Bruce Levine
The Missing Piece in the Battle for U.S. Democracy
There are at least three major pieces to the puzzle of transforming the “corporatocracy” (rule by giant corporations, the extremely wealthy elite, and corporate-collaborator government officials) into something closer to democracy. And activists often neglect the third piece.
The Missing Piece in the Battle for U.S. Democracy
Activists routinely become frustrated when truths about lies and oppression don’t set people free to take action. But as a clinical psychologist who has worked with abused people for more than 25 years, it does not surprise me to see that when we as individuals or as a society eat crap for too long, we […]
Get Up, Stand Up”: Do Americans Have What It Takes to Stand Up to Corporate Power and Does Wisconsin Offer Hope?
Bruce Levine, in an interview with Susan Warner, discusses his upcoming book “Get Up, Stand Up,” which analyzes why Americans have been crushed into inaction and how recent events in Wisconsin offer hope for change.
The Myth of U.S. Democracy and the Reality of U.S. Corporatocracy
Polls show that on the major issues of our time — the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, Wall Street bailouts, and health insurance — the opinion of We the People has been ignored on a national level for quite some time. While the corporate media repeats the myth that the United States of America is a […]
The Myth of U.S. Democracy and the Reality of U.S. Corporatocracy
Polls show that on the major issues of our time — the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, Wall Street bailouts, and health insurance — the opinion of We the People has been ignored on a national level for quite some time. While the corporate media repeats the myth that the United States of America is a […]
Phil Ochs, Tom Paine, and American Redemption
In the 1960s, singer/songwriter/revolutionary Phil Ochs was sometimes described as “Tom Paine with a guitar.” Without regard for political correctness, both Paine and Ochs confronted all illegitimate authorities and hypocrisy. America paid them both back by marginalizing them at the end of their lives and ignoring them for decades following their deaths. With Phil Ochs: […]
Phil Ochs, Tom Paine, and There But For Fortune
In the 1960s, singer/songwriter/revolutionary Phil Ochs was sometimes described as “Tom Paine with a guitar.” Without regard for political correctness, both Paine and Ochs confronted all illegitimate authorities and hypocrisy. America paid them both back by marginalizing them at the end of their lives and ignoring them for decades following their deaths. With Phil Ochs: […]
Get Up, Stand Up
Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite
Polls show that the majority of Americans oppose recent US wars and Wall Street bailouts, yet most remain passive and appear resigned to powerlessness. Many Americans have lost confidence that genuine democracy is possible, and Get Up Stand Up explains how major US institutions have created fatalism. When such fatalism and defeatism sets in, truths about economic injustices and lost liberties are not enough to set people free—something else is required. For democratic movements to get off the ground, individuals must recover self-respect, and a people must regain collective confidence that they can succeed at eliminating top-down controls. Get Up, Stand Up describes how anti-elitists can unite and recover dignity, confidence, and the energy to wrest power away from the ruling corporate-government partnership (the “corporatocracy”). Get Up, Stand Up details those strategies and tactics that oppressed peoples have successfully employed to gain power.
Surviving America’s Depression Epidemic
How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy
The rate of depression is the United States has increased more than tenfold in the last fifty years, and American mental health institutions have become part of the problem rather than the solution. The good news is that age-old wisdom and legitimate science—uncorrupted by the profit-margin pressures of pharmaceutical and insurance companies—have much to inform us about revitalizing depressed people and a depressing culture. Surviving America’s Depression Epidemic provides an alternate approach that encompasses the whole of our humanity, society, and culture, and which redefines depression in a way that makes enduring transformations more likely.
Commonsense Rebellion
Taking Back Your Life from Drugs, Shrinks, Corporations, and a World Gone Crazy
In recent years the mental health industry has been attacked for the invalidity of its illnesses, the unreliability of its diagnoses, the ineffectiveness and dangers of its treatments, and its corruption by drug companies. Commonsense Rebellion integrates those critiques and goes further, arguing that “institutional mental health” has diverted us from examining an important rebellion. This rebellion—mainly passive and too often self-destructive—is against an increasingly impersonal and coercive “institutional society.” What has previously been pathologized is rehumanized and suggestions are made for regaining autonomy and community, and replacing self-destructive rebellion with commonsense rebellion.
