Greatest Hits Archives — Page 19 of 160 — Alternative Radio

Blaming the Victim: Roots of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Richard Forer
Blaming the victim is as old as the hills. It occurs when the victim of a crime or tragedy is held at fault for the harm that befell them. In other words, you had it coming to you. The great scholar Edward Said ruefully remarked that the Palestinians were the victims of the victim hence it was very […]
Income Inequality
Chuck Collins
Income inequality has soared to the highest levels since the Great Depression. And the Great Recession has done little to reverse the trend. In the first full year of the so-called recovery, the top 1 percent of earners took 93 percent of the income gains. The IMF warns, “Some dismiss inequality and focus instead on […]
The Radical Democratic Tradition
Cornel West
Throughout history there have been individuals who have challenged conventional wisdom and have stretched societal limits. Collectively they constitute the radical democratic tradition. A sterling example of this lineage is Rosa Parks. Segregation was entrenched throughout the South. Montgomery, Alabama was one of its bastions. But on December 1st 1955, this 43-year old activist transformed […]
Tipping Points: Environmental & Political
Noam Chomsky
Tipping points are in the air. And with good reason. A planetary emergency looms in the not-too-distant future. This isn’t alarmist talk but the best judgment of our leading scientists. The prestigious International Union for Conservation of Nature has just issued its starkest warning to date: “Humanity has reached a tipping point. Our window of […]
Dollarocracy
Robert McChesney, John Nichols
Dollarocracy: a system of government where private wealth determines political outcomes. Sound at all familiar? The corruption bred by boatloads of cash contaminates and pollutes our entire political process. So-called reforms won’t cure the ailment. Radical surgery is required. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. understood this well when he counseled, “Timid supplications for justice will […]
Real Politics, Real Poetry
Amiri Baraka
The role of creative people in society has long been debated. Should they focus on their art and stay away from politics? Poets, writers, painters, filmmakers, musicians, artists in general occupy a unique position. Their impact and influence extend far and wide. They illuminate realities in imaginative ways that expand awareness and understanding. Think of […]
Toward a Better Society
Noam Chomsky
I’m often asked about Noam Chomsky. How did I connect with the legendary MIT professor? Very simply, I wrote him a letter around 1980 and to my surprise he responded. A correspondence ensued. We did our first interview in 1984. Two years after that I decided to launch Alternative Radio as I was determined to […]
History, Trauma & the Lack of Empathy
Gabor Maté
History, “The past” as Faulkner wrote, “is never dead. It’s not even past.” Trauma, a Greek word for wound, takes on myriad shapes and forms. It often remains and reverberates through generations. There is individual trauma and collective trauma. However, just because you suffered does not give you permission to inflict suffering on others. Angela […]
Gaza in Context
Ilan Pappé
Gaza’s 2 million plus Palestinians are jam-packed in a small narrow enclave bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt and Israel. Since 2007 it has been ruled by Hamas. Hamas is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement. Israel immediately imposed a blockade. Since then, Gaza has routinely been called the world’s largest open-air prison. […]
Islamophobia
Deepa Kumar
Almost automatically the experts tell us that hostility toward Muslims and Islam takes shape after 9/11. Bigotry became a lot easier. But in fact the antagonism has much older and deeper roots. Christian Europe viewed Islam as a threat and demonized the religion, its Prophet and its followers. In the 18th and 19th centuries Britain […]
Surveillance Capitalism
Shoshana Zuboff
Surveillance Capitalism is a global architecture of behavior modification which poses profound threats to society. It was invented at Google, duplicated at Facebook, and has moved almost seamlessly into virtually every economic sector. Vast wealth is accumulated in an ominous new economic order where predictions of our behavior are bought and sold. Surveillance Capitalism has […]
Gender Equality
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Legal battles for gender equality didn’t begin with the Women’s Movement of the 1960s. But it laid the groundwork for the historic 1972 Supreme Court decision that made gender discrimination unconstitutional. That case was successfully argued by then-38-year old Brooklyn-born attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It set precedent for another ruling a few years later that […]

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