According to Betteridge’s Law of Headlines, “Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.” Have I just given away the blog’s answer to the question in the title? Not exactly, because my answer to the question “is technology making us lazy” is…not exactly. At first glance, you might believe …
Tag Archives: Capitalism
What Should the Primary Purpose of School Be?
When I recently took the political compass test, I realized how many of the questions would make great blogs. This blog is inspired by the prompt “The prime function of schooling should be to equip the future generations to find jobs.” I strongly disagree with this statement, and would like to explain why. At first …
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Rise of the Modern World System: Part III
Last week we discussed how the Black Death in Europe changed the balance of power in the feudal society. As this long-running system crumbled, the merchant class began to accumulate greater and greater wealth and power. It was this increase in merchant power that led to the push to discover new trading routes in order …
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Rise of the Modern World System: Part II
Last week we introduced World Systems Theory, which characterizes our modern world as a collection of core (highly developed) countries that exploit semiperipheral (medium development) and peripheral (developing) countries. See my previous post for more details about this system. This week we begin the story of how such a system came about. Our story begins …
Rise of the Modern World System: Part 1
We live in a world that is economically interconnected on every level. When you buy a your morning cup of coffee or buy a new shirt online, chances are that the materials used to produce that finished product came from geographic regions in many different parts of the world. Depending on your community or country’s …
Green Humanist 