Examples of Parallax Views – Page 17 – Glen's Parallax Perspectives

SEE THIS IMAGE: We’ve banned OTHER kinds of WMDs. Now let’s ban NUCLEAR weapons too.

January 25, 2022 GlenAnderson 0

People can indeed solve problems! Do not get discouraged! In recent decades we have banned SEVERAL KINDS of Weapons of Mass Destruction: In 1972 the world banned BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS. In 1993 the world banned CHEMICAL WEAPONS. In 1997 the world banned LAND MINES. In 2008 the world banned CLUSTER MUNITIONS. NOW LET’S BAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS TOO. Click this link to see the inspiring, persuasive image: We banned OTHER KINDS of WMD. Now ban NUCLEAR weapons The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) went into effect on January 22, 2021, for the nations that have ratified it. Since […]

“How Dare You” — a short poem

January 25, 2022 GlenAnderson 0

This short poem by Mack Johnson was published on page 5 of the January 2022 newsletter of the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action (www.gzcenter.org), which is located next to the Trident nuclear submarine base — the largest number of nuclear weapons anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. Mack Johnson is a retired school teacher and an active volunteer at Ground Zero. How Dare You How dare you prepare to blow up the world? How dare you give people jobs that destroy life instead of building it? How dare you think that security comes from killing instead of loving? […]

The filibuster and the deception of “bi-partisanship” prevents our nation from solving serious problems!

January 25, 2022 GlenAnderson 0

First, let’s be clear that the filibuster is NOT in the Constitution! The filibuster is merely a rule that the Senate imposed upon itself. This silly rule could be abolished if the Senate wanted to pass important legislation. The filibuster is a way for a minority of senators to prevent a majority (51 to 59 of them) from passing legislation to solve our nation’s problems. The filibuster was used repeatedly to prevent the Senate from passing Civil Rights legislation long ago. It is used now to prevent passing legislation that would solve serious problems regarding voting rights, the environment, the […]

The U.S. has REPEATEDLY threatened to attack other nations with our nuclear weapons!

January 25, 2022 GlenAnderson 0

Most Americans think the U.S. has used atomic bombs only twice (on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945). Actually, the U.S. has PERSISTENTLY used them as an ongoing threat — and has ACTUALLY SPECIFICALLY THREATENED NUCLEAR ATTACK on 30 occasions from 1946 to 2006. (I don’t know how many times since then, but we all remember a few of Trump’s explicit threats.) During times of international crisis the President goes on TV and tells the nation and the world that “ALL OPTIONS ARE ON THE TABLE.” This is the euphemism for threatening to destroy the other nation that the U.S. president […]

Gandhi quotation encourages underdogs pushing against the Establishment

January 21, 2022 GlenAnderson 0

Mohandas Gandhi (the “Mahatma”) was a very savvy and strategic organizers of nonviolent grassroots movements. He knew first-hand what it was like to organize against a powerful Establishment, such as the racist, oppressive, exploitative British Empire. See this brief quotation, which all of us underdogs should find encouraging as we organize uphill against powerful political, social and economic oppressors: Gandhi quotation encourages underdogs fighting the Establishment

FLYER / FACT SHEET on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

January 21, 2022 GlenAnderson 0

The Olympia Coalition is joining the WORLDWIDE CELEBRATION of the first anniversary after the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) went into effect on January 22, 2021. I sent our Saturday celebrations to ICAN, and they posted the information to the ICAN events calendar: https://www.icanw.org/106247/bannering_and_sign-holding_at_olympia_wa_usa Also, I wrote an EASY-TO-UNDERSTAND ONE-PAGE FLYER/Fact Sheet that succinctly explains the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, why it’s important, and how people can get more information. I promote our Olympia group, our statewide WANW coalition, and ICAN. It needed a 14-inch page, so – if you want to print it […]

Bridging the gap between strategic and principled nonviolence

January 17, 2022 GlenAnderson 0

Some people think nonviolence is nice and ethical, but not strong enough to win results in the real world. Actually, “people-power” movements that are strictly nonviolent have been proven to be much more effective than movements that include some violence. Nonviolence is a powerful methodology, especially when the organizers develop savvy nonviolent strategies to activate their principles. See this article about bridging the gap between strategic and principled nonviolence Stellan Vinthagen’s 2015 book “A Theory of Nonviolent Action” develops a new theoretical framework for what nonviolence is. https://wagingnonviolence.org/rs/2019/05/stellan-vinathagen-book-theory-nonviolent-action-review/

Martin Luther King urged a “Radical Revolution of Values” — Learn about this here.

January 17, 2022 GlenAnderson 0

Our society and our whole world are in several serious crises all at once. Powerful forces keep making things worse. They want to intimidate us — to make us sit down and shut up so they can continue to oppress us. But better values do exist, and nonviolence is actually more powerful than The Establishment. (My free online workshop series “Nonviolent Grassroots Organizing” helps us understand and use nonviolence in clever, strategic ways.) Ever since the Civil Rights Movement’s era, I have appreciated Martin Luther King’s strong, bold, radical message and his methodology. I have read his books and studied […]

Martin Luther King recognized very serious problems, but he remained hopeful. We can be hopeful too — and keep pushing ahead!

January 17, 2022 GlenAnderson 0

The people reading this blog know a lot about the many problems — the many VERY SERIOUS problems — that endanger our world, our nation, and ourselves. It would be easy to sink into cynicism and despair. Powerful forces want us to do that and to give up. But even while Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., recognized the horrible problems, he remained hopeful that we can indeed solve the problems. We also need to stay hopeful — and stay strategically focused and active — until we win. I appreciate King’s “Testament of Hope.” It still sounds as relevant today […]

The U.S.’s “democracy” is seriously weakening!

January 17, 2022 GlenAnderson 0

The U.S. likes to think of itself as the best democracy in the world — and a beacon and role model for other nations. American politicians like to brag about this. But ACTUALLY, the U.S.’s democracy has been SERIOUSLY WEAKENING for a number of years — and in several ways. Our nation suffers many serious problems, but extremely rich people and big businesses profit from those problems (pollution, low wages, racial injustices, an out-of-control and constantly escalating war machine, elections that are dominated by Big Money, news media that favor the Establishment, Republicans’ many deliberate actions to cheat in elections […]

Minimum wage is trapped too low. CEO/worker pay gap increases widely.

January 17, 2022 GlenAnderson 0

For many years Congress has refused to raise the minimum wage. Many states refuse to raise their minimum wage above the federal minimum. Meanwhile, extremely rich people have gotten extremely more rich. Rich people and big businesses fund Congressional candidates’ campaigns. We must get Big Money out of election campaigns. And we need the news media to report more vigorously on the horrible inequality between extremely rich people and everybody else. See this powerful image about the VERY LOW federal minimum wage and the EXTREMELY HIGH INCOMES of corporate executives: (It is safe to open this image, even if you […]

“America First” is morally wrong, cruel, stupid, dangerous, and counter-productive in many ways

January 16, 2022 GlenAnderson 0

Trump pushed an “America First” dogma, but the slogan pre-dated him by nearly a century. Isolationists tried to pretend that the U.S. could exist by itself without regard to the well-being of the rest of the world. They believed we could get away with being selfish. Also, that was the English language translation of Hitler’s slogan, “Deutschland uber alles,” which meant Germany over everybody else. Selfishness and contempt for other people are morally wrong for reasons any decent person should immediately understand. The “America First” dogma leads directly to cruelty toward other nations. The “America First” dogma also leads […]

Let’s Recognize Legal Rights for Nature

January 2, 2022 GlenAnderson 0

The January 2022 episode of “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” provides a fresh perspective — and proposes a fresh solution — for some environmental problems that are serious but are not being solved by conventional methods. Glen Anderson interviewed two experts — Kai Huschke and Elliott Moffett — who have savvy insights and practical experience working to protect environments and establish legal rights for nature. Very often, when people want to protect the environment by filing appeals in governmental hearings or in courts, the environmentalists’ cases are dismissed because – even though the environment is being hurt – those individuals themselves are […]

Links to very smart articles to help us communicate more effectively about the climate — and other issues too

December 26, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

Smarter ways to communicate — instead of “the seven deadly sins of politi-speak”: https://www.nationofchange.org/2021/06/30/the-seven-deadly-sins-of-politi-speak/ Users’ Guide: Climate Messaging 1. Start with people, stay with people. Say why it matters (to you and your audience). Connect with values—family, community, working together for good. 2. Use facts wisely. Talk facts not science. You lose people with jargon and too many numbers. A memorable fact from a trusted source is far more powerful. 3. Make it concrete. Keep language vivid (wind and solar, not “alternative energy”). Start with personal (what we see at home), scale up to global. 4. Focus on […]

Good news! Chile’s voters elected a young, very progressive president!

December 26, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

Since the 1840s Chile had Latin America’s oldest and longest-running democracy — until President Nixon, Henry Kissinger, the CIA, and Chile’s military and mining companies overthrew it on September 11, 1973. They installed General Pinochet, an EXTREMELY BRUTAL dictator who murdered and “disappeared” thousands of Chile’s people and ran the nation in a fascist way to serve big business and the military. A 1998 referendum restored democracy in 1990 after 17 years of dictatorship. In recent years several South American nations have flexed between right-wing leaders and left-wing leaders. On December 19, 2021, Chile’s voters elected 35-year-old Gabriel Boric, a […]