The Progressive Populist Today Blog: Selections from the February 15, 2012 issue

Interesting Gallup Results

Record High Anti-Incumbent Sentiment Toward Congress "A new record-low 11% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing this December, the lowest single rating in Gallup's history of asking this question since 1974. This earns Congress a 17% yearly average for 2011, the lowest annual congressional approval rating in Gallup history."Frank Newport, 9 Dec. 2011 The lowest low for Congress in 40 years. The obstacles placed by the Republicans to stop the government from working are getting people angry for good reason. Thank goodness elections are coming up and we can vote progressive Democrats in and get the government working, ahem, I mean progressing! Vicki

Globalization, Ecological Crisis, and Dark Ages

Sing C. Chew (14 July 2010)

“From a social evolutionary point of view, and in view of the current state of globalization, should a Dark Age occur again, it might mean a transformation involving systemic changes that might not be viewed as progressive form a modernist point of view, i.e. unceasing accumulation and growth. We will probably encounter a social-cultural and political lifestyle reconfiguration conditioned by a Dark Age whereby ecological sustainability is the basis of organization not by choice but by necessity. If this is the case, production and exchange will need to be guided by very different rules, and possibly via use value instead of exchange value, and as a result the socio-political order is one that will be quite different from the past. If this is the case, perhaps this is the system transition that scholars have all been debating over the years. In this sense, Dark Ages are interesting moments in world history!”