10 questions for those who teach and learn
By: Al Soci
Issue date: 5/5/09 Section: Opinion
1. What can be done to ensure that we dedicate ourselves to serving the interests of human well-being, satisfying human needs, and nurturing and fully developing human capacities in the face of dominant institutions driven to place power, profits, destruction and wealth above human interests?
2. What role can we play in the face of growing ecological catastrophes to address the root causes of the multiple problems, (1) so we are prepared to confront looming catastrophes; (2) so we work to ensure that the root causes are overcome in order to begin pathways toward ecological rationality and a sustainable future?
3. How can we the public take back the media from private corporate control so we have mechanisms through which the public can voice its concerns, share information relevant to public lives, and shape policies and futures in the public interest?
4. Health care costs in the "maximize profits at all costs to the public" US un-health care system grow higher each year. How can we participate in informing and activating the public to the multiple human and social benefits of a single-payer, non-profit, universal health care system?
5. If social suicide is not an option for rational people, how can we develop critical mentalities so that people are able to understand the irrationality of the current dominant institutions and systemic imperatives that are driving us to the brink of social suicide?
6. How do we save the future while confronting and addressing the multiple crises we face in the present? In other words, how do we live into our dreams so we do not lose our realities?
7. Knowledge of a better world requires that we develop visions, pathways, options, goals, actions, and critiques of alternatives to the current arrangement. How do we create credible options that will move people to take seriously the possibility of creating people-first alternatives?
8. If we want to live in a world based in solidarity, equality, freedom and substantive democracy, how can we learn to practice solidarity, equality, freedom and substantive democracy in the ever-evolving present?
2. What role can we play in the face of growing ecological catastrophes to address the root causes of the multiple problems, (1) so we are prepared to confront looming catastrophes; (2) so we work to ensure that the root causes are overcome in order to begin pathways toward ecological rationality and a sustainable future?
3. How can we the public take back the media from private corporate control so we have mechanisms through which the public can voice its concerns, share information relevant to public lives, and shape policies and futures in the public interest?
4. Health care costs in the "maximize profits at all costs to the public" US un-health care system grow higher each year. How can we participate in informing and activating the public to the multiple human and social benefits of a single-payer, non-profit, universal health care system?
5. If social suicide is not an option for rational people, how can we develop critical mentalities so that people are able to understand the irrationality of the current dominant institutions and systemic imperatives that are driving us to the brink of social suicide?
6. How do we save the future while confronting and addressing the multiple crises we face in the present? In other words, how do we live into our dreams so we do not lose our realities?
7. Knowledge of a better world requires that we develop visions, pathways, options, goals, actions, and critiques of alternatives to the current arrangement. How do we create credible options that will move people to take seriously the possibility of creating people-first alternatives?
8. If we want to live in a world based in solidarity, equality, freedom and substantive democracy, how can we learn to practice solidarity, equality, freedom and substantive democracy in the ever-evolving present?