My two recent essays in this space, here and here, contemplated the idea of ownership. I'd be hard pressed to find a worse idea than ownership, an idea that lies at the root of our myriad predicaments. In this brief…

"The American Dream" was popularized by James Truslow Adams in his 1931 book, The Epic of America (Little, Brown, and Company, Boston). My 2004 book, Killing the Natives, begins with a comparison of Adams' ideas to the version of the…

by TDoS at Pray for Calamity When I was a younger man, I very much wanted to be taken seriously. To be taken seriously was to be asked your opinion. It was to be allowed a seat at the grown-up's…

Occasionally I see this question, usually in a social-media forum: If you were to eliminate one thing, what would it be? For me, there is no question: ownership. The living planet faces many predicaments. To me, most seem to be…

by oldgrowthforest,  a senior citizen living near Wasilla, Alaska. She lives with a tiny standard poodle named River, and a devastatingly handsome but troublesome mutt named Arlo.   I lost a great love recently. It was sudden. The eldest of…

by Reese Jones Whether one believes in climate change or not, or that humanity can indeed scale back greenhouse gas emissions and maintain stable, livable global temperatures, there still seems to be a prevailing undercurrent of sadness, hopelessness and even…