Capitalism, Oligarchy, and Ecocide
A Five Week Course on How we Got Here: Sep. 2025
Five Mondays starting September 8th at 7:00 PM EDT, 4:00 PM PDT
There is one system that stands at the nexus of almost all our problems, and that is capitalism.
It is time to look at the underpinnings of the troubles. Understanding is a powerful thing. When we come to understand the systemic issues that lie beneath the day to day events, it helps eliminate distraction and false narratives.
Class one will be an overview of where we stand and a short history of capitalism and corporatocracy. Capitalism was a natural development coming out of a Europe run by monarchs, but it was flawed from the start. And late capitalism is literally driving the current ecocide, including the climate crisis.
Class two will explore the global commons, and various alternatives to what we have now, such as the gift economy.
Class three will be about the effect of consumerism on the natural world. I am getting the link for the documentary “Advertising and the End of the World” by Sut Jhally and everyone who signs up will get a link to watch it. The ecocide has been accelerating for a few generations. It is hard to take in. You will be disturbed. But knowledge is the first step to active participation in another path.
Class four will tie the capitalists system used by the oligarchs to enrich themselves and control our politics on a global level directly to the ecocide.
Class five will explore solutions, both at the institutional level and the personal level, with the understanding that institutions have largely failed up till now. Without government buy-in these solutions are limited and harder to implement. It comes down to a personal choice about the world and our place in it.
For the last year, or more like last decade, the oligarchical forces have gotten so powerful that we have been reduced to spending all our energy putting out fires. I have come to the conclusion that we must come to terms with the underlying causes of this mess while simultaneously continuing to fight the fires that spring on a daily basis.
Understanding the forces that have shaped our world for the past several centuries and that are driving the looming ecological and social collapse is essential to finding solutions.
I have been thinking about this problem and studying it for around three decades. It’s time to have a broad public conversation. This is my contribution to that discussion.
The course is Pay What You Want, down to zero. But every penny helps me keep the lights on. The structure will be a set of materials that go out on Tuesday, starting September 2nd, with a 45 minute Zoom discussion each following Monday, starting September 8th.
The Zoom dates are as follows: September 8, September 15, September 22, September 29, and October 6. I will try to set up the record feature. I picked that time because it is not to bad on either coast. I am need at least 7 people to begin, so the start date might move back if needed.
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Please join me!