Sane Society Research Articles

The psychological is crucial: why Erich Fromm’s understanding of human needs contributes to defeating fascism

This article uses Erich Fromm’s list of five fundamental human needs discussed in The Sane Society (1955) to critically explore the role of psychological needs and desires in the concerning resurgence of fascist and far-right movements globally and especially in the United States. First, the article addresses the hesitancy expressed by some activists and theorists about engaging psychology in relation to fascism. I critique the view that such psychological inquiry undermines structural critique of society. I demonstrate that unproductive and harmful attempts to meet human needs outlined by Fromm are contributing to fascist resurgence and also to the rise of the ‘fascistic’ mass shooter, who must be understood as both influenced by structural/political dynamics and by the personal attempt to resolve the ‘existential’ problems of human life described by Fromm.

The Forgotten Language of Nontheistic Mysticism: Religious Factors in Erich Fromm’s Humanism

In You Shall Be as Gods, Erich Fromm (1900–1980) defines his position as nontheistic mysticism. This research clarifies the term, considers its importance within Fromm’s humanism, and explores its potential origins. The nontheistic mystical position plays a central role in Fromm’s understanding of the relationship between mysticism and organized religion, religion and religiosity, and it clarifies the relationship between religion, philosophy, and social psychoanalysis, whose combination constitutes his humanistic ethics. Nontheistic mysticism relates, as well, to Fromm’s understanding of human nature; it involves the question of the relationship between language, perception, and experience. The nontheistic mystical position is linked to Fromm’s negative theology, the x experience, and idolatry. Hence, the nontheistic mystical position is relevant to Fromm’s understanding of self-realization and his vision of a sane society. Unlike some scholarly opinion, the conclusions of this paper suggest that Fromm’s humanism is not radical, as long as radical is defined as an absolute atheistic secular feature that eliminates the range of religious language and experience. Rather, it is a broad and cautious humanism that, on the one hand, internalizes the transcendent divinity into the human subject and transforms it into anthropological–ethical phenomena, but, on the other, implies that atheism carries the risk of an idolatrous identification of the human being with God. Consequently, this humanism requires a religious–mystical component to adequately portray the spiritual and ethical potentials of humanity and its challenges. Nontheistic mysticism is a consciousness mechanism aimed at the fine-tuning of the individual’s moral compass, which is affected by the pathologies of normalcy that prevail in all societies.

Remembering The Sane Society: An American Lament

ABSTRACT Erich Fromm’s book The Sane Society was published in 1955, the second year of President’s Eisenhower’s administration, but had a profound impact on the ideas and agendas of social activists during the 60s and 70s, including this author. Its central theses were that the middle-class prosperity characteristic of that era masked a “pathology of normalcy,” and that capitalism transforms active citizens into passive consumers by compelling people to fill their material needs in ways that are at variance with their existential or human needs. The result is a dramatic diminution of their critical faculties, an atrophy of conscience, and the proliferation of a “marketing character,” a kind of alienated, hedonistic lifestyle whose emptiness is palliated by the consumption of ever larger quantities of consumer goods. Fromm’s analysis still rings true in some respects, but the middle-class prosperity and bland uniformity of opinion he critiqued began to wane in the late 1970s, gradually giving way to sharp extremes of poverty and wealth. The resulting political polarization has now reached a critical point, where the future of American democracy – or what little is left of it – is now in peril. So, as we approach 2025, Fromm’s analysis of America in the mid-20th century must be updated and modified to fit the contours of contemporary social realities. In so doing, however, we discover that American society is even more alienated, more atomized and fragile than it was in Fromm’s day.

The Thoughts and Views of Ja’far Mahmud Adam on Marriage, Family Institution and Women Issues

Marriage is the foundation upon which a family institution is erected and it is one of cogent measures that Islam enjoins in preserving public morality and developing a healthy and sane society. Furthermore, there is virtually a consensus among all cultures that marriage has been over the centuries the most legally acceptable gateway and conventional source of establishing a family institution. Henceforth, marriage assumes a special significance and occupies a pivotal place owing to its crucial role in building a society and ensuring the continuity of human survival. Meanwhile, albeit there are universally shared codes and conventionally accepted norms and values, geographical space, cultures, civilizations and religious orientations have a great stake in determining ways and lifestyles of people vis-à-vis ways the continuity of human survival is sustained. Marriage and its associated components like the phenomenon of woman represent areas that expose the extent of clash of civilizations. Guided by their religious precepts and legal provisions, Muslim scholars and thinkers tend to situate Islam as the most moderate ideological culture that formulates the most universally suitable and pragmatic systems which deal with marriage, growing a family and general treatment of women.

Challenges of ‘modern evil’ for the sustainable development: A request for cooperation of scientific and theological knowledge

The author considers the latest challenges for the sustainable development as determined by ‘modern evil’. Its essence is not limited to specific sanctions or war: it is multifaceted - expressed in simulacra and fakes, ‘non-events’ and post-truth; producing ‘moral blindness’, neonationalism, xenophobia and Russophobia, ‘cultural racism’, and ‘normal traumas’ in the society and nature. Actually, ‘modern evil’ embodies a parallel entity in the form of a new Antichrist acting among us on behalf of a ‘higher reason’ and ‘progressive humanity’, while introducing chaos and instability into people’s life worlds. The author uses interdisciplinary methods to examine specific manifestations of ‘modern evil’: temptations of novelty, hyper-consumption and ‘conspicuous consumption’, global, pragmatically oriented digitalization, which spreads destructive content. These manifestations of ‘modern evil’ should be replaced by the sharing of goods and services, movement towards the ethics of modesty and national-sovereign digitalization. The demand for cooperation of representatives of scientific and theological knowledge for the sake of new forms of sustainable development meets the requirements of the realities of global complexity and nonlinearity. Such cooperation can become a driver of the humanity’s active production of good and humanism - as the main factor of movement to the ‘sane society’ functioning in harmony with humanized scientific-technological innovations and authentic nature.

The Emerging Trends and Patterns of Non-State Actors Involvement in Crime Prevention and Control in South-West Nigeria: Old Wine in New Bottle

Globally, the use of formal security apparatus is approved standard of ensuring safety of lives and property in any sane society. The most developed countries of the world has fashioned out effective security control model to guarantee safety of lives and protection of citizens properties. This security measure is one of the many challenges confronting most developing nations including Nigeria.. It is a very serious problem when a country cannot protect the lives and properties of its citizens. It is even a bigger problem when the lives of its citizens mean nothing to the government of the day. The continuous incidence of boko-Haram and herdsmen attack, kidnapping, suicide bombing, violence and abduction is a clear indication that present government have failed its citizen in securing them and their valuable. This study examined the emerging trends and patterns on non state actor involvement in crime prevention and control in South-West Nigeria: An old wine in new bottle. The paper adopted the Karl Mark (1874) theory of exploitation as its theoretical current. The study made used of the survey research design. Sample size of 200 was determined using Yamane sample size technique. The cluster, simple random and purposive sampling techniques were used to select respondents for the study. The study made use of questionnaire and key informant interviews as instruments for data collection. Simple percentage tables and frequency were employed to present quantitative data. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis technique and ethnographic summaries. The results revealed that the Non state actors involvement in security via Amotekun has drastically reduced crime rate, safeguard lives and property, promote socio-economic development, exposes criminals, promote peace and unity amongst others. The paper recommended that the government must make security a top priority by providing all that is required to guarantee safety of lives and properties of its citizens’. The citizens must support the government and its agencies in all means possible to reduce crime rate in the area. Effective legislation, enforcement and adequate sanction should be advocated for those caught to be perpetrating crime or sabotaging crime prevention and control efforts of the government.

The Relevance of E. Fromm's Ideas about Sane Society in 2020

Introduction. The paper discusses E. Fromm's ideas about human mental health, his social needs and society, which promotes and at the same time prevents the maximum disclosure of a person's potential in accordance with his or her nature. In contrast to sociological relativism, Fromm substantiates the position of normative humanism, according to which, when examining a person's paths to happiness, one should analyze, first of all, the mental health of society, and not a person, consider how a particular social system contributes to the productive solution of the problems facing a person. The purpose of the paper is to assess the degree of relevance of Fromm's ideas about a healthy society in2020 in accordance with the realities of our time. Scientific novelty is determined by the small number of similar studies in contemporary Russian sociology.Methodology and sources. The paper uses the approach of normative humanism proposed by Fromm. Psychoanalysis, socio-psychological traditions of behaviorism and cognitivism are also used.Results and discussion. A human, according to Fromm, has a dual nature: he or her is no longer an animal, and even for full mental health, and even more so, for feelings of selfrealization and happiness, it is not enough for him or her to just satisfy biological needs, following instincts. Having lost harmony with nature and at the same time remaining a part of it, having received reason and awareness of his or her own life, he or she at the same time acquires the need to resolve the contradictions of the existence. They express basic social needs that can be addressed in a more or less productive way: involvement as opposed to narcissism, overcoming and creativity as opposed to destructiveness, rootedness and brotherhood as opposed to incest, a sense of identity and individuality as opposed to herd conformism, the need for an orientation system: reason versus irrationality. In modern Fromm's Western society, market capitalism is increasingly penetrating into everyday relations between people, forming orientations towards an unproductive solution to the problem of human existence. In modern society, this trend continues unabated, making Fromm's conclusions and recommendations no less relevant than a few decades ago.Conclusion. Due to the widespread use of the Internet and social networks, the development of mass social movements with radical views on everyday life, strengthening the aggressive manner of communication, the preservation of pre-existing contradictions between representatives of national and other groups, modern society contributes to maintaining a “market” approach to human relations. Under such conditions, the disclosure of a person's potential in accordance with his or her nature is difficult, nevertheless, everyone has the opportunity, critically referring to social stereotypes, and mastering the art of thinking really rationally, to strive for happiness.

The Frankfurt School at Egyptian Universities

The critical theory of the Frankfurt School reached Egypt in 1955, when the Arabic translation of Erich Fromm’s The Sane Society (New York, 1955) was published in Cairo. Later, Herbert Marcuse’s Soviet Marxism (1958) was translated into Arabic in Beirut in 1965, and with the rise of student protests in France, Germany, and the United States, much attention was given to Marcuse; almost all his writings were translated into Arabic between 1969 and 1973. This article explores the nature of individual “receptions” of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School at Egyptian universities. To this end, it briefly introduces the early generation of the Frankfurt School, as well as the reasons of interest in its fate in Egyptian universities. Though master’s theses and doctoral dissertations do not represent a university’s orientation to critical theory, and at best represent the perspective of their individual authors, this article shows that key individual theses and dissertations testify to an early rejection of the Frankfurt School and to the late adoption of it as a critical paradigm of the transformations in Egyptian society.

Emotional intelligence among Nigerian adolescents: the role of training

The study investigated the influence of training on emotional intelligence of adolescents in Jos South LGA of Plateau State. Forty-eight adolescents from two secondary schools (Sunnah High School and TCNN Secondary School) were used for the study. An experimental design was used in the study with 24 participants in the experimental group and 24 in the control group. The treatment group participated in six sessions of training involving intensive training in emotional-social intelligence skills acquisition for one month. The Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) were used to measure emotional intelligence. The hypothesis tested showed that there was a significant effect of training on emotional intelligence of adolescents with those in the experimental group scoring higher on emotional intelligence. Because Training was found to be effective in improving the emotional intelligence of adolescents in secondary schools participating in this study. Curriculum developers were recommended to incorporate emotional intelligence training into the school curriculum in schools which will help in the development of a sane society

Tekst infirmeryjny albo topografia doświadczenia medycznego

The article is a theoretical proposition for a new research category applied to descriptions of diseases within cultural texts. The author proposes a category tying together spatiality and disease, hence the concept of infirmary, which testifies to the complex relationships between space and the experience of illness, or more generally, medical experience, or between the place and the existence of a diseased person, the topography of medical experience. The word „infirmary” will at first glance evoke images of sickbay, i.e. the place for individuals suffering from a medical condition, where they are provided with treatment, and the locus of norm-transgression (that is to say, the norms of the sane society), as well as of stigmatization practices concerning the individual transgressors or deviants, and also of whatever actions are performed on those very individuals (for example, at the hands of doctors or medical personnel). In a nutshell, the concept will evoke all the forms of experience connected with health, disease, treatment practice (both in terms of those providing treatment and those being treated). The infirmary text will be a concept bringing together the narratives of a specific medical experience and the place/space, merging the discourse of disease (but also of health) with a spatial perspective. When speaking of infirmary text, we enter a very broad and multidimensional area situated between literature and medicine. An infirmary text is not limited to all spatial narratives concerning medical experiences, but also touches on extreme emotional experience (the power of affect), the diseases of soma and psyche, the medical institutions and the professional and social roles within their premises, the histories of diseases (especially in the form of autobiographical narratives), affective constructs in which emotions carry the role of „playing the part” of the world and constituting identities.

Subjection and Survival in J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace

Coetzee’s novel, Disgrace, constructs a disturbing picture of the state of post-apartheid South Africa. It was generally criticized on the ground that instead of sharing national enthusiasm, it damaged the hopes of constructing a just and nonracial society by perpetuating racial stereotypes and fueling interracial violence. Disgrace, however, this paper holds, is a realistic, though gloomy, narrative of human condition. It is the scene of individuals struggling for survival amid existential and social forces in post-apartheid culture. Apartheid represented the era of victimization, subjection, and pathological attachments. It distorted intersubjective relations, turned humans’ interactions into power struggles, and produced deformed, stunted subjects. This paper examines the continuing presence of these deformed subjects in new South Africa and the violence that their presence occasions. The residual presence of character deformity and pathological intersubjectivity is a social reality of the new South Africa in Disgrace, a reality that diminishes the prospect of the promised sane society of post-apartheid era.

Towards a Sane Society by Siri Hettige

Prof. Siri Hettige’s latest book, Towards a Sane Society goes on record as a pioneering contribution to understand the multifaceted problems that the society is facing today with special focus on Sri Lanka. The book is a collection of articles subscribed by the author to a weekly column in the Daily Mirror over the period from April 2013 to mid-2014. Revisiting Eric Fromm’s book entitled The Sane Society published six decades ago, Hettige analyses how the modern societies have become insane by unequal development, unsustainable consumption, poor governance, increasing inequality, conflict, unrest, violence and social injustice in contrast to the publicly articulated goals such as equitable development, good governance and social justice. Fromm, a leading psychoanalyst, philosopher and social analyst, in his book posed a pertinent question; whether an entire society could be afflicted by a pathological condition that prevents it from functioning in a sensible manner. He argues that the social, political and economic conditions prevailing in both capitalist and socialist blocs had impeded to achieve contended, peaceful and satisfying lives. Hettige asserts that the question raised by Fromm decades ago is still valid considering the insane characteristics of the modern society.

History, Religion, and the Dramaturgy of Victimization and Betrayal. Wole Soyinka’s and Ngũgũ wa Thiong’o and Ngũgũ wa Mirii’s

Stage drama, with its added dimension of public performance, bears directly on the socio-cultural and political realities of a given society. Through performance, most social ills have not only been articulated but also exposed with the aim of creating a safe, sane society. This essay engages the ‘dramaturgical intent’ in Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman (1975) and Ngũgũ wa Thiong’o and Ngũgũ wa Mirii’s I Will Marry When I Want (1982) as plays that use stage drama and performance to critically appraise the colonial experience with regard to issues of language and religion. The essay contends that when colonial writings dwarf the cultural voice, they counteract self-assertion and cultural ideology in which (representatives of) the traduced oftentimes stand up to correct a misrepresentation that has occurred in their history. The essay further examines how the two scholars, Soyinka and Ngũgũ wa Thiong’o, address issues of exploitation, betrayal, and victimization from the self-reified Western societies and their African proteges in their plays. Both Soyinka and Ngũgũ, I argue, are more successful in using drama to articulate the ‘revolutionary ideal’. In so doing, they participate in an ongoing reinvention of the full humanity of the slighted in the “corporonial” (Ngũgũ, Wizard of the Crow) era.

The Quest for Sustainable Business – An Epic Journey in Search of Corporate Responsibility

Author's introduction Prologue: Roots and shoots. Early days (Zimbabwe) PART I: AFRICA 1. Divided and united: Investing in change (South Africa) 2. Holism and hope: Towards a SANE society (South Africa) 3. Governance and greed: Accounting for impacts (South Africa) 4. Tears and flowers: Recreating a culture of ethics (Kenya) 5. Friends and foes: Oil on troubled waters (Nigeria) PART II: EUROPE 6. Directives and policies: Eurocrats take on CSR (Belgium) 7. Green and growing: Re-engineering growth (Germany, Austria) 8. Breakdown and breakthrough: Navigating the chaos (Hungary) 9. Partnerships and poverty: New governance for a new world (Switzerland) 10. Cycles and cradles: Faster, further and higher (The Netherlands) PART III: ASIA PACIFIC 11. Kaizen and kyosei: Driving a better future (Japan) 12. Yin and yang: Striving for harmony (China) 13. Too much sun: A slow starter (Australia) 14. Merlions and orang-utans: A new breed of entrepreneurs (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand) 15. Access and justice: Purpose out of chaos (India) PART IV: THE AMERICAS 16. Mythology and pathology: Unmasking the corporation (Canada) 17. Plantations and houses: The lessons of shared responsibility (Guatemala, Mexico) 18. Emergence and convergence: Birth of a new capitalism (United States) 19. Globalisation and innovation: Redefining growth and progress (United States) 20. Economics and evolution: Barefoot journeys towards abundance (Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador) PART IV: THE UNITED KINGDOM 21. Humans and ecology: From New Age to 'new' economics (United Kingdom) 22. Meaning and change: Making a difference (United Kingdom) 23. Research and reading: Landmarks for Sustainability (United Kingdom) 24. Pioneers and paradoxes: In search of sustainable business (United Kingdom) 25. Death and rebirth: From CSR 1.0 to CSR 2.0 (United Kingdom) Epilogue: Smart, shared and sustainable. The alchemical quest

The Place of Law and Morality in Pre-Colonial Yourubaland: A Case Study of Akure

This paper examines the significant roles that laws and morality played in the maintenance of law and order in pre-colonial Akure. The paper argues that though pre-colonial Akure was not entirely free from crime, as no society is absolutely crime free, law and morality were used by the people in ensuring a sane society, where there was reasonable peaceful cohabitation. The paper, therefore, concludes by advocating the resuscitation of morality as one of the mechanisms to reduce corruption and societal decadence that has hampered our society’s development. Key words: Morality; Law; Crime; Security; Society

A Hero Protects America’s Children From Psychiatric Abuse

Jim Gottstein's Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights.org) has gone to court to stop the drugging of Alaska's children. Before they are given psychiatric drugs, Attorney Gottstein wants the following standards to be met: 1. That proven psychosocial interventions have been exhausted. 2. That the benefits of the drug outweigh the risks. 3. That those authorizing the prescriptions are fully informed about the risks and benefits and the alternatives. 4. That the children are thoroughly monitored, including for side effects. There is nothing radical in this attempt to require the state of Alaska to use science, good medical practice, and common sense before prescribing psychiatric medications to the children in its care. Too often the medications are prescribed solely for the convenience of managing them in institutions and foster care. An ethical sane society would bar the state from giving psychiatric drugs to children under almost any circumstances. Their brains are growing-and should not be made to develop in a toxic internal environment. Instead of psychiatric medication, they need what all children need-more and better attention from caring adults, improved family life, and better schooling. And they need protection from agencies and professionals who are now prescribing them psychoactive substances en mass instead of meeting their basic needs as children. About 15 years ago, I spent more than a week as a consultant in Alaska working with a marvelous wraparound program for children and youth (Breggin & Breggin, 1998, pp. 171-173; also see Morrison-Velasco, 2002, for a description of wraparound programs). Alaska had been farming out its more difficult children to the lower 48, as far away as Texas. Not only was the separation harmful to the children and their families, it was enormously expensive. So Alaska developed a program that aimed at the community wrapping its arms around the child and the child's family, and spending money to provide what the family needed to raise its children decently-everything from job and parent training for the mothers and fathers to counseling and tutoring for the children. A team that included a variety of professionals, teachers, and family members managed each family's treatment. Called the Alaska Youth Initiative, it provided great help to children and their families and kept the children from being institutionalized in expensive and abusive prisons or mental hospitals. While costly, it was much less expensive than institutionalizing these very distressed and distressing children in Alaska or elsewhere. Instead of creating career mental patients and criminals, it enabled children to stabilize and succeed at home with their own families. What happened to Alaska's wraparound program? It went the way of most good mental health programs-out of existence. Why? Because the psychopharmaceutical complex provides a seemingly much quicker and easier fix by pharmacologically suppressing the brains of our children. At every opportunity, organized psychiatry rejects effective psychosocial and educational programs, including proven family and home-based interventions, in favor of psychiatric drugs and institutionalization (Breggin, 2008). Attorney Gottstein points out that the state takes custody over children who have already been abused and suffered at the hands of adults and then saddles them with a mental illness diagnosis and drugs them. The extent of this state-inflicted child abuse is an emergency and should be corrected immediately. The children, of course, are involuntary patients. They need special protection from the state, not the erosion and destruction of their mental faculties or their brains on toxic agents (see Breggin, 2008, for documentation of the toxic effects of each class of psychiatric drug). Alaska is not an especially egregious offender. Government-sponsored and directed drugging of children is endemic throughout the 50 states. …

Alchemists of human nature: psychological utopianism in Gross, Jung, Reich and Fromm

Introduction 1 The Nature of Psychological Utopianism 2 The New Soviet Man: Psychoanalysis and the Conquest of the Unconscious in the Early Days of the Soviet Union 3 Anarchism and the Communist Mother Right: Utopianism in Otto Gross 4 Individuation and 'National Individuation': Utopianism in C G Jung 5 Sexual Revolution and the Power of Orgone Energy: Utopianism in Wilhelm Reich 6 Socialist Humanism and the Sane Society: Utopianism in Erich Fromm Conclusion: Utopia, Illusion and Second Reality

Corporate social responsibility in India: towards a sane society?

PurposeBased on a survey, this paper seeks to confirm that Indian corporates are already working on the guideline of the Global Compact.Design/methodology/approachThe approach is theoretical with ample scope for application.FindingsIt is found that there should be a realisation that the real CSR leadership is not just putting one's own house in order, but advocating the right conditions to reward responsible practice.Research limitations/implicationsA disadvantage is the paucity of literature for the survey.Originality/valueThe paper succeeds in confirming that Indian corporates are already working on the guideline of the Global Compact, because the Indian ethos and religious values teach these doctrines from a socio‐religious aspect.

From the War on Poverty to "the New Inequality": The Fight for a Living Wage

From the War on Poverty to "the New Inequality":The Fight for a Living Wage Nancy MacLean (bio) Welfare Warriors: The Welfare Rights Movement in the United States. By Premilla Nadasen. New York: Routledge, 2005. 310 pages. $90.00 (cloth). $24.95 (paper). Storming Caesar's Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty. By Annelise Orleck. Boston: Beacon Press, 2005. 368 pages. $29.95 (cloth). Poor Workers' Unions: Rebuilding Labor from Below. By Vanessa Tait. Cambridge: South End Press, 2005. 258 pages. $40.00 (cloth). $20.00 (paper). "Where do we go from here," Martin Luther King Jr. asked fellow Americans forty years ago this year, "chaos or community?" In 1967 the country stood at a crossroads. The civil rights movement had stirred millions to want to right the nation's deepest wrongs, yet, already, the forces of reaction were massing to block change. Americans could "choose the path of materialism," King acknowledged, with its "inseparable twin" of violence, and opt for a "wasteland" at home and "arrogant . . . policing" abroad. Or they could choose community: they could build a sane society that embraced the flourishing of all as its noblest goal, in the recognition of our inescapable connections. To King, the right choice was obvious: "The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization." Surely the United States, the most affluent and technologically accomplished society in human history, could see that "the time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct, and immediate abolition of poverty."1 His call never received a fair hearing. The ongoing debacle in Vietnam, the assassination of King himself the following year, the mounting power of a political right that turned fear of change to political advantage, and the pervasive cynicism that such developments engendered all but extinguished the hope for reconciliation that King had held aloft. [End Page 219] In the forty years since America chose chaos over community, it has amassed the highest levels of inequality in the developed world. For the first time on record, a person working full-time at the minimum wage cannot pay market-rate rent on a one-bedroom apartment anywhere in the United States. At the time of this writing, that wage amounts to $10,700 a year and buys less than at any time since 1955. At the top end of the scissors economy, Wal-Mart's CEO earns more than $3,500 an hour, and Exxon-Mobil's a whopping $13,700. The midcentury trend toward greater equity in resources and well-being produced by union power and New Deal policies has been all but reversed. A growing chorus of activists and social scientists is warning that inequality on this scale threatens not only its obvious victims, but also every element of social justice for which generations of progressive Americans have fought, from public education, to racial fairness and gender equity, to workers' rights and children's nutrition—and democratic governance itself. It may even harm productivity, some economists say, as betrayed American employees discover the folk wisdom of their old Soviet counterparts: "they pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work." A consensus is growing among those paying attention that economic justice is the most urgent issue of our time.2 Three timely new books offer important knowledge for the challenge ahead, as they extend into a new era the exciting revisionist work in labor history, African American history, and women's history that has lifted out of the shadows the class dimension of the long struggles for equality.3 All three authors examine the welfare rights activism that prompted King to speak out about poverty, and two carry the story beyond the defeat of that movement into subsequent struggles for a fairer economy, among them the community development corporations, living wage campaigns, and service worker organizing of recent years. Taken together, these three fine studies point to the dramatic reconstitution of class politics in the United States over the last thirty years, as the civil rights movement and feminism emboldened people long denied any chance at the American...

"For Your Own Good". Biopolitics told by J.G. Ballard

“In a totally sane society, madness is the only freedom”, writes J.G. Ballard in his novel Running Wild. This is a dark and at first sight enigmatic statement, but it could be interpreted as a stunning synthesis of the relationship between health policies and the practices of freedom in modern history. A game that is not yet over and the results of which must therefore still be deciphered. What do we do when faced with policies that act only for our good, which preserve life, improve the conditions of health and safety? And besides, what does it mean if these policies are seen as a threat and our freedom seeks refuge in madness as the last stronghold of resistance? These are the questions Ballard asks in his story.