DIGGING DEEPER LXVII: The real wealth of nations

Details

On Mon. evening, Dec. 29, UFPPC's book discussion group will examine Riane Eisler’s The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics.[1]  --  Eisler, sometimes classed as an eco-feminist, is the well-known popularizer of Maria Gimbutas's speculations on the overthrow of a peaceful egalitarian matriarchal society early in human pre-history and its replacement by a patriarchal society based on oppression and war.  --  In The Real Wealth of Nations, published in November 2008, Eisler argues that "We stand at an evolutionary crossroads in our human adventure on Earth.  We can continue with 'business as usual' -- even though both science and our native intelligence tell us that the mix of high technology and an ethos of domination and conquest may take us to an evolutionary end.  Or we can use the great gifts we were given by evolution to create a new economic story and reality—a caring economics that supports both human survival and human development and actualization" (The Real Wealth of Nations, pp. 234-35).  --  Digging Deeper meets Mondays from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Mandolin Café (3923 S. 12th St., Tacoma)....

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WHAT:  Digging Deeper LXVII: The real wealth of nations
WHO:  Led by Mark Jensen
WHEN:  Monday, December 29, 2008 -- 7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
WHERE:  Mandolin Café, 3923 South 12th St., Tacoma, WA 98405

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United for Peace
of Pierce County
Study Circle:
December 29, 2008
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www.ufppc.org
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UFPPC study circle

DIGGING DEEPER LXVII: The real wealth of nations

On Dec. 29, Digging Deeper will examine The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics.  Publishers Weekly had this to say about the book:  “Accomplished feminist social theorist and activist Eisler follows up her 1987 international bestseller The Chalice and the Blade with an inquiry into the nature and causes of 'the real wealth of nations' in a contrarian work of grand economic theory.  She begins with her original thesis:  that we inherit and inhabit a personal and social world that masculinity has built by consistently devaluing and subordinating the feminine.  Pointing out the socially and ecologically destructive flaws inherent in both capitalist and socialist economies, she then asserts that our emerging global society needs a new story of what human nature and economics are and can be.  For Eisler, economies are social inventions imbedded in larger social systems.  She offers a clearly written and compelling account of how the masculine 'dominator' mentality brought us to our present juncture, and how a feminine 'partnership' mentality can help us redefine key concepts such as 'value' and 'needs.'  Citing the most recent economic data and offering numerous relevant examples of places where efforts to practice a caring economics have succeeded both in preindustrial and modern societies, such as the Nordic nations, the book is ambitious in breadth, depth and scope.  Eisler delivers another impressive work that's remarkably well referenced, well argued, insightful and hopeful.”  -- 

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Since July 2004, United for Peace of Pierce County (www.ufppc.org) has been conducting “Digging Deeper,” a Monday-evening book discussion group, often in the form of a study circle.  Topics have included peak oil, climate change, the corporation, torture, Iran, U.S.-Iran relations, the writings of Robert Baer, Islam, American immigration policy, Barack Obama and the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., Saul Alinsky’s life and writings, war and human nature, parallels between the U.S. and ancient Rome, the sustainability revolution, and the debt crisis, as well as abiding themes of war, peace, politics, and social change.  Occasionally, the group has spent several weeks reading longer works, like Daniel Yergin’s The Prize or Robert Fisk’s The Great War for Civilisation.

DIGGING DEEPER meets every Monday from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Mandolin Café, 3923 S. 12th St., Tacoma, WA.

Participation is free and all who are interested are welcome.  For more information contact Mark Jensen (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).