obama girl” singing on Youtube. She asked, “But Daddy has Mommy, doesn’t he?”)Anyhow, I sometimes wonder

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-60928470894902484212008-02-23T11:45:00.006-05:002008-02-23T12:13:51.946-05:00

I’ve heard Samantha Power being interviewed twice this week. Yesterday it was on Charlie Rose’s TV show, discussing her new book about Sergio Viera de Mello. On Sunday it was about Barack Obama, for whom she has worked several years, currently as his senior foreign policy adviser. She obviously admires both de Mello and Obama, and for some of the same qualities. Her description of de Mello (see

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-10568254062618653682008-02-10T16:49:00.000-05:002008-02-10T17:20:51.417-05:00

I’m in a classy Orlando hotel, vacationing with a woman friend. What set off my present train of thought was my trip to the fourteenth floor lounge this morning. I managed to read The New York Times in a room with about thirty little eight-year-old girls who were having stage make-up applied before their dance competition. The sight irritated me so much that I had to search my own motivations.

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-25673323533375908052008-02-02T22:14:00.000-05:002008-02-02T22:25:22.030-05:00

I had never heard of the young scholar Parag Khanna until this afternoon, when I read the long feature article of his in the New York Times Magazine of January 27. It’s a stunning geopolitical forecast. (See his photo above.)He asks you to imagine the year 2016, the final year of the second term of President Hillary Clinton/John McCain/Barack Obama. Now open your eyes and tell us what you've seen

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-23108426460823002132008-02-02T03:03:00.001-05:002008-02-02T14:04:19.644-05:00

I’ve been sick with a cold all week, spending a lot of time in bed watching the Obama-Clinton debates and the political pundits who have so much air time to fill with inventive verbosity. Today in a phone chat with a cynical woman friend who is temperamentally atheistic and anarchistic, I said that I adore Barack Obama for his integrity. She snorted dismissively. “To get into office,” she said, “

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-90948792037430551392008-01-27T20:39:00.001-05:002008-01-27T20:59:14.407-05:00

Three hours ago if someone had asked me whether I believe in flying saucers I would have said, “probably not.” Now I say, “probably.” Last night I had come into Larry King Live half-way through, and I wanted to see the whole thing, which involved several sequential panel discussions about UFOs, so I hunted for it on-line. Evidently there was a sighting a month or so ago that hundreds of

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-34382080987564442402008-01-25T21:39:00.000-05:002008-01-25T22:06:42.549-05:00

Yesterday Bill Gates gave the keynote address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, calling for a better kind of capitalism. And yesterday I got an e-mail from an economist friend who was urging the cessation of economic growth. Neither message was particularly new and they both represent authentic efforts to save the world from a terrible fate. But the two positions could hardly be further apart

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-74249959267150553432008-01-19T16:16:00.000-05:002008-01-19T16:28:29.265-05:00

I am planning another trip to Russia to re-interview a lot of people whom I had met many years ago, during the glasnost and perestroika period. My preparation consists largely of preparing myself to find that the people known then as “new thinkers” have turned into supporters of Putin. I am thinking about what to ask them, since it’s hard to suppose that this is a reasonable position for them to

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-18747862461262170592008-01-18T04:59:00.001-05:002008-01-18T05:17:07.633-05:00

Naomi Klein’s book, The Shock Doctrine, is a hefty thing. I borrowed it but probably will not plow all the way through, though I do admire it. She has done thorough research. Fortunately, I have seen two of her talks on television — one by Charlie Rose a few weeks ago and one tonight on TVO, from a lecture she gave in Ottawa recently. She has an original thesis and adduces abundant proof.

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-59372948305284120552008-01-12T19:43:00.000-05:002008-01-12T20:18:59.824-05:00

I’ve just read Blue Covenant by Maude Barlow (see photo) and learned a lot from it. (For one thing, at the UN, “covenant,” “treaty,” and “convention” all mean the same thing.) Barlow wants a covenant to be enacted defining access to adequate affordable water as a human right — which would oblige every government to ensure it for their citizens. I heartily agree. And so does Mikhail Gorbachev,

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-67532957743343823672008-01-05T23:17:00.000-05:002008-01-05T23:34:18.061-05:00

Last night I met my friend Lynn at a restaurant for dinner and a movie. She started reflecting aloud on the failings of the U.S. Constitution — especially the undemocratic nature of the electoral college system. As a dual citizen, I should have been able to explain how the thing works but, whatever I once knew, I have forgotten. So I tried boning up on the subject today by reading Wikipedia. And

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-91493895065419131142008-01-04T15:35:00.000-05:002008-01-04T15:47:29.039-05:00

I just voted in the California primary. Or rather, I will have voted as soon as I put the envelope into a mailbox in a couple of hours. I drew a blue ball-point line connecting the front half of an arrow to the back half. And that arrow was pointing at the name “Barack Obama.” I got to vote for him because I'm a dual citizen of the US and Canada. Last night I watched the Iowa caucuses on TV

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-46620060463607656832007-12-29T23:18:00.000-05:002007-12-29T23:38:54.955-05:00

We learn a lot as kids, just incidentally, when riding around in the back seat of the family car. Probably people who learn to drive without those childhood experiences make mistakes that we would not. Today I had lunch with some friends from Burma — L, a man in his fifties and V, his daughter, age 25, who had recently passed her driving test. It wasn’t easy, she said. The first test was not

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-12806681980718083642007-12-26T23:08:00.001-05:002007-12-26T23:58:33.994-05:00

Much happiness to you all!My year has been wonderful — because it was so full of excellent problems. I’m still influenced by an epiphany I experienced at age seven. My grandmother was teaching our Sunday School class and someone asked her what heaven was. She explained that it was a place where you can go after dying, and there will be no problems whatever. Anything you wish for, you will

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-73503520154908781072007-12-21T15:50:00.001-05:002007-12-21T16:07:08.966-05:00

Only recently have I learned the expression: “to regift.” I have done it a couple of times in my life, but only furtively, expecting to be caught looking cheap. (In fact, that would have constituted lead-pipe evidence that I was cheap.) But now that I have enough money to buy appropriate gifts, my heart is not in it. I visited an indoors craft show a few weeks ago that covered at least one city

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-46638288003264685362007-12-17T20:34:00.000-05:002007-12-21T16:19:35.559-05:00

For several months I’ve been organizing a series of dinners in the Sky Dragon Cantonese restaurant for people who favor imposing a tax on carbon dioxide emissions to reduce climate change. Science for Peace is my group, and this is one of its committees. When we feel sufficiently well-informed on the topic, we’ll fan out across the city, offering to speak on the radio, to high school classes, or

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-74823878012068426832007-12-14T23:10:00.000-05:002007-12-14T23:21:54.217-05:00

One might expect that everyone in the world would support the spread of democracy. After all, it supports economic development and diminishes violence – both between democratic states, and internally, by reducing state violence against citizens. But not everyone likes democracy. It always surprises me to hear a nice person underestimate its value, but I encounter that experience quite often. What

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-40595812091524938222007-12-08T00:03:00.000-05:002007-12-08T00:14:57.550-05:00

Woodrow Wilson justified entering World War I by promising that it would “make the world safe for democracy.” I think he had it backward. It is democracy that will make the world safe. Well, at least safer. Nowadays we have lots of worries about the world and how to save it — or even whether it can be saved. But oddly, we don’t pay much attention to the factor that can best brighten the human

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-2292466492994900032007-12-02T16:47:00.001-05:002007-12-02T16:55:02.780-05:00

Today’s newspaper will be used to wrap fish within a couple of days, they say. But today it’s no less important for that. Of course, people read selectively and notice very different things. I am moderately satisfied with what I gleaned from today’s New York Times, plus the car radio. After my usual four hours with the Sunday Times, I drove through new, mostly unplowed, snow out to buy a Persian

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-29510857598094387602007-11-30T00:23:00.000-05:002007-11-30T00:51:58.176-05:00

Today I read Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger’s new book, Break Through. It was a roller coaster ride with only one hump. I went up, up, up in pure joy – and then straight down from the middle of the book. Apparently the authors made quite a splash a year or two ago with an article that criticized the environmental movement. Probably the part I liked was an elaboration of that article, and

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-12701251144809649772007-11-19T17:50:00.000-05:002007-11-19T18:21:19.423-05:00

Some of my friends, with whom I have strong political and economic disagreements, have sent me two papers that make points that they regard as important. They fit together as complementary parts of the same argument. However, instead of feeling impressed by them, I find them both unbearably sad. And I doubt that my friends will understand why – though I’ll try to explain here. The first paper is

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-62472991441740654092007-11-16T23:51:00.000-05:002007-11-16T23:57:22.854-05:00

I’ve been perturbed lately by some apparent contradictions in conclusions about “global dimming” — a concept that I described with alarm several weeks ago. The PBS show NOVA had described its effects. It seems that water vapor, gases, contrails from airplanes, and particulates in the atmosphere often blanket south Asia during the dry season with “brown clouds.” These are largely the result of

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-71170116180275218002007-11-12T21:19:00.000-05:002007-11-12T21:26:59.707-05:00

I recently attended a weekend-long conference on climate change. Now, a week later, what sticks out in my memory are two comments. The former was by a U of T climatologist, Richard Peltier. During a question period after the panel where he had spoken, I asked about global dimming, expressing uncertainty as to which is more accurate, the original theory that particulates, clouds, and contrails

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-54899554630981240772007-11-08T12:05:00.001-05:002007-11-08T12:34:43.959-05:00

I’ve been in the grip of the common cold for a week and lacked the capacity for any significant project. (The gap between blog entries is one indicator.) I’ve spent this period of lassitude in bed, occasionally on the phone or reading the newspaper, but uncurious even to read a book. Trying to take my own advice about the use of emotions to heal, I spent over nine hours yesterday searching

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-75242313735718688102007-10-27T23:54:00.000-04:002007-10-28T00:28:27.877-04:00

I’ve spent the whole day thinking about democracy and its opponents. There seem to be several sets of attitudes on the subject. I belong to the first category. I live in a fairly democratic society and feel grateful for the privileges and freedom that this system affords me. I want everyone in the world to have the same political freedoms that I enjoy. Within “democracy,” I include the

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-57279144142983919322007-10-26T20:17:00.000-04:002007-10-27T05:26:29.188-04:00

Two or three times a year I come to Ottawa – usually for a conference. But the encounters always inform me about more than the topic of my visit. Last time it was an annual meeting of the Group of 78, and besides listening to Flora McDonald, we revised the group’s obsolete mission statement to reflect its current commitments. During that meeting, the monks were marching in Rangoon – or perhaps

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-59164677227688697182007-10-20T17:21:00.000-04:002007-10-20T22:39:45.654-04:00

Are you trying to be greener? Are you an immutable carnivore? Me too. Struggling intermittently with my conscience, I am trying to take account of two factors that should have some bearing on my dietary decision-making. I assume there’s some connection between the two factors, but I don’t know what it is.First, there’s the efficiency of the meat production. How much food must the animal consume

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-5125566508299034712007-10-17T14:33:00.000-04:002007-10-18T16:29:19.635-04:00

The Globe and Mail has gone downhill, over the years. But today, October 17, its comments page is full of excellent, stimulating articles. Rami Khouri tells us that Hezbollah is becoming a regular, pragmatic political party in Lebanon.Frank Stronach and Buzz Hargrove tell us that Stronach’s company Magna and Hargrove’s union, the Canadian Auto Workers, are going to start cooperating instead of

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-17977314087471737002007-10-13T23:14:00.000-04:002007-10-13T23:24:54.178-04:00

The Burmese demonstrations against the junta have been crushed and more people are continuing to be arrested. I am thinking about how these extraordinary people will cope with their imprisonment, and I’ve been reading a book by Gustaaf Houtman, Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics; Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy. 1999. I downloaded it from http://homepages.tesco.net/

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-8828879611387579232007-10-06T14:15:00.000-04:002007-10-06T14:23:14.199-04:00

Yippee! There’s great news. The TV show NOVA scared me a few weeks ago by describing the phenomenon called “global dimming.” I blogged about it basing my story on the NOVA presentation. Three smart readers, Manuel Rozental, Gary Boyd, and "Anonymous" entered useful comments on my blog. I’m not sure who “Anonymous” is, but he pointed out that some recent discoveries have disconfirmed much of the

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-83813634618316095802007-10-02T22:48:00.000-04:002007-10-02T23:31:34.823-04:00

There’s a profound conflict going among today’s environmentalists. To some extent it’s internal—within each person’s heart – but mainly it’s between different individuals who take opposing sides. The dispute has barely been articulated, but it is implicit in several familiar debates. I myself have been in a painful conflict with one of my dearest friends over precisely this issue, and I will try

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-32940001472260589812007-09-29T23:14:00.001-04:002007-09-30T20:53:57.894-04:00

It seems that the Burmese nonviolent uprising has failed. The monks have been jailed or killed. There are still spotty demonstrations by angry people on the streets of Rangoon, but the army seems to be breaking them up quickly. One must feel discouraged. Yet every failure should be studied as a lesson, taken as an incentive for change. My worry is chiefly that this failure will be regarded as

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-40881763007295690442007-09-25T02:09:00.000-04:002007-09-25T02:45:06.934-04:00

A week or two ago I started a series of blog entries about my offensive opinions — the twelve issues about which many of my friends disagree with me. Tonight I hope to finish the series by addressing the final four opinions: 9. The best way to reduce the birth rate is by economic development.10. War is an institution that has little to do with the quality of one’s personality or relationships.11.

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-89431647277242752032007-09-17T00:07:00.000-04:002007-09-17T19:29:10.172-04:00

I've been attempting to justify my offensive opinions — the ones that I seem not to share with many of my friends. This is the fourth in the series of (I expect) five, and tonight I turn to economic development -- specifically to my offensive opinions number 7, 8, and 9, as follows:7. Economic development is good, and need not use up the earth’s natural resources.8. The economy is increasingly a

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-19507609414057109492007-09-15T16:46:00.000-04:002007-09-17T19:26:22.235-04:00

Already I have embraced my disreputable status. Already I have acknowledged disagreeing with most of my friends about the direction that our society should be heading. Already I have assured you that I’m willing to be drummed out of the corps for holding dissident views. Now it’s just a matter of continuing to identify the ways in which I hold defiantly unpopular views. I’ve spelled out the

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-676294643525533902007-09-14T00:54:00.000-04:002007-09-14T01:10:01.538-04:00

If you read the preceding blog entry, where I declare my enthusiasm for capitalism, it will come as no surprise to you when this entry sings the praises of capitalism. Here I am trying to tackle, one by one, the whole array of topics about which I find myself at odds with my (mainly leftist) friends. The term globalization has many obscure meanings, including the notion that cultures and tastes

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-27052487208253398312007-09-08T21:00:00.001-04:002007-09-08T21:40:14.408-04:00

As I get older, I am getting more truculent. Probably my friends have noticed. So I have made a list of the twelve opinions of mine that most often lead into arguments. These views would not raise many eyebrows among social scientists, but they do seem to offend my friends. Hence it may be useful for me to justify my views and send them around so you can each decide whether to reply or simply

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-29052890960903478072007-09-05T15:59:00.001-04:002007-09-05T16:10:53.922-04:00

Listen up, guys. This is important. In fact, it may be the most important news story you hear this year. It’s about the relationship between “Global Warming” and “Global Dimming” — which I’d never heard of until last night. NOVA broadcast a TV show about it that everyone – repeat, EVERYONE — needs to see. Since you probably won’t see it, I took notes, which I’ll present herewith.You may already

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-32435506436386258602007-09-01T23:58:00.000-04:002007-09-02T00:56:06.553-04:00

I’ve just finished reading David Sanborn Scott’s book Smelling Land: The Hydrogen Defense Against Climate Catastrophe, plus a couple of surprising things about energy. Scott believes that the next great energy innovation is going to be the hydrogen age, and that after that, hydrogen and electricity (which he calls hydricity) will together constitute the two dominant energy currencies

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-16066649236264581912007-08-27T23:09:00.000-04:002007-08-27T23:29:19.133-04:00

I’ve just finished reading an unpleasant book, The Myth of the Rational Voter, by Bryan Caplan (see photo), whom I don’t want to know. A more cantankerous author I’ve not encountered in decades – especially among academic writers. He’s an economist and on every page he vents his antagonism toward his opponents, who apparently include almost everyone alive, apart from most other economists. Yet I

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-17466673178894199122007-08-22T12:20:00.000-04:002007-08-22T12:29:33.245-04:00

Yesterday I interviewed Rabbi Michael Lerner (see photo), founder of the Network of Spiritual Progressives. I’ll publish it in the October issue of Peace Magazine. One of his suggestions pertained to the harmful effects of corporate capitalism. The Network’s platform includes an amendment to the US constitution that would require big ones to be socially responsible. This change would require all

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-17839725748258768332007-08-19T16:52:00.000-04:002007-08-19T17:13:02.396-04:00

I just watched Charlie Rose interview Thomas Friedman on TV. (It was almost entirely a one-way conversation; Friedman talked a mile-a-minute and kept saying “let me finish....” and because he was so interesting, Rose didn’t interrupt him at all.) One interesting point caught my attention. He reminded me that the reason the USSR fell apart was that oil was selling at $10 per barrel. (I remember

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-18129292126263189982007-08-17T23:58:00.001-04:002007-08-18T00:40:48.030-04:00

I used to believe that people didn’t change when they got older — they just got more like themselves. They became caricatures of themselves. Whatever qualities were prominent before became increasingly exaggerated until one’s personality became distorted, even more than one’s face. Today I’m not so sure. I got my new US passport in the mail today. Nowadays Uncle Sam issues new passports every ten

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-22697243631571400962007-08-15T23:56:00.001-04:002007-08-16T00:31:44.984-04:00

A dear friend asked me to read a paper she’s been working on and give her my reactions. That’s been my project today, but it’s a bit unsettling because I cannot wholeheartedly praise the paper, nor can I formulate a constructive suggestion for improving it.Her argument is that people living in contemporary capitalist societies have become morally compromised by the marketing orientation. Not only

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-19651725134628936742007-08-03T16:45:00.001-04:002007-08-03T17:09:01.376-04:00

Don’t try to tell me how anything works. It won’t sink in. It takes me ages to learn how to operate any technical gadgetry (including “Minnie,” my Apple Mini computer) and even so I can’t understand the theory behind it. I’m a klutz, but not a technophobe. Indeed, I have immense respect for technology. Hats off to Mr. Goodwrench and the Maytag Repairman!Oddly, my enthusiasm puts me into an

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-8133691822110429242007-07-31T18:57:00.000-04:002007-07-31T19:18:23.300-04:00

Charlie Rose had an interview the other night with two guys who are trying to get both Bush and Cheney impeached. I hadn’t taken it seriously before — maybe because I assumed nobody could do it — but they convinced me.Their point is that Bush (and especially Cheney) are grabbing power from Congress and putting themselves above the law by opening citizens’ first-class mail, and similar illegal

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-26582334640815311642007-07-28T17:50:00.000-04:002007-07-28T18:10:29.428-04:00

Like me, you’ve probably heard that it takes thousands of years to create topsoil and replenish what is being eroded from farmlands. Evidently that’s not so. As I wrote in an earlier blog entry (see the archive at the right, where it is the first entry in March 2007). The Amazon farmers figured out how to produce rich black loam some 4,000 years ago – and it is still there in Brazil, replenishing

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-48247036135411711582007-07-24T12:44:00.000-04:002007-07-24T13:07:19.190-04:00

You believe that the shortage of energy is the world’s great danger.— I believe that we can easily handle changing energy technology but that climate change is an enormous danger that must be confronted immediately, with all the commitment that intellectuals and activists can muster.You believe that the way to solve the energy crisis is to reduce your personal “global footprint” to fit the “

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-83708870511202397012007-07-21T23:40:00.000-04:002007-07-22T01:10:50.111-04:00

I've been thinking about Max Weber and Robert Bellah -- the latter because of his analysis of Weber's paper on “World-Denying Love.” By that he means transcendent love for all, an attitude that all the great Axial age religions — except Confucianism — promoted.In Buddhism this kind of love is called "metta" -- yes, like my name, though my parents didn't know it when they named me that. Now and

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-80353380698123421112007-07-20T01:40:00.001-04:002007-07-20T01:54:32.368-04:00

A few things came together today that made me hopeful about our economic system. Thing number one: Some Globe and Mail columnist (I don’t remember who) mentioned that the lawyers who had been paid by Conrad Black’s corportations had also been found guilty and will be sentenced for not taking a stand against his misdeeds several years ago. It seems that this verdict is making a lot of people

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-71949037038954180662007-07-18T19:28:00.000-04:002007-07-18T19:38:46.656-04:00

Keywords: Iraq; John Burns; Joe Biden; Baghdad; Sunni; Shia; Kurds; federal government.I just shrug. There’s no answer and I’ve stopped thinking about what to do.But of course, one cannot shrug indefinitely. Political decisions have to be made about Iraq. I watched two interviews today about the country's future — one by Charlie Rose interviewing the New York Times’ Baghdad correspondent John

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-57311762694154495132007-07-12T23:10:00.000-04:002007-07-12T23:30:53.656-04:00

Keywords: evolution; Darwin; Freeman Dyson; Carl Woese; species; bacteria; transfer of genes; biotechnology; photosynthesis; Green technology; M. S. Swaminathan.Why is evolution such a hot topic more then 200 years after Darwin’s death? Ironically, Darwinian evolution may be in its last phase, soon to be replaced by a different kind of species change. At least, that’s what Freeman Dyson (see

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-59440928747632530452007-07-11T07:22:00.000-04:002007-07-11T07:51:01.803-04:00

Keywords: fisheries; sustainable development; tragedy of the commons.I've been sharing a ride across Canada with Adele and Peter Buckley, often debating with Adele about sustainable development. She's involved with a research project that uses a mathematical model to project the future stocks of essential raw materials, such as timber, oil, fish, and the like. The problem is that models don't

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-89814858073726156412007-06-30T01:58:00.000-04:002007-06-30T02:30:11.144-04:00

Keywords: technology; optimism; soil erosion; disease; inequality; poverty; progressPhyllis wrote: I haven't been part of your blog discussion, nor do I have time for ongoing participation.Metta replies: I can’t continue the conversation either. I’m leaving for Pugwash, Nova Scotia for a couple of weeks, so this will be the last of the dialogue from me.Phyllis wrote: But I want to say that,

Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0