Daily Archives: September 7, 2022

J. Bradford DeLong is an economist who teaches at the University of California Berkeley, and served in the Treasury Department under President Bill Clinton. He is the author of multiple books, including the just-published Slouching Toward Utopia, an economic history of the twentieth century. Observer executive editor James Ledbetter recently interviewed DeLong; this transcript has been edited of length and clarity.Economist J. Bradford DeLong (courtesy Basic Books)

Observer: So youve written a lot of books, most of them shorter than this one. What made you take on a topic this sweeping?

DeLong: It was a book I wanted to read and no one else was writing it. So I decided I should. I wrote a draft chapter or two, and then Tim Sullivan of Basic came along and said, why dont we put you under contract to do this? And then about every three years, theyd call me up and say, where is it?

How long was this?

One of my roommates claims he read a full first draft 30 years ago, but hes a liar. I wrote a chapter in 1998. And then maybe there was an outline in 2004. And there was maybe a semi-draft in 2012.

Give us a summary of your grand narrative.

Its mostly a Karl Polanyi narrative, its that in 1870, all of a sudden everything changed. For the first time technological progress became fast enough that there was actually a possibility that humanity could bake a big enough economic pie so that everyone could have enough. And that governance could be actually focused on making a truly human world, rather than governance being figuring out how to run a force-and-fraud machine on everyone else so that it alone could have enough. And indeed from 1870 to today, technological progress has been absolutely wonderful. By the scale of any previous century, they would say you have much more than enough for utopia. But while we have done a superb job at solving the problem of baking a sufficiently large economic pie, the problems of properly slicing and then tasting the pie, of making sure everyone actually does have enough and utilizing our wealth to allow us to lead lives in which we are healthy, safe, secure, and happy, that continues to totally flummox us.

What specifically happens in 1870 that causes this tremendous technological transformation?

In 1870, we get the coming of the industrial research lab, which allows us to discover and develop technologies at a very high rate; of the modern corporation that allows us to develop and deploy technologies; and then with full globalization, the opportunity to deploy and then to diffuse as other people copy what youve done becomes so vastly attractive. Someone like Nikola Tesla, who was borderline socially dysfunctional, but also knew better than anyone else how to make electrons get up and dance and advanced us all by himself at least a decade in terms of developing electric power, wouldve been totally useless without George Westinghouse to create the industrial research lab and smooth the ruffled feathers of everyone else working there and also the Westinghouse corporation to then take and deploy the stuff. And then the copycats Edison and elsewhere, and the financing from JP Morgan and George Fisherthose change Tesla from being someone who is not a big net gain to society to someone who moves one-tenth of the economy forward by 10 years. And since 1870 human technological prowess has at least doubled every 30 years. That means enormous amounts of Schumpeterian creative destruction: immense wealth, new industries, occupations, etcbut old industries, occupations, incomes, communities vanish.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book is that while the events and the trends that it discusses are relatively familiar, there are just constant surprises. For example, I wouldve imagined that most people attribute the strong and steady growth that Western Europe enjoyed after World War II to the Marshall Plan. But you argue that the Marshall Plan was kind of small potatoes.

Its one percent of US GDP, three percent of European GDP. Even if you say we get a 30% rate of return on these investments, as opposed to a normal seven, five or three percent return, thats just 0.3% per year on the growth rate.

So if it wasnt the Marshall Plan that led to those glorious years, what was it?

In some respects, it was what happened in Eastern Europe after 1990. Lots of people saying we see the future and its to our west. We dont care about what the political ideology is. We want to become a lot more like America. We want to do it now because theyve got it, and we dont.And that at least gives society and government a substantial direction. Plus the fact that the right had clung to Nazism for much too long and the far left was tied to Joseph Stalin and could not untie itself.

The chapter on inclusion is really important for the slouching part of your title. In other words, by the middle of the 20th century, the global economy has figured out how to provide a very good standard of living for a huge number of people. But definitely not everybody, not even in the most developed countries. Why didnt that happen?

The hope after World War II was John Maynard Keynes saying, put my technocratic students in charge of the macro economy. Everyone will have a job and labor will have substantial social power. Wages will be reasonable. And with a full employment policy, interest rates will be low, which means that returns on capital will be low, which means that if plutocrats want to exercise their social power, the only way they can do so is they spending down their capital. Hence they cease to be plutocrats. Hence there may be a lot of wealth inequality, but theres not a lot of income inequality. And so maldistribution is not an incredibly huge thingand have full employment, programs that redistribute income and wealth, progressive tax system, heavy inheritance tax, a lot of public provision of commodities, taking them out of the markets as well and provide parks and schools and roads and poolsthen you do have something that looks like a proper road to utopia. The he problem is this fails its sustainability test in the 1970s. Go and talk to Paul Krugman about it, he says if only we hadnt had the inflation.

Im going to come back to that. Related to the idea of inclusion or exclusion is North/South divide; one of the points you make is that something important happened around 1990.

The African retardation ends. The post-World War II decolonization two decades are good for literacy and good for public health in Africa, but absolutely horrible for production. There are a lot of people who say that it really was 400 years of slavery and the resulting destruction of social trust at a very basic level. You could actually run an industrializing economy and a primary product exporting economy, as long as you could borrow your colonizers market network and trust that contracts will be obeyed. And that bureaucrats will be honest. But once they withdraw leaving nothing, then you have to try to build up the social division of labor nearly from zero in an environment in which governments with late 20th century means of coercion are able to exploit and corrupt a great deal.

That in Africa seems to come to an end in the 1990s. From the year 2100s perspective, people will say that neoliberalism and the global south actually unlocked a great deal of things that had been frozen in stasis in the post-World War II generation, under the influence of really existing socialism to various degreesnationalism and bureaucratization and so forth. Thats, I think, an important issue and not one I spend enough time on.

You obviously started this book well before the current bout of inflation that a lot of countries are experiencing right now. But what you say about inflation in the 1970s and how it spawned this political and intellectual reaction seems highly relevant right now.

When aggregate demand is too low, you have a lot of people who lost their jobs and cant find new ones and you have people who dont dare ask for a raise because then they think theyll be first on the block to be fired if something bad should happen. And those are relatively small groups of people, unless its a Great Depression. But with inflation, pretty much everyone finds they cant buy things at the prices that they expected. So the market economy has disappointed their expectations, and has done so in a way thats got to be the fault of the rulers. And thats a principal sign that we need a different group of rulers.

I recognize that your use of utopia is at least a little ironic. But its interesting that the period and the very developments that you credit are exactly the same period and developments that a lot of people would say is exactly when humanity went on the wrong path, that put civilization on a carbon-based path of global destruction. You talk about the environment a little bit in some places, but I wonder how you think people should think about the tradeoffs between economic growth and climate change.

Economic growth in renewables is politically, and Id say also humanly, kind of the only way to keep from cooking the planet. Technology is about the only thing that can potentially save us here. A carbon tax would be best and fairest, but large-scale public subsidies for renewables are a good second best. And we need to move there as fast as possible. As for the coal-based road to industrialization, thats the only way that we get from being limited by human and horse muscles to actually being able to use more power. I think if you dont do that, you will never get economic growth fast enough to outrun Malthusian pressures. And as long as you have a world of patriarchy in which women only have durable social power if theyre the mothers of surviving sons, you really need to get a lot of economic growth very quickly in order to get people rich enough for infant mortality to fall low enough for people to say, Gee, maybe we dont need to try for nine children in order to have two that survive. Without coal, you have a Malthusian world of medieval poverty. Unless you a figure out a way to get rid of patriarchy, which is a difficult thing to do.

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Technology Is the Only Thing That Can Potentially Save Us: A Conversation with Brad DeLong - Observer

If Purdy does not have a very detailed plan, he has at least a plan for a plan. He wants to transform American life through mass participation in engaged and shared decision-making, of the sort presaged by Zuccotti Park. To get where we need to go, he argues forcefully for a reformed Supreme Court and a new Constitutional Convention every three decades, to rewrite the whole damn thing.

The familiar parts of Purdys polemic have familiar rejoinders. Occupy Wall Street was a marginal, not a mass, movement, never gaining popular support, and Sanders ran twice and lost twice. Purdy blames market colonization for the Supreme Courts reactionary decision-making, but the Courts most reactionary decisions have little to do with the desires of capitalism or, anyway, of capitalists: the Goldman Sachs crowd is fine with womens autonomy, being significantly composed of liberal women, and would prefer fewer gun massacres. And though the struggle to maintain democratic institutions within a capitalist society has been intense, the struggle to maintain democratic institutions in anti-capitalist countries has been catastrophic. We do poorly, but the Chinese Communist Party does infinitely worse, even when it tilts toward some version of capitalism.

For that matter, would our democratic life really be improved by a new Constitutional Conventionto which Alex Joness followers, demanding to know where the U.F.O.s are being kept, are as likely to show up as Elizabeth Warrens followers, demanding that corporations be made to pay their fair share of taxes? The U.S. Constitution, undemocratic though it is, is surely an additive to the problem, not the problem itself. Parliamentary systems, like Canadas, have also been buffeted by populist and illiberal politics, while Brexit, a bit of rough-hewn majoritarian politics in a country without a written constitution, shows the dangers of relying on a one-night plebiscite.

Purdys basic political position seems to be that politics would be better if everyone shared his. Those of us who share his politics might agree, but perhaps with the proviso that the kind of sharing he is cheering for has more to do with the poetics of protest than with politics as generally understood. Politics, as he conceives it, is a way of getting all the people who agree with you to act in unison. This is a big part of democratic societies. Forming coalitions, assembling multitudes, encouraging action on urgent issues: these are all essential to a healthy country, even more than the business of filling in the circle next to a name you have just encountered for an office you know nothing about.

But the greatest service of politics isnt to enable the mobilization of people who have the same views; its to enable people to live together when their views differ. Politics is a way of getting our ideas to brawl in place of our persons. Though democracy is practiced when people march on Washington and assemble in parkswhen they feel that they have found a common voicepolitics is practiced when the shouting turns to swapping. Politics was Disraeli getting one over on the nineteenth-century Liberal Party by leaping to electoral reform for the working classes, thereby trying to gain their confidence; politics was Mandela making a deal with de Klerk to respect the white minority in exchange for a peaceful transition to majority rule. Politics is Biden courting and coaxing Manchin (whose replacement would be incomparably farther to the right) to make a green deal so long as it was no longer colored green. The difficulty with the Athenian synecdoche is that getting the part to act as the whole presupposes an agreement among the whole. There is no such agreement. Trumpism and Obamaism are not two expressions of one will for collective action; they are radically incommensurable views about whats needed.

Purdys faith in collective rationality as the spur to common actionhis less mystical version of Rousseaus general willleaves him not entirely immune to what could be called the Munchkinland theory of politics. This is the belief that although the majority population of any place might be intimidated and silenced by an oppressive forcecapitalism or special interests or the Churchthey would, given the chance, sing ding-dong in unison and celebrate their liberation. They just need a house dropped on their witch.

The perennial temptation of leftist politics is to suppose that opposition to its policies among the rank and file must be rooted in plutocratic manipulation, and therefore curable by the reassertion of the popular will. The evidence suggests, alas, that very often what looks like plutocratic manipulation really is the popular will. Many Munchkins like the witch, or at least work for the witch out of dislike for some other ascendant group of Munchkins. (Readers of the later L.Frank Baum books will recall that Munchkin Country is full of diverse and sometimes discordant groupings.) The awkward truth is that Thatcher and Reagan were free to give the plutocrats what they wanted because they were giving the people what they wanted: in one case, release from what had come to seem a stifling, union-heavy statist system; in the other, a spirit of national, call it tribal, self-affirmation. One can deplore these positions, but to deny that they were popular is to pretend that a two-decade Tory reign, in many ways not yet completed, and a forty-nine-state sweep in 1984 were mass delusions. Although pro-witch Munchkins may be called collaborators after their liberation, they persist in their ways, and resent their liberators quite as much as they ever feared the witch. Of course, I never liked all those scary messages she wrote in the sky with her broom, they whisper among themselves. But at least she got things done. Look at this place now. The bricks are all turning yellow.

Purdys vision of democracy would, of course, omit the bugs in the Athenian model: the misogyny, the slavery, the silver mines. But what if the original sin of the democratic vision lies right therewhat if, by the time we got to Athens, democratic practice was already fallen and hopelessly corrupted, with the slaves and the silver mines and the imperialism inherent to the Athenian model? This is the hair-raising thesis advanced by the illustrious Japanese philosopher Kjin Karatani. In his book Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy, Athenian democracy is exposed as a false idol. He does not see this from some Straussian point of view, in which Platos secret compact of liars is a better form of government than the rabble throwing stones at Socrates. On the contrary, he is a staunch egalitarian, who believes that democracy actually exemplifies the basic oppressive rhythm of ruler and ruled. His ideal is, instead, isonomia, the condition of a society in which equal speaks to equal as equal, with none ruled or ruling, and he believes that such an order existed around the Ionian Islands of the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.E., before the rise of Athens.

If Purdy is susceptible to the Munchkinland theory of social change, Karatani is tempted by what might be called the Atlantis theory of political history. Once upon a time, there was a great, good place where life was beautiful, thought was free, and everyone was treated fairly. This good place was destroyed by some kind of earthquakeperhaps visited from outside, perhaps produced by an internal shaking of its own platesand vanished into the sea, though memories of it remain. The Atlantis in question may be Platos original idealized island, or it may be the pre-patriarchal society of Europe, or the annual meeting of Viking peasants in nightless Iceland. In every case, there was once a better place than this one, and our path to renewal lies in renewing its tenets.

Karatanis Atlantean view is plausibly detailed. The settlement around the Ionian Islands in the centuries after Homer (but before the imperial ascent of Athens) was marked by an escape from clan society; the islands welcomed immigrants of all kinds. Free of caste connections and tribal ties, the Ionians were able to engineer a new kind of equality. They didnt become hunter-gatherers, but they recuperated nomadism by the practice of foreign trade and manufacturing. Like fourteenth-century Venice or seventeenth-century Amsterdam, Ionia was a place where there wasnt much land to till, let alone a landed aristocracy to own and exploit the terrain and its tillers, and so people had to earn a living making and trading things. As a result, they were open in ways that mainland Greece was not.

A key point, in Karatanis account, is that Ionian trade wasnt captured by a state monopoly but conducted through networks of makers and traders. The earnings of trade, under those conditions, were more evenly distributed, and the freedom of movement put a limit on abusive political arrangements. The reason class divisions multiplied under the money economy in Athens was that from the outset political power was held by a land-owning nobility, he writes. That kind of inequality, and ruler-ruled relation, did not arise in Ionia. That is to say, isonomia obtained. If in a given polis such inequality and ruler-ruled relation did arise, people could simply move to another place.

For Karatani, working in a Marxian tradition, ideas tend to mirror the economic exigencies of their contexts, and he thinks that in Ionia they did. The line of philosophers who came of age around the islands, usually called the pre-Socratics, were notably unconcerned with hierarchy or with religious mysticism. They imagined the universe as governed by material, transactional exchanges. Thales, who lived in the Ionian city of Miletus and thought that everything was made of water, was making an essentially empirical attempt to understand the world without recourse to fate or divine supervision. (So, for Karatani, was Heraclitus, a century later, who thought everything was made of fire.) Karatani insists that the pre-Socratic physics is inseparable from an Ionian political ideology. Ionian physics posited an equilibrium of forces, not a hierarchy of them with a mystical overseer. Anaximander, Thales protg, introduced the principle of justice (or dik) as the law governing the natural world. The play of forces in the physical world, fluid and forever in exchange, mimicked and governed the forces in the social world. Isonomia was at the root of it all.

Isonomia in Ioniait has therhythm of a song lyric. One feels again the shape of a familiar and accurate historical meme: trading and manufacturing centers tend to be markedly more egalitarian than landholding ones. Democratic practices of one kind or anotherthough limited and oligarchic in Venice, bloodied by sporadic religious warfare in Hollandusually take root in such places, only to be trampled as power consolidates and an lite takes hold.

You said it. I heard it. Theres no taking it back, Harold!

Cartoon by David Sipress

Was Karatanis Atlantis, that utopia of isonomia, actually anything like this? Early on, he cheerfully admits that there are almost no historical or archaeological materials to give us an idea of what Ionian cities were really like. But he suggests that we can argue by indirect evidence and by drawing inferences in world history from cases that resemble Ionia. These turn out to include medieval Iceland, also a refuge for exiles, with its famous ingvellir, or meeting place, and pre-Revolutionary New England, settled by refugees as well, and marked by its isonomic townships and town meetings.

It is an odd way to argue history and has odd results. In Iceland, you can visit the ingvellir, where the Viking democrats gatheredand the next thing you are shown is the drowning pool, where women were executed. The drowning pool came into use later, to be sure, but is part of a similar social inheritance. Rough justice, the sagas make plain, is as much an Icelandic tradition as shared goods are. And one has only to read Hawthorne to have a very different view of life in those New England townships, especially for people who did not quite fit the pattern.

Karatanis historical approachprojecting his ideals upon an idealized pasthas other confounding consequences. What are we to make, for instance, of his insistence that the poems of Homer, the bard of Ionia, are not aristocratic? In truth, the force of the occasional protests against aristocratic practices in Homer are moving because of their rarity, rather like the cries of the peasants in King Lear. Blood will tell is pretty much the motto on every inspired page. But Karatani needs Homer to be isonomic and will make him so. More practically, how did Ionians resolve the perpetual fact of political conflict? Perpetual secession seems to be the answer; when things get bad, simply go to another island. (The old liberal huff Im moving to Canada! is more serious when Canada is just a rowboat ride away.) This is not always ridiculous advicea series of successive secessions in New England is how we got Rhode Islandbut it doesnt seem like much of a plan for settled modern countries.

Greek islands before the rise of Athens, chilly and isolated medieval Iceland, the New England townships of the Colonial era: these sound like oddly sparse and remote spots to build a dream on. Perhaps all such dreams can be built only so. Reading Karatanis account of ancient Ionia, one recalls the parallel dream of ancient Sparta, the militaristic state that so inspired authoritarians from Plato to Hitler. An isonomic Ionia is infinitely preferable to an authoritarian Sparta but seems of the same imaginative kind. We cant build back better from a place that didnt really exist. Certainly, from what little we do know, the Ionians seem not to have been egalitarian at all in the sense we mean and have gone far toward achievingthe aim of equality between the sexes, or among religious groups, or among ethnicities or sexualities. Yet the basic inquiry into the possibility of human relationships that Karatani undertakes is moving, even inspiring. Though he doesnt cite them, his Ionians most resemble the classic anarchists, of the Mikhail Bakunin or Emma Goldman kind: repudiating all power relations, ruler to ruled, in a way that shames more timid liberal imaginations.

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Cant We Come Up with Something Better Than Liberal Democracy? - The New Yorker

Express News Service

Imagine living in a perfect world where people treat each other with kindness and every single space remains accessible to everyone? One can get a glimpse of this utopia through Nainas Inclusive Duniya, an Instagram-based comic that is created by Gurugram-based non-profit organisation The Sarvodya Collectivethey aim to raise awareness about persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities in India. Scroll through their page (@inclusiveduniya) and you will come across several posts featuring a five-year-old Naina who goes to an inclusive school, and talks about various developmental disabilitiessuch as cerebral palsy, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and the importance of acceptance in an effortless manner.

Founded by Gurugram-resident Pooja Sharma in January last year, Nainas Inclusive Duniya tries to bring issues around learning disabilities to the mainstream. All my life, I have seen how under-served this area [community of those with developmental disabilities]was. Amid the lockdown, with the learning lapses, I realised the impact on the community, shares Sharma who grew up with her brother who had an intellectual disability.

Vision for a better world

The stigma associated with disability is gradually being addressed and shattered. However, we still have a long way to go, with several lapses to be filled. In fact, when Sharma decided to direct attention towards development disability during the pandemic, she realised that several middle-aged professionals had little or no knowledge about the same. I realised there is a need to have an ongoing campaign to raise awareness about this community, shares the 42-year-old.

Through Nainas Inclusive Duniya, Sharma and her teaman illustrator and a writertry to endeavour to offer answers to the questions about developmental disabilities that they receive from people. The team picks one aspect of the disability and helps the audience understand how they can become an ally. Be it something as basic as what is autism, questions about sensory overload, or how to create a safe spacewe just want to show how, in little ways and without really spending much money, one can be a friend and an ally, explains Sharma.

By means of comics, the team is able to reach out to numerous people and, in the process, also talk about other concepts such as menstrual health, gender fluidity, etc. Our target audience is the entire world because we need to get these stories out there. Even though these topics are very difficult to deal with, we try to make them light and easy to communicate, says Arundhati Deshmukh (29), a Bhopal-based illustrator of the comic.

Taking conversations ahead

Along with the ongoing comic series, the team has also been organising sessions with students, teachers as well as parents to strike conversations about disability acceptance. We got great responses from students and parents alike. In order to scale the programme, I thought we could facilitate such conversations in groups to take the idea forward, shares Sharma. The organisation has conducted several such sessions across various states including Bhopal, Chennai, Bengaluru, etc.

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Reimagining an inclusive universe - The New Indian Express

The anti-Israel industry and anti-Zionists the world over are obsessed with nothing so much as South Africa. Their relentless invocation of that countrys now defunct system of racial segregationapartheidin their attacks on Israel has reached the point at which one often feels compelled to ask whether it might be more sensible to simply leave Israel aside and discuss South Africa. It is, after all, the only thing they seem to want to talk about.

I will leave aside the issue of the obvious inaccuracy of the apartheid libel, as many others have dealt with and discredited it at length. It is worth asking, however, why South Africa has become the object of such an obsession.

There are several reasons why, but the first and most obvious is that it is easy. For good reason, there now exists a global consensus that apartheid was a monstrous system that violated the most elementary human rights of black South Africans, and that it died a well-deserved death. In short, more or less everyone agrees that apartheid South Africa was an evil regime.

As such, the invocation of apartheid serves more or less the same purpose as the invocation of Nazism. It is simply another name for the devil, and it is the moral obligation of any decent person to strike down the devil. This relieves the anti-Israel industry of the need to delve into the moral ambiguities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It can simply invoke South Africa and be done with it. This is a lazy tactic but often a rhetorically effective one.

There is a darker motivation behind the exploitation of apartheid as a totem of evil, however. Put simply, apartheid South Africalike French Algeria or the Confederate States of Americais one of the few historical examples of a regime that was utterly destroyed with the general approval of the world. For those who want to see Israel destroyed, that global consensus is invaluable. In most cases, the desire to see a nation destroyed is considered monstrous, but if the equation to apartheid can be successfully made, this is turned on its head, and the desire to see a nation survive becomes monstrous.

The moral implications of this are enormous because it means that the apartheid libel has become, in effect, a warrant for genocide. It holds that the destruction of the Jewish nation would not be a horrific crime, but an actual positive good. As a result, genocidists can wrap themselves in the halo of moral rectitude. All sinsincluding terrorism and ethnic cleansingare absolved, and murder becomes Gods work.

There are also historical reasons behind the South Africa obsession, particularly in regard to anti-Israel leftists, because the end of apartheid was essentially the lefts last real political victory. For most of the past few decades, the left has won its confrontations with the right almost entirely in the realm of culture. In the world of practical politics, they have been consistently defeated.

Among other things, Soviet communism collapsed; former President Ronald Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher forged a neoliberal consensus across the West that still survives today; China abandoned Maoism in favor of authoritarian capitalism; Cuba remains a basket case; attempts at leftist revivals in countries like Venezuela proved disastrous; and even the 2008 financial crisis failed to bring the socialist left back to power. If the near-collapse of the global financial system could not bring about a left-wing revival and revolution, it is safe to say that nothing will. The left is not stupid, and they are well aware of this.

As such, to turn back to the last great victory in hopes of repeating it is probably inevitable. Hatred of Israel carries with it the possibility (among some, the surety) of returning to the glory days in which the global left could count itself a powerful and potent force. In other words, it gives the left hope, and at the moment, hope is desperately needed.

This is ironic, however, given that the lefts view of the end of apartheid is something of a fantasy. Yes, apartheid was a terrible and immoral system. Its a good thing that it died. But the lefts dream of what would replace it has proven to be precisely thata dream. South Africa has not become the multiracial and multicultural paradise the left envisioned. It has become just another country, with all the attendant problems and moral compromises inherent in practical, quotidian politics. For the left, to see its dreams of a paradisiacal post-apartheid South Africa smash against the wall of the real world must be a source of constant anguish.

Some other messianic fantasy, then, must be sought in its place, and for the true believers, this is the great hope of destroying Israel. Out of the ashes of the evil Zionist entity, they believe, a new utopia will emerge in the form of a liberated Palestine, in which all conflicts will be resolved and peace will spread inexorably across a violent and unstable region. The root cause of war and terror will be uprooted, historical justice will be done at last and the Palestinians, along with the rest of us, will finally be happy.

But not all of us would be happy. What the apartheid libel conceals with malice aforethought is that the Jews would not be happyand for very good reason. Apartheid fell because it was a terrible injustice to black South Africans. But the end of Israel would be a terrible injustice to the Jews. And this is the dark shadow of the apartheid libel: It seeks not to liberate, but to enslave; not to bring life, but to bring death.

We should remember, however, that fantasies of slavery and death are powerful, and we must not underestimate the enormous energies they can release. Our enemies may be driven by the most demonic of forces, but the devil has not inconsiderable power. Thus, to defeat the apartheid libel, it is not enough to simply refute or debunk it. We must also point out that it is an indefensible evil, the work of the devil, and ought to be treated accordingly.

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The Anti-Israel Industry's Obsession with South Africa - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

The movement to encourage more companies to make a long-term commitment to environmental and social goals stands at a crossroads. The direction taken could determine how companies and wider society evolve over the next 10 years.

As I laid out for a recent panel organised by the charity A Blueprint for Better Business, in one direction lies a path to an increasingly dystopian decade, as the idea persists that purpose is somehow a soft alternative to profitmaking.

In this vision, woke-washing by companies superficially committed to purpose-driven strategies launders the colour out of the idea. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment strategies become so blurred as to lose meaning. Big consultancies chase the purpose-branding opportunity and crush smaller non-profits, whose voices drown each other out or simply go unheard.

In the utopian outcome, positive change encourages fence-sitters to follow suit

As the good is sacrificed to the expedient, cynicism overwhelms the impulse to make change. Pandemic, global warming and war come to be seen as intractable problems, against which corporate purpose and company values are ineffective, or an outright distraction. Business leaders, under economic pressure, grab again at the pursuit of short-term profit, using staff as disposable mercenaries or pawns.

Then there is a utopian outcome, which becomes more likely as evidence of positive change at companies that have fully committed to a purpose-led approach encourages fence-sitters to follow suit. In this future, leaders recognise purpose as a virtue, not virtue-signalling. They see it as a prerequisite for attracting young talent. Companies reassert their original human centre, from the Latin cum panis, as places where companions break bread. Society and business prosper. The efficacy of purpose-led strategies is recognised in academic research and financial results, leading to eudaemonia the Aristotelian ideal, beloved of management thinker Charles Handy among others, of human flourishing and greater sustainability in its widest sense.

You may believe that we are further down one road or the other. If you are sceptical about corporate purpose, you may even think I have the utopian and dystopian labels the wrong way round. Either way, neither path will be straight. Companies, like societies, do not move in a predictable, linear way. They sometimes stumble, or reverse course.

Isaac Getz of ESCP Business School understands this. The French academics latest book, LEntreprise Altruiste, goes beyond purpose-led, conscious or inclusive capitalism, where companies balance purpose and profit. He and co-author Laurent Marbacher sought out altruistic enterprises that take unconditional care of staff, suppliers, customers and communities, and assume that financial success will follow.

Such companies were well placed when coronavirus hit in 2020, Getz and Marbacher wrote in an article for Strategy+Business journal: Sterimed, a French maker of sterile packaging, imported masks from China, selling them on at cost plus transport fees; MAIF, an insurance mutual refunded to customers the surplus accumulated during the first lockdown because of a drop in car accident claims.

Some traditional companies also found ways to help suppliers and customers. For Getz, though, the decisions by Sterimed, MAIF and others were not one-off acts of altruism but products of unconditionally caring cultures.

He is clear-eyed, though, about the likelihood of such radicalism quickly becoming mainstream. An earlier movement for liberated companies, which empower front-line staff to take decisions, took off in France 11 years ago, after Getz and others rallied like-minded leaders to spread the word. Companies such as tyremaker Michelin have tried rolling the management style out worldwide.

Businesses designed to create value for society are also good businesses that manage to sustain themselves during crises

Whether management change sticks, though, depends on whether the company has the right kind of leadership. And individual leaders change. When new chief executives are appointed, they often take the opportunity to roll back the radical changes their predecessors championed.

In a forthcoming study, Getz looked at 60 liberated companies, seven of which reverted to a more traditional hierarchy. Some saw performance suffer, although data are scarce. In other cases, liberated staff persuaded initially sceptical new bosses to continue the programme.

Sarah Gillard, chief executive of A Blueprint for Better Business, says that for purpose to become embedded, the assumption that people are only motivated by money, status and power must change. Leaders must recognise that businesses designed to create value for society are also good businesses that manage to sustain themselves during crises. In other words, it may be necessary for leaders to reframe purpose as an indispensable way of improving resilience, as altruistic enterprises did during the pandemic.

Utopia, though, is still a way off. Drawing a historical parallel, Getz says that in terms of adopting more radical management models, businesses are only at the beginning of the 19th century. Democracies are very fragile and the pressure is to get back not to a constitutional monarchy [but] to monarchy, period.

Andrew Hill is the FTs senior business writer

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Why the future of ESG is at a crossroads - Financial Times

As we head back to work after celebrating Labor Day, lets put in proper perspective the current predicament of Colorados workers. Americans have continued to set the international standard for work ethic and ingenuity rising from bed, kissing loved ones goodbye and punching the clock like we always have all while government actions and market reactions out of workers control have disrupted the very foundation upon which we all pursue the American Dream.

What a year its been for the family farmer on the Eastern Plains, the trucker in Walsenburg and the single parent who drives delivery at dinnertime for extra cash in Northglenn.

A year ago at this time, many everyday Coloradans of myriad demographic groups got their first taste of generational inflation once a fleeting far-away idea lost to Econ 101 textbooks until it smacked our wallets silly starting last autumn.

Due to unprecedented government spending and market intervention undertaken in an attempt to ease financial burdens and halt viral spread through the COVID-19 era, the cost of daily living skyrocketed.

It uprooted commonly-held notions of what it takes to financially make it in America.

As inflation has eaten into every household budget further and further, month after month, workers have felt firsthand what shortsighted monetary policy means for the creators of our country. Those, especially with lower incomes, have seen the curtain pulled back on the promise of the $15-an-hour minimum wage touted just a few years ago.

Rather than solving everyones problems and ushering in a utopia of decreased personal debt, homeownership and overall quality of life, market realities mangled by demand-side principles have manifested just the opposite as minimum wage soars beyond $17 per hour.

American workers have also had to wrestle with other workplace variables. How many average Joes and Jills ever uttered the term supply chain just three years ago?

But with a government keen on capitalizing on a new normal, workers in certain make-the-world-go-round trades such as janitorial work, bus driving and even lifeguarding have been stretched thin by the supply-chain woes all while many other able-bodied adults are jaded from joining the workforce.

Its created, on top of supply-chain choke points, a labor shortage not only for such service gigs as firefighters, police officers and teachers, but such jobs as delivery drivers in an increasingly online consumption world.

Many of these same blue-collar workers, particularly in Colorados cities, also have to be cautious of lawless elements out to harm them and their customers ask your local police department how many car thefts are of delivery drivers.

All thats to say, hats off to the workers out there who, like Americans always have, ground through one hurdle after another to continue to produce in our marketplace.

These are the people who, in spite of disheartening economic trends, subscribe to Elon Musks simple COVID-era notion, If you dont make stuff, there is no stuff.

Its these people, these workers these creators who with their ethic and ethos will help Colorado persevere through a recession and beyond.

The Gazette Editorial Board, Sept. 5

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(Opinion) Other Voices: Working Coloradans carry the weight - Greeley Tribune

These may be actors on the political fringe, and the tech-driven aspects of this terror campaign have sometimes been interpreted to minimize its real-world impact. But the narrative of LGBTQ rights being cover for child abuse is not just fodder for the far-right clout-chasers of social media like Raichik and Posobiec; it has been weaponized by the right against their opponents in elections from school boards to state legislatures. It has been amplified and legitimized by lawmakers like Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who in August introduced a sweeping bill that would ban gender-affirming care, and by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whose threats to ban gender-affirming care have prompted some hospitals in the state to end treatment for minors. And it has resulted in threats and acts of violence, scapegoating LGBTQ communities as corrupt and demonic foes.

Its possible, though, that months of these tactics have sharpened the response from LGBTQ communities and allies. After the board of the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District in Texas voted in August to prohibit discussion of what it defined as gender fluidity, essentially a Dont Say Trans ban, over 100 students walked out in one district school in protest. When an anti-LGBTQ rally was organized to protest a Planned Parenthood in Modesto, California, the handful of people who showed up were outnumbered by counterprotesters, including anti-fascists and abortion and LGBTQ rights defenders. And in the Dallas suburbs, at an end-of-summer, family-friendly drag brunch, when members of the Proud Boys and militia groups tried to intimidate people from attending, they were met by members of the Elm Fork John Brown Club, who showed up to provide armed security for the business and those attending the event, as Steven Monacelli reported, with performer Trisha Delisha thanking them for keeping us safe.

As much as this looks like a backlash, thats not all it is. The anti-LGBTQ right doesnt want to go back to some other time of idealized hetero-utopia. They are more simply satisfying their own desire to punish people, a desire that never changed even as the times did. They seek retribution against defenders of LGBTQ communities too. The need to interrupt this escalation by the right is urgent, more than it was in the Trump years when people may have been more attuned to such threats. It is clearer than ever that such threats cannot be met by appealing to courts to protect us. So while its true they are out there looking for a fight, fighting is what is still left.

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Libs of TikTok and the Rights Embrace of Anti-LGBTQ Violence - The New Republic

Services the local authority are responsible for include everything from roads and planning through to community development. A key focus of all the authorities is to ensure they capitalise on technological and economic opportunities to both improve the quality of life and avoid digital and social exclusion.

Increasingly, as a society, we are becoming more reliant on technology. Some research by Royal Docks revealed that 82% of jobs require digital skills and jobs with digital skills attracted a 29% increase in salary, on top of this the cost savings and efficiencies being offered by IoT and connected anywhere technologies, have the ability to transform a community. This means quality connectivity, both fixed line and mobile, is becoming of paramount importance.

These technologies will combine to underpin a digital infrastructure layer that will support new devices, applications, data, and skills, so that councils can in turn support the public through enhanced services. Authorities will be able to capitalise on the technological advancements and introduce new schemes that add value to entire communities, fuelling economic growth and closing existing social and economic gaps.

The government took a large step forward by helping authorities in making this digital vision a reality with the launch of the Digital Connectivity Infrastructure Accelerator (DCIA). The pilot scheme provides local authorities and technology providers with access to up to 4 million of funding to develop tomorrows wireless communication networks, with a specific focus on exploring how public assets (publicly owned buildings and street furniture) can be used to support the development and deployment of mobile communications and small cells. This not only simplifies deployment and lowers cost, but it also helps reduce street furniture and protect the aesthetics of the environment.

This is a huge step forward in enabling the rollout of small cells, alongside fixed and macro deployments, and a connected Britain, argues Ian Newbury, MNO Business Development Director at BT Wholesale.

The 5G promise has the potential to change how we interact with our local environment.

It is more than faster broadband on your handset. Its high reliability, low latency and the ability to connect millions of devices in a small area. This means it can open up access to new technologies, whether thats exciting technologies such as augmented reality, or the simple but practical smart sensors for bin capacity. This is why 29 of the 30 global cities surveyed for the Digital Cities Index 2022 have a strategy in place for the deployment of 5G technology, they understand its future importance in enabling connected communities, and the dangers of being left behind.

The report also nods to some of the hurdles that exist to achieving this, particularly in deployment. To be truly transformational in areas like autonomous transport, 5G needs to be ubiquitous and comprehensive, which will require greater private sector investment, new partnership models between telecommunications companies and an enabling regulatory environment. Simply put, success in deploying 5G will require collaboration between all stakeholders.

But this isnt just required for 5G, local authorities and MNO partners are faced with meeting the demands of communities seeking greater connectivity now. Whether catering for 4G or 5G, theres an increase in demand for speed, reliability, and quality. Therefore, MNOs need to boost network performance in areas of high-capacity usage, as well as in areas of low coverage, so that low-latency connectivity is ubiquitous.

Traditionally MNOs have focused on Macro Cell deployments, which enable greater coverage per cell. This has served the market well for voice and for 3G and 4G where coverage was a key driver. However, with 5Gs focus on reliability, speed and IoT, the network needs both resilience and densification.

Small cells can achieve this, not only by providing inherent backup to the macro cell network and greater bandwidth in smaller, more focused areas but also with some of the technologies in 5G such as coordinated multipoint (CoMP) and enhanced interference coordination (eICIC) which can increase spectrum efficiency by over 60%, massively increasing the bandwidth without having to buy more spectrum.

Small cells arent a new technology, they were a strong part of the 3G and 4G story, however, mass deployment has never happened due to the cost and complexity of deploying, overly complex planning hurdles, expensive concession models and inconsistent practices between providers has meant the MNOs found alternatives to solving the problem, but these practices now have diminishing returns and will not solve the 5G challenge.

The good news is local authorities and MNOs have increased and, whilst we arent in a utopia there is a mutual aim to work together. For example, EE, in collaboration with other telecom providers and local authorities, has recently deployed over 500 small cells in a number of cities across the UK, including Leeds, London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Manchester.

With the majority of the small cells sited on council-owned street furniture, the deployments already allow users to enjoy download speeds of up to 300 Mbps in what were previously areas of poor or no coverage.

Cammy Day, Deputy Leader of Edinburgh Council and its Smart Cities lead, described this as an innovative use of space using the Councils existing CCTV cameras to accelerate the rollout of high-density mobile coverage and close the digital divide in some of our most disadvantaged communities.

There are clear benefits to small cell deployments on existing infrastructure such as CCTV columns, lamp posts, etc. Not only does it lower the cost and time to deploy, it prevents the need for further infrastructure protecting aesthetics and lowering the carbon footprint.

But their overall rollout has been hindered by previous commercial models where a party will buy the rights to the infrastructure for a set period. The commercials usually include a large upfront payment, followed by a revenue share on every asset that goes live. This approach has created land banking where a party needs to get an ROI on their investment which is usually uneconomical for the MNO, so sites are only taken where there is no alternative, this lowers the take up which in turn has led to some local authorities feeling that they dont generate the expected revenue share.

Some local authorities such as those in Leeds, Liverpool, and Glasgow have taken steps to address these issues. Theyve adopted an open access approach, whereby anybody can approach them to use the asset at a set price, this model ensures that the assets are not overly valued and therefore sterilised due to economics and that the local community can benefit equally regardless of what network they are on.

This simplifies the supply chain in which small cells can be deployed at speed with minimal disruption, driving benefits for everyday users, and improving digital inclusion and economic growth.

Simplifying the supply chain for small cells provides huge benefits to everybody involved the MNO, the local authority, and most importantly the local communities our end customers.

Local authorities are increasingly understanding the need for ubiquitous quality connectivity to close the digital divide. There are a wealth of new technologies and services maturing that can empower communities and level them up across work, education, public services, and more.

But to achieve this, we need to step closer to the utopia whereby not only are the four MNOs working together more closely, but local councils and partners across the supply chain are working together to unlock existing infrastructure and fuelling inclusive growth.

Weve made great strides with the open access model, but success will be driven through a nationwide embrace of it, increased collaboration and aligning on the common aim to create a truly connected society.

Editor's Recommended Articles

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True digital levelling up is within reach for local authorities - Open Access Government

With the end of this brutal summer finally (hopefully?!) in sight, it is time to start planning for fall. Call it second summer, as in still plenty warm for enjoying the outdoors but no longer hot enough to melt pavement. Here are six places perfect for a much-needed autumn getaway. Take one (or more) as your just reward for surviving another scorching Texas summer.

Lake Bastrop North Shore ParkThis LCRA park in Bastrop hugs the shore of a constant temperature lake for swimming, paddling (canoe, kayak, SUP, and Corcl rentals available), or fishing (with a boat ramp and pier). The park features almost 10 miles of hiking and biking trails, including one connecting to Lake Bastrop South Shore Park, and a sand volleyball court, too. Stay in one of 5 Airstream campers, 2 cabins, or 6 safari style tents. All have grills for cooking and decks for enjoying views of the lake and the stars while sipping a cold one. Other dining and entertainment options in nearbyBastrop, including a distillery and several breweries and taprooms.Neighbor's Kitchen & Yardand Iron Bridge Icehouse, both on the banks of the Colorado River, serve food, craft beer and cocktails, and live music.

Lake GeorgetownAt this Corps of Engineers reservoir, choose from four campgrounds with RV and tent camping options. Enjoy swimming, fishing, kayaking (rentals available at Russell Park), and hiking. The crown jewel is the Good Water Trail, a 26-mile loop around the entire lake through a variety of terrain, with multiple trailheads offering the opportunity for shorter hikes. Dining options, wine bars, breweries, and other lodging options are nearby inGeorgetown. Check out Barking Armadillo Brewing and, on the courthouse square, three wine tasting rooms and multiple dining options.

Matagorda Bay Nature ParkLocated where the Colorado River meets the Gulf of Mexico, Matagorda Bay offers miles of uncrowded beaches for combing and wetlands for paddling. Rent beach chairs, wagons, and kayaks (guided tours available), play miniature golf, fish on the beach or pier, or birdwatch. In addition to Airstream rentals and camping and RV sites, visitors now can rent one of 10 new bungalows that sleep from six to eight people, with fully equipped kitchens, outdoor decks, gas grills, and fantastic views.

Port AransasMiles of beach, without summer crowds: What else do you need? Well, perhaps a place to stay, and youll find every option from fancy condos to kitschy cottages in this seaside town. Plenty of dining and entertainment options, too. Try the local seafood at places like La Playa Mexican Grill, Fins Grill & Icehouse, and Seafood and Spaghetti Works. Have a cold one at Bernies Beach House, the Port A Beer Hut, or Moby Dicks. Rent bicycles, golf carts, surfboards, and kayaks atIsland Surf Rentals(check out the Lighthouse LakesPaddling Trail). Or just sit on the beach.

Painted Sky InnLocated on a tranquil inlet of Lake Buchanan, this waterfront property offers rooms for two to ten people with kitchens and lake views, as well as a tiny home and a vintage Airstream. Amenities include fire pits, BBQ grills, a fishing pier, and canoes, kayaks, and paddle boards. Find miles of hiking trails atCanyon of the EaglesandInks Lake State Park(day pass reservations recommended), or tour several nearby wineries (Torr Na LochsandFall Creek, to name two) and breweries (Save the World BrewingandDouble Horn Brewing), plus dining options in Burnet and Marble Falls.

Frio RiverThe aptly-named Frio River is famous for swimming and tubing in the summer. The most popular way to enjoy the river isGarner State Park, but getting weekend reservations can be tough. Another option isNeals Lodges, a sprawling family-owned complex that includes 81 cabins, 10 lodges, 17 condos, 45 RV hook-ups, and 16 tent sites, plus a country store and dining room. See a bat emergence at nearbyFrio Caveor a bit farther away inKickapoo Cavern State Park. Saturdays are for fine dining atThe Laurel Treeand diner fare atLost Maples Caf, both in Utopia, and Concan has several eateries as well(some close after the summer season, so check websites).

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6 perfect weekend getaways to plan in Texas this fall - CultureMap Austin

Many of the leading galleries take a no-nonsense approach, showing works by a range of artists. The list includes Martin Browne Contemporary, Roslyn Oxley9, Sullivan + Strumpf, Olsen Gallery, MARS, Nanda/Hobbs, Dominik Mersch, Niagara, ARC ONE, Bett Gallery, Arthouse and Yavuz Gallery. Others choose to highlight a single artist, which can be both rewarding and risky. Critical acclaim is good for the ego, but sales are crucial.

Michael Reid, for whom no rules ever seem to apply, has had an each-way bet, with his Sydney + Berlin stall hosting an elegant solo installation by photographer, Tamara Dean, and his Murrurundi stall (yes, Murrurundi), packed to the rafters with small saleable pictures and objects. Wagner Contemporary has also hedged its bets, taking three stalls to show the work of three artists, Eleanor Millard, Al Poulet and Nigel Sense. At THIS IS NO FANTASY, Vincent Namatjira makes a pretty good attempt at stealing the show with an epic series of portraits of Queen Elizabeth and the Royal Family. Dont forget to peek around the corner for the amazing paintings of Jonathon World Peace Bush.

One legacy of the pandemic is that this years participating galleries are drawn exclusively from Australia and New Zealand, but the kiwis are distinctive enough to provide a point of difference. Look at the work shown by galleries such as STARKWHITE, PAULNACHE and Gow Langsford, along with Fox Jensen, which straddles the Tasman, and theres a more challenging style than most of their Australian counterparts.

Tamara Dean, Follow Me, 2022.

Of the specialised Aboriginal art dealers, DLan Davidson has a stunning show of works from Balgo, while Utopia Art has a masterpiece display of central and western desert painting. Sabbia Gallery is the place for top-of-the-line glass and ceramics, although one shouldnt overlook Sally Dan-Cuthbert. Vermilion Art is the only venue exclusively devoted to Chinese artists.

New galleries, interstate galleries, the National Art Schools showcase of student work; collaborations such as the one between Max Germanoss 3.33 Art Projects and Artist Profile magazine theres far too much to talk about. In addition to the galleries there are 16 separate artist installations, including a whimsical-but-insightful sculpture by Kenny Pittock of the world turned pear-shaped.

Vincent Namatjira, The Royal Tour (Diana, Vincent and Charles), 2020.

One of the hardest things to do in an art fair is to stand out from the crowd. Darren Knight has managed this feat by the novel expedient of taking a detail from a work by Louise Weaver and wrapping it around his booth as wallpaper. In a trompe-lil effect, a flat wall becomes creased and crumpled, making us look twice at this oddity. The central attraction is an even greater oddity, in the form of a mind-bending new painting by James Morrison, featuring not three graces but three frogs, one of them holding a ukulele. If hes playing April Sun in Cuba were probably not looking at a frog but a toad.

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The keen collectors get in as early as they can, but Saturday is the big day for the general public, so dont even think about parking. By day three of the fair one should be able to tell, by the calmness or desperation displayed by the dealers, whether sales are up or down. Whatever happens, expect that attendances will be sky-high. Sydney may not be a city of art fanatics, but it loves nothing more than a grand spectacle with the possibility of shopping.

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Sydney loves nothing more than a grand spectacle with the possibility of shopping - Sydney Morning Herald