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