Tag: history
Political collapse: Lessons from fallen empires
Our investigation of the disastrous society-wide collapses of four pre-modern polities, China’s Ming Dynasty, the South Asian Mughal Empire, the High Roman Empire, and Renaissance Venice led to the discovery of an unexpected historical pattern.
Empire decline and costly delusions
Historically, declining empires often provoke denials and delusions that teach their people “hard lessons” and impose on them “hard choices.” That is where we are now.
Learning from history, if we dare
To leverage and learn from humanity’s history regarding what fostered sustainability in the past, we need to know the outcomes.
The Titan and the Titanic: two tales of capitalist hubris
The doomed OceanGate submersible offers us many of the same lessons that the 1912 Titanic sinking did.
How a tribal rights lawyer is winning back the rights of...
Attorney Frank Bibeau found a way to legally protect nature by suing the state of Minnesota in the name of manoomin, or wild rice, sacred to the Ojibwe people.
Six questions for a world that seems to be losing interest...
How do we shape a democratic future living in a zeitgeist that is tightening its grip across the globe?
Michigan opens the door to restoring union power
For the first time in nearly 60 years, a state is poised to reverse its “right to work” law and begin to undo the damage of a corporate-driven anti-union trend.
What Kevin Alexander Gray taught me
The late civil rights activist and author didn’t let elected officials off the hook, no matter how liberal. He understood the importance of intersectionality and what it takes to achieve progressive change.
Why student debt cancellation is reasonable, not radical
The right has narrowed the parameters of discussion on student debt forgiveness, and President Biden is not fighting back aggressively enough. We should, in fact, center the idea of fairness in this debate.