Sublime

People in industrialized nations used to be called “citizens.” Now we are “consumers”—which means (according to the dictionary definition of “consume”) people who “use up,” “waste,” “destroy,” and “squander.”

In modern culture, we are so accustomed to the transactional, money-for-service relationship that characterizes our capitalist paradigm that, outside of our immediate families and close friendships, we rarely experience reciprocity at the community level. If there is something we need, we think of buying it before ever considering relying on each o

Pushed off their “permanent” lands, Native Americans moved yet again. Indian Country was successively whittled down until it had been reduced to its southern tip, present-day Oklahoma. The territory’s population, drawn from all over the map, spoke to the wrenching dislocations of the nineteenth century. By 1879, it contained Cherokees, Choctaws, Ch

We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable—but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.

L’exode conquérant des Européens a également installé un ordre mondial provoquant le fameux clivage Nord/Sud et ses gigantesques disparités, en érigeant une divinité tutélaire absolue, que l’on appelle finance. Le citoyen sans salaire et sans ressource perd toute réalité sociale ; il est réduit à l’état d’indicateur du niveau minimal de la prospéri

In December, 1913, the U.S. consul in Ghent escorted the tribespeople to Marseilles to catch a boat back to Manila.