Antonio Gramsci of Italy was one of the most important and original political and philosophical figures of the 20th century. He was a staunch antifascist and was jailed for years in Mussolini’s prisons. He wrote with great insight about class, culture, and the state. He said that once the state establishes ideological authority, its use of violence can become unnecessary. Gramsci was critical of intellectuals who play a major role in manufacturing consent for the policies of the hegemon, the leader. He developed such key concepts as cultural hegemony, organic intellectuals, and war of position. He warned of “morbid symptoms” afflicting so-called liberal democratic societies. Today, almost a century after his death, Antonio Gramsci continues to inspire and inform progressive activists.

The challenges humankind faces from the climate emergency to species extinction to terminal war may be difficult to comprehend, but we ignore them at our peril. Looking away is a lot easier than facing reality. Viewing the Earth as a giant shopping mall to be exploited is leading us to a literal dead end. The capitalist system solely cares about making money. Can a deep caring for the Earth emerge that is nourishing and sustaining rather than recklessly exploiting it? What creative steps can we undertake to reverse the dangerous course we are on? The clock is ticking as our precious planet takes one hit after another. Can global society wake up to implement policies that will avert catastrophe? If not, Joanna Macy says, “It’s curtains.”

The geopolitical checkerboard has seen, in recent years, a major shift. China, once a poor and ravaged country, is now challenging the U.S. for supremacy, and Washington doesn’t like it. The Pentagon is flexing its muscle. The U.S. military budget is over a trillion dollars and climbing. It’s triple what China spends. The Pentagon is planning for war. U.S. military bases surround China, yet Washington says that China is a threat. The U.S. is used to getting its way, but China won’t be easily bullied or pushed around. China has a global economic strategy. It is expanding its influence by investing in the Global South, particularly in Africa and Latin America. It is taking the lead in sustainable energy, manufacturing 80% of the world’s solar panels. While the U.S. is a military powerhouse, China is increasingly an economic one and most likely will supplant the U.S. as the global hegemon in the coming decades.

From ancient Athens to 21st-century America, the rhetoric is the same. When "the dogs of war" are set loose, there is a cascade of jingoistic platitudes and cliches. We want peace. When we fight a war, it is just. We are good. The enemy is evil. We are victims seeking justice. We are making the world safe for democracy. And if they were honest, they'd add, We are making the world safe for lexical and moral hypocrisy. Erasmus, the great 16th-century philosopher monk, said of war, "There is nothing more wicked, more disastrous, more widely destructive, more loathsome." He then added that war was useful to a government, for it enabled it to extend its power over citizens. Erasmus warned that "Once war has been declared, then all the affairs of the State are at the mercy of the appetites of a few."

Many people, when they hear the word propaganda, immediately associate it with Nazi Germany and torchlight parades or Putin reviewing the troops in Red Square. But propaganda has Roman Catholic church origins going as far back as 1622, when Pope Gregory issued a proclamation using the term to exhort the faithful to propagate the faith. Today, propaganda is disseminated far and wide through the internet. It is used by autocrats to shield themselves and their policies from public view. Bots are at work. Malicious actors spread fake news. Deceptive techniques are so sophisticated that it is sometimes difficult to separate fact from fiction. Misinformation is eroding public trust in institutions and stressing and straining democracy. Stories are planted, rumors are spread, lies are told, and narratives are laundered.

Political activist Abbie Hoffman, speaking at the Jack Kerouac Festival in 1982, said that the social movements of the 1960s would not have happened without the cultural revolution of the 1950s. Poet Allen Ginsberg was the spokesman for the Beat Generation literary movement, and a powerful voice for civil rights, free speech, and the peace movement, his entire life. Ginsberg and Kagyu Tibetan lineage holder, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, founded Naropa Institute – now University in Boulder, Colorado. Allen’s Buddhist meditation practice and poetics entailed keen observations of the ordinary. We’ve gone into the AR Archive, and recordings from a few musical performances in celebration of his one-hundredth birthday.

AI, artificial intelligence, is rapidly expanding along with its promises and dangers. On the promises side, tech bros like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, thanks to AI, “We will see diseases get cured at an unprecedented rate.” AI critics such as Geoffrey Hinton, a Nobel Prize winner who has been called the “Godfather of AI,” warns of the technology’s “profound risks to society and humanity.” He adds, “People haven't understood what's coming.” He likened AI to “a very fast car with no steering wheel.” Unregulated AI will likely trigger a global economic crisis with its projection of massive layoffs. AI can speed up production, thus making corporations richer, but many workers will be laid off, e.g., Meta is cutting thousands of jobs. Amazon and Microsoft will follow. How will the capitalist economic system deal with AI?

What is fascism? Michael Parenti, author and historian, says, “Fascism historically has been used to secure the interests of large capitalist interests against the demands of popular democracy. Then and now, fascism has made irrational mass appeals in order to secure the rational ends of class domination.”  Fascism flourishes in times of economic insecurity and cultural backlash. Opportunistic politicians offer up a platter of racism, xenophobia and hyper-nationalism. They stoke fear and resentment using simplistic slogans such as “Drain the Swamp” and “Build the Wall.” In the U.S. today, there is a whiff of fascism in the air. Witness the march of white supremacists with torches held high in Charlottesville, chanting “Blood and Soil,” an old Nazi slogan and “Jews Will Not Replace Us.” The president called them “very fine people.” Recorded at Trent University.

On February 28th, Israel attacked Iran. Almost immediately, the U.S. joined the fray. The claims against Iran are eerily similar to those made against Iraq in 2003. Remember back then, Baghdad supposedly was a great danger. Today, it is Iran we are to fear. It’s an “imminent” threat we are told. No evidence is given. None is needed. The master has spoken. The U.S. must take military action. To paraphrase an old song, “propaganda runs deep, into your brains it will seep.” Washington has never forgiven Iran for ousting the Shah. If the U.S. didn't destroy democracy in Iran in the 1953 coup, things would have turned out differently. The geopolitical and economic consequences of this war will be felt not just in the U.S. but around the world for years to come. Recorded at Princeton University.

A new world order is emerging that is dangerously more wicked and destructive. Led by the United States, it is marked by savagery at home and abroad. The old order has collapsed, buried under the weight of its contradictions, mendacities and hypocrisies. The so-called rules-based international system was never what it was designed to be but it had some merit, such as the United Nations and its agencies. Today, that framework is shattered. The U.S. is the imperial hegemon, the global robocop. Rules, laws, treaties, and agreements are all gone. Washington, with its trillion-dollar military budget, commands the waves and the skies. Law, UN resolutions, and judgments from the International Court of Justice are for designated enemies. The master and his servants are exempt. Our media, with few exceptions, are stenographers to power.