On January 24, 2004, Mark submitted a letter to Mother Earth News about population and construction, two topics he’d read about recently in that publication. An editor there quickly informed him that his letter would be published and then invited…
Tag: Paradigm Shift
The Friends of Ishmael Society
The Friends of Ishmael Society is an organization focused on publicizing systems thinking through the works of Daniel Quinn. Mark S. Meritt serves as a board member. Visit the Friends of Ishmael Society website.
The Game of Community
Below are the notes to a speech given to the Rotary Club of Red Hook, NY. Speech Notes Red Hook — from NYC almost 3 years ago — bought home — more for your $ — but also to set…
The Sostenuto Perspective
Sostenuto hopes to bring a systems-thinking approach to every aspect of culture. By its nature, this approach keeps an open mind, acknowledging that it can never know everything about anything. At the same time, inherent in this approach is the…
“Green”-eyed Monsters
Following in the footsteps of Pixar’s previous full-length computer-generated successes, Monsters, Inc. provides eye-popping imagery, laugh-out-loud humor and three-dimensional characters — and I’m not just talking about the animation. Most significantly, though, like its predecessors, the film creates a complete…
Trading the World — for a Better One
On the night of September 11, 2001, President Bush said that the assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon failed “to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat… Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings,…
The Invitation: When Will We Learn?
Note: This piece was written as an invitation to Mosaic: A Magazine of Arts, Sciences & Everything in Between, which evolved into this website. The links below have been updated to make sense within the Potluck context. This website contains…
To Scientific American, Re: Human Exceptionalism
Tearing down the wall of human exceptionalism, a set of false conceits that inhibits us from genuinely understanding our place in the world, has always strengthened the pursuit of natural truth. In “The Culture of Chimpanzees,” authors Andrew Whiten and…
The Unsustainability and Origins of Socioeconomic Increase
This paper was written as a masters thesis for the City University of New York Graduate Center’s Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program. It describes the unsustainable nature of our civilization and suggests ways to achieve sustainability. It won…
World Bank 2000 and the Unsustainability of Economic Growth
This paper was delivered as part of a panel discussion, “The World Bank Millennium Report: A Recipe for More Inequality,” organized by Michael L. Blim, chaired by Jarrett Zigon, and given during the 99th American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San…