World Government, Utopian Dream Or Current Reality, Vol.2

World Government, Utopian Dream Or Current Reality, Vol.2 PDF

Author: Raymond W. Converse

Publisher: Algora Publishing

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 0875868290

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Beginning where Volume 1 left off, this book assumes that the world is moving inexorably, if in fits and starts, toward union. The author explores the implications such a unification will have for all global citizens, great and small, and considers some of the ways such a union might be managed for the greatest good. As globalization gains speed and as its benefits and also its costs become more apparent, the author sketches out some of the conditions that could, eventually, make for a better life for all. He draws on the tenets of Representative Democracy using the US Constitution as a guide. Second, he posits that for such a union to succeed, all nations will either be representative democracies or will convert to the use of representative democracy within a reasonable time after joining the world union. As a natural consequence of these developments, the author suggests,any nation choosing not to join the world union will find its isolation unsustainable and will seek to join the union after all. Lastly, the author concludes that a meaningful liberal education is necessary to prepare individuals for their role as politically, economically, and socially informed citizens.

World Government, Utopian Dream Or Current Reality, Vol. 2

World Government, Utopian Dream Or Current Reality, Vol. 2 PDF

Author: Raymond W. Converse

Publisher: Algora Publishing

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 0875868304

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This book assumes that the world is moving inexorably, if in fits and starts, toward union. The author explores the implications such a unification will have for all global citizens, great and small, and considers some of the ways such a union might be managed for the greatest good.As globalization gains speed and as its benefits and also its costs become more apparent, the author sketches out some of the conditions that could, eventually, make for a better life for all. He draws on the tenets of Representative Democracy using the US Constitution as a guide. Second, he posits that for such a union to succeed, all nations will either be representative democracies or will convert to the use of representative democracy within a reasonable time after joining the world union. As a natural consequence of these developments, the author suggests,any nation choosing not to join the world union will find its isolation unsustainable and will seek to join the union after all. Lastly, the author concludes that a meaningful liberal education is necessary to prepare individuals for their role as politically, economically, and socially informed citizens.

World Government, Utopian Dream Or Current Reality Volume 2

World Government, Utopian Dream Or Current Reality Volume 2 PDF

Author: Raymond W. Converse

Publisher: Algora Publishing

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 0875868282

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This book assumes that the world is moving inexorably, if in fits and starts, toward union. It explores the implications for all global citizens, and posits that, to succeed, it will be predicated upon a general disarmament and a broad adoption of the principles of Representative Democracy.--

World Government - Utopian Dream Or Current Reality, Vol. 1

World Government - Utopian Dream Or Current Reality, Vol. 1 PDF

Author: Raymond W. Converse

Publisher: Algora Publishing

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 0875867642

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Arguing that a world government may be the best hope for addressing major problems facing the world, that is, poverty, global warming, global trade, the lack of financial regulation, and others, the author approaches the reasons for a world government and the steps necessary to institute it. Total disarmament must come first, he says, and he outlines what might be required to meet that desirable state. Questions of local sovereignty versus global rights and responsibilities are explored in a nontechnical way, opening the discussion to readers who are concerned about the future but who may not be experts in the areas of Political Science or Economics. Obstacles and opportunities are brought to light in a manner that will allow the reader to make his own decisions about what steps ought to be taken. A sample constitution is offered to allow a beginning point for discussion.

Speculative Everything

Speculative Everything PDF

Author: Anthony Dunne

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2013-12-06

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 0262019841

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How to use design as a tool to create not only things but ideas, to speculate about possible futures. Today designers often focus on making technology easy to use, sexy, and consumable. In Speculative Everything, Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby propose a kind of design that is used as a tool to create not only things but ideas. For them, design is a means of speculating about how things could be—to imagine possible futures. This is not the usual sort of predicting or forecasting, spotting trends and extrapolating; these kinds of predictions have been proven wrong, again and again. Instead, Dunne and Raby pose “what if” questions that are intended to open debate and discussion about the kind of future people want (and do not want). Speculative Everything offers a tour through an emerging cultural landscape of design ideas, ideals, and approaches. Dunne and Raby cite examples from their own design and teaching and from other projects from fine art, design, architecture, cinema, and photography. They also draw on futurology, political theory, the philosophy of technology, and literary fiction. They show us, for example, ideas for a solar kitchen restaurant; a flypaper robotic clock; a menstruation machine; a cloud-seeding truck; a phantom-limb sensation recorder; and devices for food foraging that use the tools of synthetic biology. Dunne and Raby contend that if we speculate more—about everything—reality will become more malleable. The ideas freed by speculative design increase the odds of achieving desirable futures.

The Last Landscape

The Last Landscape PDF

Author: William H. Whyte

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2012-10-23

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 0812208501

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The remaining corner of an old farm, unclaimed by developers. The brook squeezed between housing plans. Abandoned railroad lines. The stand of woods along an expanded highway. These are the outposts of what was once a larger pattern of forests and farms, the "last landscape." According to William H. Whyte, the place to work out the problems of our metropolitan areas is within those areas, not outside them. The age of unchecked expansion without consequence is over, but where there is waste and neglect there is opportunity. Our cities and suburbs are not jammed; they just look that way. There are in fact plenty of ways to use this existing space to the benefit of the community, and The Last Landscape provides a practical and timeless framework for making informed decisions about its use. Called "the best study available on the problems of open space" by the New York Times when it first appeared in 1968, The Last Landscape introduced many cornerstone ideas for land conservation, urging all of us to make better use of the land that has survived amid suburban sprawl. Whyte's pioneering work on easements led to the passage of major open space statutes in many states, and his argument for using and linking green spaces, however small the areas may be, is a recommendation that has more currency today than ever before.

The Dispossessed

The Dispossessed PDF

Author: Ursula K. Le Guin

Publisher: Turtleback Books

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780785764038

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A brilliant physicist attempts to salvage his planet of anarchy.

The Utopia of Rules

The Utopia of Rules PDF

Author: David Graeber

Publisher: Melville House

Published: 2015-02-24

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1612193757

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From the author of the international bestseller Debt: The First 5,000 Years comes a revelatory account of the way bureaucracy rules our lives Where does the desire for endless rules, regulations, and bureaucracy come from? How did we come to spend so much of our time filling out forms? And is it really a cipher for state violence? To answer these questions, the anthropologist David Graeber—one of our most important and provocative thinkers—traces the peculiar and unexpected ways we relate to bureaucracy today, and reveals how it shapes our lives in ways we may not even notice…though he also suggests that there may be something perversely appealing—even romantic—about bureaucracy. Leaping from the ascendance of right-wing economics to the hidden meanings behind Sherlock Holmes and Batman, The Utopia of Rules is at once a powerful work of social theory in the tradition of Foucault and Marx, and an entertaining reckoning with popular culture that calls to mind Slavoj Zizek at his most accessible. An essential book for our times, The Utopia of Rules is sure to start a million conversations about the institutions that rule over us—and the better, freer world we should, perhaps, begin to imagine for ourselves.