Mixmaster Blog on Earth Democracy

Here, we will grow an initial response to the text. We all will speak to the intro, and to the chapter our respective group, or "band," has chosen to tackle first. Then, each band will tackle one chapter. Teach the other groups what your chapter is all about. What's her thesis? What's her strategy? Ethos, logos, pathos? Does she define her terms? How does the argument make you feel? What, if anything, resonates with your daily life? Feel free to pick apart the arguments you find--distinguish premises from conclusions, analyze the claims you find in the text.

Ok, so, as you compose your Earth Democracy blogs, be sure to weave them into the thread that will grow, below, by responding both to the text and to what your peers are saying about the text, too.

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PracticeSpace - cluster composing

I was not a big fan of the intro to Earth Democracy. The lady was a bit too far left for me to take her seriously. She made a few claims, such as on page 3 "...terrorism, extremism, ethnic cleansing, and religious intolerance are unnatural conditions caused by globilization and have no place in Earth Democracy.", I think that's an incredibly ridiculous statement just based on the fact that humans have been participating in ethnic cleasing for centuries. Religious intolerance such as the persecution of jewish people has been going on for thousands and thousands of years. I will say that i do understand that she is from an area of the world that is being exploited for it's cheaper labor and less strict environmental laws but it's still a bit to liberal for me. I like to take middle ground in my political thoughts, sometimes I lean more to the left but this lady is at the end of the spectrum and I have a hard time taking it very seriously or accepting her point because I feel if i sat down to have a conversation with her, there would be no wiggle room. Almost as if she was a Bill O'Reily to the liberals. Also, without globilization, she would have never had any of us reading her book because there would be no way to get her message out, so globilization is actually helping people hear what she has to say.

-Dylan

Personally, I enjoyed the intro to Earth Democracy. The authors ideals and opinions are very interesting to me. To be honest I'm excited about reading this. Even though the author is very liberal, her ideals captivate me because truthfully, I'm uninformed. Her extremism on this subject suggests her deep passion for Earth Democracy. She emphasizes the fact that "Corporate globalization undermines and subverts national democratic process..." it creates this "economic dictatorship" that has encouraged the death of democracy in which "exclusion, hate, and fear have become the political means to mobilize votes and power." She also emphasizes the context of Earth democracy and how it's interrelated to living economies, living democracies, and living cultures.

~Rachel Hodkoski

Link to Living cultures Group Assignment:

My Living Cultures Group Hub

I have to partially agree with what Dylan posted about the introduction to this book. Vandana seems like very much an extremist herself as well as an idealist. I have no problem with her holding her own opinions, that's her right, but I feel that she contradicts herself and is blind to reality. Throughout the introduction she bashes globalization, but yet if it wasn't for globalization how would she or does she expect us to come together as an "earth family"? Globalization has not been the sole cause of all the evil she describes in such extreme terms. Terrorist efforts have been going on for a long time, and many of the conflicts in the middle east have been fought for hundreds of years. However, globalization has also resulted in the world becoming connected and allowing the sharing of information and ideas. I feel she also contradicted herself when she discussed how globalization creates enclosures while she is pushing for openness. While I would agree that globalization does cause a lot of stratification throughout the world (and it is prevalent in her part of the world), it has also opened the doors to bigger and better opportunities for people that might not have otherwise had those opportunities. Globalization itself is the increasing interconnectedness of the world, as described by my textbook from the class on globalization I took during Summer A. Vandana also sounds very much like a socialist as she pushes for an idealistic earth as a commons. First of all, I don't think this is possible since the people in power who currently "own" most of the earth, will never be willing to give that up. Also, history has shown that socialism is great as a theory, but fails in practice. People who gain power usually become power hungry, which results in the community no longer being a perfect sharing. With her stab at Britain during her rant about enclosure, it leads me to wonder whether she is just still bitter about India being held as a British colony for so long, and the repercussions of that occupation.

-Kathleen

As opposed to most expository books I have read, Earth Democracy utilized pathos to convince the reader to become more ecologically friendly. Shiva uses words such as 'brutal' and 'double theft' to show the injustices done to and by the people. The best expository writing is done when the writer is impartial to the subject. Shiva can still write a convincing definition of Earth Democracy, but she must put her personal opinions aside and focus on the material. One of the most interesting things that I have read thus far is the examples of social sustainability in Seattle and some other rural places. The effort that common farmers put forth to deny WTO further exploitation of the world was unbelievable. Unfortunately their effort was just the slightest breeze against the battleship that is large corporations. I found the claims of large corporations destroying third world countries, manipulating the Indian government, and funding death to be highly convincing. One such example of "ethnic cleansing" that I found to be concurrent with the theme of the exposition was not included. What I speak of is the Darfurian Genocide. Synopec and other large oil companies fund the Sudanese government in their efforts in consorting with the Janjaweed militia as they destroy the people of Darfur. The idea that all people can live together in an Earth Democracy sounds like a wonderful idea. It actually reminds me of how Thomas Jefferson envisioned America.

- Chris Hastings

I definitely was interested in what the introduction of Earth Democracy stated. I enjoyed the piece of the 1848 speech given by Chief Seattle of the Suquamish tribe. I completely agreed, in the speech, when the Chief said, "All things are connected like the blood which unites our family. All things connected." I whole-heartedly believe that everyone is connected in the world, I truly believe in that six degrees of seperation idea, it has proven itself in my life. I agreed with some things in the introduction, but also completely disagreed with parts. I agree that the Earth is a community that is completely mixed and diverse. This world is filled with different races, beliefs, personalities, just different everything, and different parts of the world should not exclude other parts of the world from getting to know this diversity. However, there are certain points in the introduction that I one hundred percent conflict with. I do not agree that terrorism, just as cannibalism on farms, would end if everyone could roam free and do as they please; certain exclusions are needed to keep the world safe and alive. As the introduction went further, I found Shiva rather hypocritical. Shiva keeps saying not to privatize and monopolize on the Earth's resources, yet she is perfectly fine writing and publishing her book; isn't that monopolizing on the big corporation's use of what you, in fact, are publishing a book on fighting?

~Ryan Murphy

I definitely agree with Dylan and Kathleen. I consider myself liberal, but Shiva takes liberal to a whole new level. Like Dylan said, she is on the extreme end of the spectrum. I am in favor of this idea of sustainability with respect to the environment, etc. but Shiva makes claims in the intro that I think are completely absurd. First of all, she states that "large groups of people--especially women and small farmers--are disappearing" as a result of globalization. She says these groups are becoming "extinct." I think this is ridiculous and I have no idea how she can possibly make such a claim. Also, I have a big problem with her views on terrorism and extremism. She believes that terrorism and extremist fundamentalist groups are the result of globalization. When she discusses this I feel like she's making an excuse for those in such violent groups. No one should be defending these people and trying to make excuses for the violent acts they have committed on innocent people across the world. There is absolutely no excuse for any sort of violence anywhere in the world; I don't care who you are or where you live, violence should not be tolerated. I just want to make it clear that I agree with Chief Seattle's quote at the beginning of the intro and I do think that we, as a global society, need to find better ways to live respectfully with our environment because we depend on it tremendously. I just have a big problems with some of the claims Shiva makes that are too radical for my taste. Also, this book seems to be (I haven't read it all yet) anti-globalization and she doesn't, at least in the intro, talk about the positive side of globalization. This is one major flaw in her writing. Whenever you're arguing something, you need to present both sides of the argument. Shiva clearly doesn't do that.

-Juan Pineda

the reason i chose to show this interview(which is on my page) is because my book has not come yet and it is Thursday already. i also tried to go through the link that trey put up from google that shows a few of her pages but it seems to not be working for me. so in this interview she is talking about her book and how she came to the conclusion to write about these specific topics. i do like the fact that Vandana does have evidence about some of the things she disscusses in this interview. for example, Sarah asked Vandana: The third type of insecurity is cultural. You've made a connection between globalization and the rise of nationalist violence and right-wing repression. What kind of evidence have you seen that there are links? and in response Vandana said that she had actually lived through this "evidence"...by saying:Well I'm a physicist, not a social scientist. But as a citizen of India, I have had to suffer the violence and brutality that comes with rising fundamentalism, and I've asked myself how a society that is the cradle of peace, the land of Gandhi and Buddha, could be reduced to one of the most volatile societies in the world. such as when sarah asked vandana:Let me wrap up with a personal question. Every time I've heard you speak or met you, you've had so much energy, not only intellectual energy, but personal or spiritual energy. I'm just wondering, what keeps you so alive?...and vandana response:Well, it's always a mystery, because you don't know why you get depleted or recharged. But, this much I know. I do not allow myself to be overcome by hopelessness, no matter how tough the situation. I believe that if you just do your little bit without thinking of the bigness of what you stand against, if you turn to the enlargement of your own capacities, just that in itself creates new potential. i think that was a good wrap up with that interview.

~Ta'Shonda

Vandana Shiva confronts the neoconservative Project for the New American Century with Earth Democracy. She is one of many voices that struggles for global justice and sustainability. What earth democracy looks like, overlooking the principles for building living economies, living cultures and living democracies are just some of the things that Shiva discusses throughout her book, Earth Democracy. Earth Democracy is a book and a global movement. Shiva outlines the fundamental concepts: chiefly that all markets must respect the environment that sustains them.

"Vandana Shiva was one of India’s most prominent physicists, before becoming one of the world’s most prominent environmentalists. In her 2005 book, Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace, Shiva uses empirical concepts of entropy, entropy and the conservation of energy to argue that the environment is at the base of our global society and when we ignore the environment, all the things built on it – culture, society, livelihoods – suffer.

Earth Demography spans globalization, colonialism, economics and politics, and Shiva makes it out to be a new political movement that is based on sustaining a culture that values nature’s economy, then the sustenance economy, and then finally the market economy.

Shiva makes the argument that property rights are not universal, but that water, food and seeds are universal human rights. She says that joint ownership of the planet is essential in a very real sense in order to stop endemic starvation, malnutrition, thirst, poverty, terrorism, racism, and extremism.

Most scholars would point out Britain on the map as the birthplace of empire. Preceding the industrial revolution, the high-class pushed peasant farmers off English soil and made them pay for the right to grow food in the form of rent. This is an early example of how scarcity was artificially created…and this new capitalist framework has defined us, ruled us, divided us, and exploited us for centuries thereafter.

A monopoly is when, by some means or another, an individual has special rights to a means of production. Karl Marx did not react well to the way workers he saw in the 19th century had to sell their labour to rich factory owners. There was no other way to make a livelihood, and now most of us take this for granted.

Yet, it is not enough for today’s capitalist to merely charge rent to the farmer. The very seed that is nature’s promise of creation is being expropriated by genetic engineering.

Monsanto is a seed company that has successfully copyrighted seeds that farmers have used for centuries. They have removed the adult plant’s ability to reproduce seeds so that the farmer is required to buy their seeds for every harvest. Communities that cannot afford to buy seeds whither and die.

Now, Shiva points out some ways in which people have avoided this horrifying reality by working as collectives and encouraging joint-ownership of food and water.

Shiva says that some of the most “under-developed” societies have no problems with starvation, malnutrition and clean water. Their livelihoods do not involve selling their labour for wages, but they involve harvesting what they need and cooperating with their neighbours to obtain shelter and food. Our idea of civilization, she says, is far

too connected to Victorian ideals and flawed notions of what it means to survive and thrive.

Coke-a-cola and Pepsi-cola have exerted their power in the third world, pumping millions of gallons of fresh water from towns and polluting into the very same waterways downstream. Vivendi, France-based water bottling company and also a media empire, has even prohibited peasants from collecting water from their ancestral waterways.

Shiva says that people faced with the extreme scarcity of water and food are driven to extremes. There has been a drastic rise in fundamental religion and xenophobia driven by jealousy of resources. The global connectivity that some have championed has also created a global divide.

Shiva draws a very good framework of the problems that the new century is facing, and though she sometimes delves into rant, Global Democracy is effective in making the reader think about society critically while giving him/her hope for a future where all the people in the world have a voice."(http://environmentalism.suite101.com/article.cfm/earth_democracy)

Sara Jane