Friends,
Lately I've had a desire to explore contemporary progressive political theorism, criticism, and commentary. I've journaled extensively on my political ideologies, and on the Political Compass Test I register at the intersection of Anarcho-Socialism, Anarcho-Collectivism, and Anarcho-Communism, but I recognize the utopian idealism of this trifecta and that an under-educated, uninformed, and apathetic populous will never realize such a vision. I've got the classic texts by Noam Chomsky and the mammoth
No Gods No Masters: An Anthology of Anarchism, but I wanted to read something more current.
Being a Sanders supporter and an advocate for Democratic Socialism, several video shorts by Robert Reich found their way into my feed over the years. For those not immediately familiar with him, Reich is a powerful and positive figure in American politics who has worked tirelessly to educate the American people about what has gone wrong from the Reagan administration forward, and, more importantly, specifically what we can do to repair and restore accountability in governance and in corporate behavior. Reich served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century.
He's written 18 best-selling books, and co-created the award-winning documentaries
"Inequality For All," (streaming free on YouTube), and
"Saving Capitalism," (now streaming on Netflix). Reich routinely posts concise video shorts to his website and social media outlining how we can take our country back. The next time you feel like exploring the causes and consequences of political action in the 20th century with a hopeful message for the future, I invite you to check out his video shorts on
robertreich.org, or either of his documentary films, which provide a simple but clear primer on the fundamentals of where we are as a nation.
I've just reserved a copy of Reich's latest book -
The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It published in 2020 in the midst of the Trump presidency. I'm hoping it goes into greater depth than his documentary films so I can develop a better understanding of our political climate.
If any of you have read
The System or any of Reich's other books, I'd welcome your thoughts for or against his writing, as well as any other recommended literature on the subject.
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