ILF POST

By Charles Lindblom As everyone knows, in every nation a very small number of people play powerful roles in proximate policy making: presidents, cabinet ministers, political bosses, heads of parties, gray eminences, members of legislatures. They run the country, though constrained in some degree by ordinary citizens or subjects, among them those often called [...]

By Linc Bloomfield If you happened to catch NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, March 18 (the First Parish choir had the day off, so I stayed home and watched Sunday talk shows) you saw an extraordinarily unedifying panel discussion on Iraq policy, featuring a display of the kind of rude and contemptuous behavior usually [...]

By Gloria Feldt Who ever thought of Women’s History before 1970? Almost nobody, male or female. Officially, it’s been in existence since 1978 and started on the left coast (as Women’s History Week) in Sonoma County CA. Now it sounds just nice and ordinary, and you can even buy Women’s History Month [...]

By Ralph Keyes

By Douglass Carmichael During the last few weeks, with travels East and West coast, across extreme class lines, I find it hard to be in a conversation that is not dominated by Bush – how can we stand two more years? This war, the impact on our image, the impact on the [...]

By Linc Bloomfield Scooter really fell on his sword for me, didn’t he? Of course, all I was trying to do when I sent the attack dogs after that traitor Wilson was to protect national security. Between us, Scooter turns out not to be as bright as I thought. I didn’t tell him to lie, [...]

By Mary Catherine Bateson All societies use respect and inclusion to reward socially valued behaviors, and embarrassment and shame to discourage unwanted ones. In small rural or tribal communities it is often possible to do virtually without sanctions or coercion other than mockery and the threat of ostracism — but it is [...]

By Charles Lindblom In the continuing debate on globalism, many voices deplore the immorality of corporate executives who, despite their own wealth, take advantage of the third-world poor by paying them poverty wages –or less.
The counter argument, of course, is that poverty wages are better than no wages at all, better too than prevailing wages; [...]