The Future of Life
Edward O. Wilson
Alfred A. Knopf 2002

[Earth] depends on its living shell [the biosphere] to create the special conditions on which life is sustainable. When we alter the biosphere in any direction, we move the environment away from the delicate dance of biology. When we destroy ecosystems and extinguish species, we degrade the greatest heritage this planet has to offer and thereby threaten our own existence.
E.O. Wilson, The Future of Life

Contemplation of the future can feel daunting at times. Global warming, overpopulation, drought and starvation, the extinction of species – the news these days is alarming. But it could be that the most insidious ecological crisis facing us is the emotional fog that often seeps into our public discussion around environmental issues. How is it possible to think of these things without a feeling of helplessness creeping in? I try, but often end up asking the same questions again and again: Is the threat real? Is it serious? How much time do we have?

In The Future of Life, Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson tells us we don't have forever. In fact, it may already be too late to save our most vulnerable life forms from extinction. As I read this, I wonder if we are among those "vulnerable life forms." I'm sure few of us consider ourselves an endangered species. Yet the message of this book, which is clear, rational, well-reasoned and very concerned – is that we ought to.

Wilson has been studying the micro- layers of our Earth for over forty years. His specialty is ants, a species he describes as the world's "leading predators of insects and other small animals." To illustrate a basic principle of evolution, he refers to his study of ants in the central Pacific, where they were introduced after the area had existed without them for millennia. "Hawaii's plant and animal communities evolved to conform to an ant-free world. They were unprepared for the shock of occupation by social predators of such high calibre. As a result, a large and still imprecisely measured part of the native Hawaiian species succumbed to their invading swarms."

The ant story is now a common scenario that can be applied to wherever people have settled on Earth. Wilson makes clear that the prime cause of incursive forces around the world is overpopulation: too many people consuming too much land and sea space and the resources they contain. Wherever we settle, we begin to eat our way down the food chain. As Wilson says, "The train of the Homo sapien, serial killer of the biosphere, reaches to the farthest corner of the Earth."

The irony is that we are, in effect, consuming ourselves into extinction. Common sense tells us that unless we curb consumption and our instincts for procreation, life in the future isn't going to be that great. At current rates of extinction, the loss of biodiversity alone promises to create a bleak, synthetic landscape; however, few seem to be questioning, as Wilson does here, what the quality of that life is going to be. Yet we'll know more about what we're dealing with and, it seems to me, will have more of a basis for averting disaster in the future if we act now. To that end, Wilson is cautiously optimistic as he describes some of the conservation and preservation initiatives, private and public, that have started in recent years. The Future of Life is a must-read for anyone seeking a balanced and credible assessment of the future we're facing.
– Swami Gopalananda

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Instinct for Freedom: Finding Liberation Through Living
Alan Clements
New World Library 2002

As soon as Clements started talking, I felt relief. He was straight-talking, intense and irreverent. At one point, he told a story about being in the jungles of Burma, fighting alongside the pro-democracy resistance against the military regime that was "liquidating Burma's rural population." Many of the fighters were monks, of whom Clements was critical for betraying their vows of nonviolence, until one of them turned to him and said, "I'm sick of your judgement. Imagine not having your passport stuffed in your pocket. You can leave any time, and go sit in a retreat – as if you know what freedom means." As Clements recounted this exchange, I understood that his fierceness came from a dedication to not only perceiving reality, which he had learned through years of intense Buddhist meditation, but also to being willing to take action within that reality in order to fight injustice, ignorance and oppression.

Clements tells this story, and many more, in Instinct for Freedom: Finding Liberation Through Living. On one level, the book follows his journey from being a disaffected youth yearning for meaning and spiritual growth to an experienced, intense fifty-year-old with a passion for finding freedom through active engagement with life. On a deeper level, Instinct for Freedom lays out the principles of World Dharma, a movement that seeks liberation through world relationships.

Divided into three sections, Instinct for Freedom takes us first through the genesis of his search for spiritual development, with all its attendant struggle, misleading choices and false starts, to his ordination as a Buddhist, and his extensive involvement with the Burmese fight for independence (which continues today). In the second section, Clements delves into the years he spent in the Burmese monastery practising Vipassana meditation twenty hours a day. Distilled from his journals, this section is an honest, subtle and remarkably accessible description of the transformation of his mind.

But it is the final section of the book that contains the reason behind its writing. "World Dharma - Liberation through Living" is the heart of Clements' message to the world. "Live your life and struggle to be who you want to be," he says. "This is my best philosophical and spiritual advice about how to find liberation." For Clements, this means valuing and learning from his relationships, experiences, emotions and humanness. He implores us to trust our natural intelligence, to engage in life and to "be vigilant in our defense against indoctrination." In other words, to never, ever be sold someone else's idea of an authentic and free life. Not even Oprah's.
- Lesley Marian Neilson

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Reflections on a Mountain Lake:
Teachings on Practical Buddhism
Ani Tenzin Palmo
Snow Lion 2002

Reflections on a Mountain Lake is composed of Tenzin Palmo's talks to audiences of Western lay people and Buddhist nuns and monks. The talks cover a whole range of subjects on Buddhist teachings,

Reflections on a Mountain Lake is composed of Tenzin Palmo's talks to audiences of Western lay people and Buddhist nuns and monks. The talks cover a whole range of subjects on Buddhist teachings, practices and spiritual life. Reading her words of openness, warmth and fluidity, I felt as if I was with her in the audience. She begins with the story of her twelve-year retreat in a cave in the Himalayan mountains, and the words that fill the book seem to flow from that deep place of concentrated practice.

The book is lively, intelligent, practical and straightforward. Each chapter ends with questions from the audience, such as: Where do thoughts arise from? Is it a good idea to take political action to right social evils? What's the process of making amends if you have acted unethically at some stage in your life? What happens if you don't keep your commitments?

One of her consistent messages is to keep it simple. She advises people not to be overcome by ambition to do more, or get more initiations and teachings. Tenzin Palmo has gained many insights and much wisdom from her practice and commitment, as if she has dug a deep, deep well from which she can bring up what is clearly needed in each different situation with people.

We all start with an undisciplined mind, and Tenzin Palmo has many excellent examples of how to approach spiritual practices and what these practices are all about. The mind has to be relaxed yet alert, and needs to be tuned like an instrument, with the knowledge of how to return to a clear place. It is then we can be of benefit to other people.

Tenzin Palmo is an example of how women are re-establishing the lineage of yogic practice for women. She is developing a Buddhist retreat for nuns and making available the teachings of Drukpa Kargyu lineage, which has a strong tradition of fully ordained female practitioners. Because of Tenzin Palmo's work, in 1995 nuns debated publicly for the first time in Tibetan history. "There is nothing that women cannot accomplish and have not accomplished in the past. It is up to us to support themit is time to appreciate the whole picture and bring the two sides together."

I enjoyed Reflections on a Mountain Lake because Tenzin Palmo is a storyteller. Like all great teachers, she uses her personal life and traditional stories to engage us in the teachings. It seems somehow easier for the mind to catch hold of profound ideas if they are told as myth and metaphor. And because she tells many personal stories – from her home life as a child, her searching as a young woman and her times with her guru – she becomes human and accessible, as well as an example of dedication.
- Swami Radhananda practices and spiritual life. Reading her words of openness, warmth and fluidity, I felt as if I was with her in the audience. She begins with the story of her twelve-year retreat in a cave in the Himalayan mountains, and the words that fill the book seem to flow from that deep place of concentrated practice.

The book is lively, intelligent, practical and straightforward. Each chapter ends with questions from the audience, such as: Where do thoughts arise from? Is it a good idea to take political action to right social evils? What's the process of making amends if you have acted unethically at some stage in your life? What happens if you don't keep your commitments?

One of her consistent messages is to keep it simple. She advises people not to be overcome by ambition to do more, or get more initiations and teachings. Tenzin Palmo has gained many insights and much wisdom from her practice and commitment, as if she has dug a deep, deep well from which she can bring up what is clearly needed in each different situation with people.

We all start with an undisciplined mind, and Tenzin Palmo has many excellent examples of how to approach spiritual practices and what these practices are all about. The mind has to be relaxed yet alert, and needs to be tuned like an instrument, with the knowledge of how to return to a clear place. It is then we can be of benefit to other people.

Tenzin Palmo is an example of how women are re-establishing the lineage of yogic practice for women. She is developing a Buddhist retreat for nuns and making available the teachings of Drukpa Kargyu lineage, which has a strong tradition of fully ordained female practitioners. Because of Tenzin Palmo's work, in 1995 nuns debated publicly for the first time in Tibetan history. "There is nothing that women cannot accomplish and have not accomplished in the past. It is up to us to support themit is time to appreciate the whole picture and bring the two sides together."

I enjoyed Reflections on a Mountain Lake because Tenzin Palmo is a storyteller. Like all great teachers, she uses her personal life and traditional stories to engage us in the teachings. It seems somehow easier for the mind to catch hold of profound ideas if they are told as myth and metaphor. And because she tells many personal stories from her home life as a child, her searching as a young woman and her times with her guru she becomes human and accessible, as well as an example of dedication.

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Mechanics of Destruction
Radio Boy
2002

Mechanics of Destruction, Radio Boy's "personal soundtrack to Western society's deliberate and malicious empirical ambitions," is a techno-rapturous, energetic CD that sounds far more jovial and cantankerous than its subject matter suggests. Who knew that creating audio samples of the act of destroying fast-food packaging could sound so appealing? Mechanics of Destruction offers abundance of sonic wonder: alternately soft and sonorous, with staccato cyber-whistling morphing into techno beats that reveal the insidiousness of industrial ruin. Rhythmic and replete with original sounds, Mechanics of Destruction takes listeners on a journey through music that mixes the convulsive chugging of a steam engine with microchip bleeps that recall a good, old-fashioned game of Ms. Pacman.

It's not simply the music that makes Radio Boy's art interesting. The intellectual, political philosophy and praxis that encapsulates his work makes Radio Boy an extremely compelling artist. At the Mechanics of Destruction website, you are able to read Radio Boy's analysis of Western commercial imperialism in the age of illegally elected, oil-thirsty presidents. Radio Boy writes about connections between "the defining myth of our time. The myth of the free market," at a time when it's difficult "to imagine Western governments acting in matters of war where there isn't the promise of profit."

Radio Boy applies a sensitive and necessary critique of Western leaders' motivations in their senseless acts of destruction, in his own acts of creation. And he actively manifests inspired alternatives. He creates and proliferates his music in a truly free and subversive market style. If you go to Radio Boy's website at www.themechanicsofdestruction.org, you'll find Mechanics of Destruction to download. Alternately, if you send Radio Boy a self-addressed envelope, he'll stamp it and send you a copy of his fun musical boon.
- Kendra Ward

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Y mi verso quedar... Son Jarocho de Santiago Tuxtla Various artists Alec Dempster (producer) 2002

click here to listen

In August, Dempster and his wife Kali Nino Mendoza visited Montréal to perform the music he has spent the past three years not only learning, but preserving. As I learned from Dempster, son jarocho is in danger of extinction due to poverty and the resultant migration of rural youth to urban areas. Seeing this, Dempster has sought out and recorded performances by son jarocho's old masters, many of whom had not played for years. These recordings have been compiled into a CD and accompanying booklet entitled Y mi verso quedar.

Son jarocho originates from the late seventeenth century, a musical result of the contact of African slaves and the indigenous peoples, whose villages were wiped out by Spanish cattle farmers. Son jarocho is the music of a labouring, oppressed rural people. Each son tells a story, myths full of pain, joy, life experience. An emotional spirit in these sones is evident to the listener, even one who does not speak Spanish, through the passionate voices and the determined strumming of the guitarra de son.

Captured by Dempster on a small mini-disk recorder in the backyards and porches of the musicians, these are truly live recordings. Absent is the polish we've come to expect on a CD, even in our world music. Through these sones, I am reminded how the word "live" comes from the word life, and how music that is separated from its roots through professionalization can lose the spark that makes it real. These recordings of son jarocho are not technically perfect, but their simple, raw quality works wonderfully to communicate not only the social conditions where this music is played, but also the feeling and passion of its players.

That Y mi verso quedar can operate on these multiple levels gives it importance as a cultural and political document, as well as a musical one. There are stories within stories here: the birth of a musical tradition, its threatened existence. But looking closer into each son, we also hear stories of grief, longing, love and, as the booklet describes, "the construction of an intangible space where one can begin to decipher what the seashells have been trying to say during so many sleepless nights."
- Gordon Allen

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Doing Time: The Politics of Imprisonment Lecture by Ward Churchill G7 Welcoming Committee,* 2000

click here to listen

Doing Time: The Politics of Imprisonment is one of a handful of spoken word CDs produced by the G7 Welcoming Committee. The lectures on these CDs cover topics such as US human rights policy, modern propaganda and the untold histories of social justice movements. In Doing Time, American intellectual Ward Churchill explains how institutions such as the FBI and the US criminal justice system control and even inhibit social activism.

"This may resonate with you," Ward Churchill tells his Winnipeg audience. He then launches into a description of the FBI's Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), a program that was explicitly used to undermine key US activist organizations until it was exposed in the early 1970s. He suggests that Canadians may find the information useful, given that our very own RCMP is trained by the FBI, and its charter is modeled on theirs.

A long-standing activist with the American Indian Movement, the American Anti-Defamation Council and the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Churchill is also a respected academic at the University of Colorado/Boulder. In Doing Time: The Politics of Imprisonment, he traces the connections between the origins of prisons, police and the modern nation state with the social construction of race and its essential economic and political functions. Using detailed examples, he illustrates how these institutions have been used to neutralize those who organize against systemic oppression.

Churchill's knowledge and references are vast, his analysis is explosive, and his cutting eloquence is an auditory treat for the first-time listener, as well as for those already familiar with his work.

But his words resonate in more ways than one.

Speaking almost exactly one year before US President George Bush's now legendary line, "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists," Churchill cautions that COINTELPRO continues to exist in other forms, their efforts now simply falling under the banner of "counter-terrorism."

The facts bear him out. The US Patriot Act and Canadian so-called anti-terrorist Bill C-36 have resulted in the detention and suspension of the judicial rights of thousands of Muslims, Arabs and South Asians across North America. Librarians and booksellers have been forced to secretly provide the FBI with user information. The Canada Customs and Revenue Agency is creating a "Big Brother" database that will collect details of the foreign air travel of all Canadians for six years and can be cross-matched with their tax files, police files or other government records. The military is now routinely called in to round up protesters at large demonstrations, and the US is stepping up pressure on Canada to beef up its defense spending.

"Thought," says Churchill, "is the real menace to social order in a repressive state." More than ever before, Doing Time is crucial listening for anyone interested in social justice in North America.

*The G7 Welcoming Committee is an independent media outlet whose main function is to produce and distribute audio by and/or for people working for radical social change. - Laila Malik

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