Heresies

THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE ABOUT THE FUTURE

November, 1995 through December, 1996

Click here for most recent Heresies articles.

Updated: Wed, 03 Dec 97 14:09:27 -0700 (PDT)

The Battle of the Five (or Maybe More) Sexes
By Walter Truett Anderson
Date: 11-27-96
The battle of the sexes is no longer one between men and women. A recent article in the respected magazine The Sciences points to evidence of at least five distinct biological sexes among human beings, and our cultural definitions of gender need to embrace that reality. The issue goes beyond semantics and affects the fate of the one out of every 2,000 babies born with "abnormal" genitals. PNS associate editor Walter Truett Anderson is a political scientist who has authored numerous books on the environment and lifestyle. His latest book is "Evolution Isn't What It Used To Be" (W.H. Freeman).
Sex, Violence and Redemption -- Soccer Hero Ignites Debate in England
By Veronique Mistiaen
Date: 11-26-96
A top professional football player assaults his wife in an incident which brings widespread condemnation from fans. But this story, from PNS correspondent Veronique Mistiaen, is set in England, where football is soccer and the coach of the national team has taken on the daunting task of reforming the player. Mistiaen is a London-based freelance reporter.
Shedding Light on the Value of Darkness
By Deborah Knight
Date: 11-21-96
The right to enjoy the night is the cause closest to the heart of a crusade headed by Dan Green, an astronomer with a strong memory of his childhood delight in the stars. It seems an unlikely crusade, but PNS correspondent Deborah Knight reports that new technological developments mean Green's dream might be possible. Knight is a columnist and environmental writer based in Lexington, Mass.
Truth Commission Spotlights CIA Role -- Our Man in South Africa
By Jeff Stein
Date: 11-01-96
Millard Shirley, a longtime "Africa hand" for the CIA according to co-workers, died in an automobile crash in Switzerland in 1990. But a South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission is resurrecting his life as it intersected with the white regime's campaign to disrupt and destroy the anti-apartheid movement. PNS correspondent Jeff Stein is a former deputy foreign news editor for UPI and author of "A Murder in Wartime: The Untold Spy Story that Changed the Course of the Vietnam War." Stein taught investigative reporting in South Africa on a U.S. government grant in 1995.
Who Are the Real Bad Sports? -- The Fans in the Bleachers
By Richard Rodriguez
Date: 10-14-96
About the only issue on which Al Gore waxed passionately during last week's vice-presidential debate was Oriole baseball player Roberto Alomar's behavior. Americans admire baseball, after all, for being a game of rules. Yet perhaps for that very reason, baseball is no longer America's no. 1 pastime. If we want to blame anyone for coarse behavior, we should look to ourselves. PNS editor Richard Rodriguez, author of "Days of Obligation: An Argument with my Mexican Father," writes essays for the Los Angeles Times Sunday Opinion and PBS' The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.
Promise Keepers' Outreach to Minorities -- More Than a Cynical Ploy
By Andres Tapia
Date: 10-03-96
As the largest mass movement on the evangelical landscape, the overwhelmingly white male Promise Keepers is seeking to recruit religious minorities. While liberal critics view this as a cynical ploy to swell the ranks of the Religious Right, one Latino writer who has covered the movement since its inception believes there is a genuine bonding occurring based on mutual feelings of marginalization. PNS associate editor Andres Tapia is a Chicago-based freelance writer who writes regularly for Christianity Today.
Presidential Candidates Ignor Scandal -- Revelations of Covert Drug Dealing Confirm Black Fears
By Linn Washington, Jr
Date: 09-26-96
For decades black community leaders have accused the government of deliberately flooding their neighborhoods with cheap drugs. Better black criminals than black activists, was the theory. With new revelations by the San Jose Mercury News of covert government involvement in drug dealing in Los Angeles, reality justifies so-called black paranoia -- but you'd never know it judging from the presidential candidates. PNS commentator Linn Washington Jr., a graduate of the Yale Law Journalism Fellowship Program, writes frequently on criminal justice issues.
THE GREAT ASSASSINATION DEBATE -- IS IT TIME TO KILL SADDAM HUSSEIN?
BY JEFF STEIN, PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE
Date: 09-12-96
A groundswell of American voices is calling for the head of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. But a 20-year ban on political assassinations, plus cautionary warnings from some experts, argues against that option. PNS analyst Jeff Stein reports on the assassination debate. Stein is a frequent contributor to The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Baltimore Sun and the author of "A Murder in Wartime: The Untold Spy Story that Changed the Course of the Vietnam War" (St. Martin's Press 1992).
Welfare Reform Scapegoats the Easy Target -- Americans Fear the Poor Who Work
By Richard Rodriguez
Date: 08-05-96
Last week's welfare reform act reflects a seachange in how Americans view the poor. While President Clinton and House Speaker Gingrich vie for credit for the change, the real reason is Americans' growing fear of immigrant workers. PNS editor Richard Rodriguez, author of Days of Obligation (Viking-Penguin), is an essayist for The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.
The Olympics -- Pushing Paganism to the Extreme
By Richard Rodriguez
Date: 07-18-96
In a society that cares little about the notion of a pure inner life, a clean body must do. And there's no higher ideal in America right now than the athletic body, muscled, toned, hard. The Olympics are nothing if not a pagan celebration of the body, as close to the original Greek nude version as possible. PNS editor Richard Rodriguez, author of "Days of Obligation," is a regular essayist for PBS's The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.
Pharming -- A Word to Watch
By Walter Truett Anderson
Date: 07-08-96
Pharming is only one of dozens of new words being grafted onto the English language by revolutionary advances in technology. But this one may have a far greater impact on the health and welfare of the world's poorest countries than other advances in science and technology like the computer. PNS associate editor Walter Truett Anderson is a political scientist and author of numerous books exploring future trends.
From School Room to Shopping Mall -- Students Absorb a Monocultural Version of Multiculturalism
By Abouali Farmanfarmaian
Date: 06-25-96
Across the country this past year students have learned a sari-'n'-curry approach to multiculturalism. Now that school is out, they'll absorb a similar version of multiculturalism at the mall. Both are just variants of America's Hollywood-and-Coke monoculture. PNS commentator Abouali Farmanfarmaian is an educational consultant and a freelance writer.
Death of the Individual and Birth of the Multiple Person
By Walter Truett Anderson
Date: 06-06-96
The most profound change going on at the end of the 20th century may not be the post-Cold War reshuffling of political and economic power but the psychological transformation taking place among people everywhere. PNS associate editor Walter Truett Anderson is a political scientist and author of numerous books exploring future trends.
Scalia Scores Gays for America's Sexual Meltdown
By Richard Rodriguez
Date: 05-21-96
In a venomous opinion this week, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia denounced what he called the "disproportionate political power" of gays in this society. His attack highlights the way in which gays are being singled out for punishment for what is a far greater change underway, an American sexual meltdown. PNS editor Richard Rodriguez, author of "Days of Obligation" (Viking-Penguin) and a regular contributor to the News Hour with Jim Lehrer.
Neo-Luddism the Latest Fashionable Topic -- On Campuses, in Coffee Shops, Over the Internet!
By Walter Truett Anderson
Date: 05-15-96
Not the least of the many ironies the new wave of anti-technology rhetoric is that it depends for its growth on the Internet and its anti-hero is the Unabomber -- who apparently kept three typewriters, once the epitome of high technology. PNS associate editor Walter Truett Anderson, author of "Evolution Isn't What It Used To Be" (W.H. Freeman), is a political scientist who writes widely on technology and global governance.
Why Americans Need to Rethink Our Definition of a Job
By Franz Schurmann
Date: 04-19-96
American policy makers are convinced that jobs are what keep this country together but, increasingly, jobs are helping pull the country apart. Part of the problem lies in how Americans understand the meaning of the word "job." By measuring its value exclusively in terms of the money it earns for the worker, we divorce it from its true value -- the ability to connect people to each other. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, a professor emeritus of history and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, is the author of "American Soul" (Mercury House).
What Adam Smith Couldn't Answer -- G-7 Nations Grapple with Riddle of More Money and Fewer Jobs
By Franz Schurmann
Date: 04-16-96
Western economic theory has long held that money and economies are inextricably linked -- if the money supply is ample, employment should grow and vice versa. But the lesson of the late 20th century confounds this view: only Japan of the world's major industrial powers knows how to keep an economy going with full employment. And the key to its success has less to do with money than with culture. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, a long-time scholar of East Asia, is professor emeritus of history and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of a forthcoming book on social capital. This is the first of two articles on healthy economies.
Beware Human Rights Crusade that Leads to Demonization
By Franz Schurmann
Date: 03-25-96
Uncle Sam is on a values crusade abroad, promoting democracy and human rights while damning terrorism and drugs. The public should beware when the values crusade coincides with a demonizing crusade that divides the world into good guys versus bad guys. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, author of "The Logic of World Power" and other books on foreign affairs, is professor emeritus of history and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley.
Let's Put an End to "The End of" Books
By Walter Truett Anderson
Date: 03-04-96
Book publishers are having a field day putting out books hailing "the end of..." There's more to this than literary license. It reflects the widespread sense we're sailing not only into a new century but into a profoundly different world. PNS associate editor Walter Truett Anderson is a political scientist specializing in issues of global governance and author of the forthcoming "Evolution Isn't What It Used To Be." He can be reached via e-mail at <waltt@well.com>.
Can Women Be Evil? -- Why There are So Few Females on Death Row
By Richard Rodriguez
Date: 03-01-96
Why does America put so many more men to death than women? Is it because we think women are less evil than men? As more women assume public roles, we may be less inclined to romanticize female virtue. In some future feminist era, the number of female prisoners on death row could even match the number of men. PNS editor Richard Rodriguez, author of Days of Obligation (Viking-Penguin), is a regular essayist for the News Hour with Jim Lehrer.
Best Hope for Ending Genocide Lies in Decapitating Militias
By Franz Schurmann
Date: 02-21-96
Western fears of genocide have triggered an intense debate over the best way to guarantee civil order and prevent a worldwide outbreak of ethnic cleansing. Some insist on Nurnberg-type legal tribunals for war criminals. Others advocate global mediation between warring groups. But neither approach addresses the root problem of militias. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, a professor emeritus of history and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, is author of numerous books on global politics.
Search for Scenarios -- World's Elites Peer Anxiously into the Future
By Franz Schurmann
Date: 02-13-96
The search by the world's elites for accurate projections of the future grows ever more intense as their stake in the global economy deepens. Fueling their unease is the sense that an American-led global order based on control over world oil may be waning. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, a professor emeritus of history and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, is author, most recently, of "American Soul" (Mercury House, 1995).
"Just Say May Be" -- Finding a Middle Path Through the Drug Problem
By Walter Truett Anderson
Date: 02-07-96
The "National Review's" special issue advocating the legalization of drugs has rejuvenated the national debate over the drug war. But just as mobilizing state power to stamp out drugs isn't working, neither will a libertarian leap into a world regulated by personal choice and the open market. What we need is to navigate a precarious path between the two. PNS associate editor Walter Truett Anderson, a political scientist specializing in issues of global governance and author of the forthcoming "Evolution Isn't What It Used To Be." He can be reached via e-mail at <waltt@well.com>.
Curfew Laws -- No Panacea for Juvenile Crime
By Vincent Schiraldi
Date: 02-01-96
California Gov. Pete Wilson is pushing a state-wide juvenile curfew as the most effective way to cut juvenile crime. The idea has instant appeal, but a look at crime data in cities where curfews have been tried suggests they do more for the politicians who propound them than for the public that pays to enforce them. PNS commentator Vincent Schiraldi is Executive Director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, a non-profit public policy organization based in San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
Republican Revolution's Eerie Parallels With Iran
By William O. Beeman
Date: 01-18-96
Few Americans would imagine a parallel between politics in the U.S. and politics in Iran. Yet the dynamic that shaped Iran's turbulent and unpredictable revolution is strikingly similar to the dynamic driving the Republican Revolution in the United States. PNS associate editor William O. Beeman is an anthropologist at Brown University who lived and worked in Iran for close to a decade.
Like Crack for the Female Psyche -- "Waiting to Exhale" Takes Male-Bashing to an Extreme
By Joan Walsh
Date: 01-08-96
The male-bashing taken to an extreme in "Waiting to Exhale" is starting to seem a little like crack for the female psyche -- exhilarating in the short term but ultimately crippling and dangerous. What viewers need is an outreach and intervention program to counteract the values the film portrays. PNS associate editor Joan Walsh is a San Francisco-based writer. A version of this article also appears in the on-line magazine Salon.
Astroturf -- The Big Business of Fake Grassroots Politics
By Walter Truett Anderson
Date: 01-05-96
A new term has joined the jargon of the high-tech, media-smart political class: astroturf. It refers not to fake grass but to fake grassroots -- as in outpourings of public opinion made to look like spontaneous communications from the bottom but, in reality, engineered by spin doctors at the top. PNS associate editor Walter Truett Anderson, a political scientist whose books include "Reality Isn't What It Used to Be," is a fellow of the Meridien Institute on global governance.
New Role for CIA -- Spying on Biological Invaders
By Walter Truett Anderson
Date: 12-18-95
In the post-Cold War world what people worry more about biological invaders -- diseases, weeds, insects -- than the dangers of a nuclear holocaust. Yet political leaders have been slow to catch on to the brave new world of biological globalization and the threats it poses. PNS associate editor Walter Truett Anderson attended a conference of ecologists and medical scientists in Lisbon on the subject. Anderson is a political scientist who writes widely on issues of the environment and global governance. His newest book, "Evolution Isn't What It Used to Be," will be published in 1996.
Laying Groundwork for New Political Morality -- Worldwide Drive to Try Former Leaders for Past Misdeeds
By Rami Khouri
Date: 12-07-95
Around the world a movement is underway to hold former leaders accountable for their past misdeeds. This drive not only has the capacity to make degraded people feel a rejuvenated sense that justice prevails but to lay the foundations for a new global political morality. PNS commentator Rami Khouri, former editor of the Jordan Times, is a noted author and analyst of Mideast affairs.
Who Says Democracy is Good for Bangladesh? Foreigners.
By Andrew Robinson
Date: 10-23-95
In 1991 Bangladesh shifted to democracy, a fashionable move that helped earn it the reputation of "Asia's rising star." At home American concepts of democracy and economic freedom have as little resonance with the Bangladesh psyche as they might have in the 18th century -- or, for that matter, the last millennium. PNS correspondent Andrew Robinson is a writer who has lived and worked in South Asia for several years.
Self-Determination: A Political Principle Whose Time Has Passed
By Walter Truett Anderson
Date: 11-15-95
Self-determination as a political principle has long evoked visions of dignity and freedom. But in practice, more often than not, it has resulted in bitterness, violence, genocide and murder, as evidenced by the recent assassination of Israel's Prime Minister and ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia. PNS editor Walter Truett Anderson is a fellow of the Meridian Institute, a U.S.-Canadian organization concerned with global government. His next book is entitled "Evolution Isn't What it Used To Be: The Augmented Animal and the Whole Wired World."
Climate Change: Information -- Our Main Weapon Against Global Warming
By Walter Truett Anderson
Date: 10-17-95
Over the past years an ocean of scientific data has accumulated indicating global warming on a scale that will seriously, maybe even drastically, affect human life everywhere. Yet because this ocean is invisible no politics of scale has arisen to mobilize the world's people to meet this challenge. Nevertheless the information now being relentlessly gathered throughout the world provides the only weapons we have for mastering the menace. PNS writer Walter Truett Anderson is a fellow of the Meridian Institute, a U.S.-Canadian organization concerned with global government. His next book is entitled "Evolution Isn't What it Used To Be: The Augmented Animal and the Whole Wired World."
America's Fault Lines: Beyond Race and Environment -- New Homegrown Terrorism Reveals Other Gaping Fault Lines
By Jorge Aquino
Date: 10-10-95
Until this week's train derailment, the one lucid explanation that has appeared for the new homegrown terrorism in America is the Unabomber's manifesto. Widely viewed as the product of white radical environmentalist thinking, in fact the manifesto is derided and vilified by environmentalists. It connects to a much older tradition of American rebels that dates back to the Revolution. PNS analyst Jorge Aquino is a Bay Area reporter specializing in religious journalism.
Cyberspace: Vietnamese Americans Discover the Rice Field in the Microchip
By Andrew Lam
Date: 09-27-95
Anti-technology feelings are running high these days, not just in the sentiments expressed by the Unabomber but among many ordinary Americans who believe technological progress means more lonely, isolated people. But Vietnamese Americans offer a different experience. For them, high tech has fused the future with the past. PNS editor Andrew Lam is a Vietnamese American reporter and short story writer living in the Bay Area.
21st Century Trends: Why Eugenics is Here to Stay
By Walter Truett Anderson
Date: 07-27-95
Scary as it is, eugenics can neither be wished nor willed away. It is being folded into our lives for a variety of reasons, and there is little governments can do to stop it even if they wanted to. PNS associate editor Walter Truett Anderson, a fellow of the Meridian International Institute, is a political scientist whose next book is entitled "Evolution Now: The Augmented Animal and the Whole Wired World."
The World in Chaos: Chaos Theory Teaches That Things Come Together Even as They Fall Apart
By Franz Schurmann
Date: 06-27-95
The gloom-and-doom politicians who warn that everything is falling apart fail to grasp a key scientific principle -- that while there is chaos in all order there is also order in chaos. The danger of the chaos view in politics is that it becomes self-fulfilling prophecy. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, a professor of emeritus of history and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, is author of "American Soul" (Mercury House, 1995). This is the second of two articles on chaos as a world view.
Science Steps Across the Animal-Human Boundary: Fears of the Chimera Reemerge
By Walter Truett Anderson
Date: 06-12-95
As science takes more and more people across the human-animal boundary, the ancient fantasy of the chimera -- a being part human and part animal -- is becoming a scientific reality. PNS editor Walter Truett Anderson explores the ancient fears that are reemerging as the human-animal line blurs. Anderson, a fellow of the Meridian International Institute, is a political scientist whose next book is entitled "Evolution Now: The Augmented Animal and the Whole Wired World."
America's New Political Fundamentalism
By Andrew Reding
Date: 05-05-95
Political fundamentalism is an ideology that like its religious counterpart thrives on simplifications. In the case of America's militias, gun and property rights movements, it blurs the complexities of history in its interpretation of the Constitution and the beliefs of founding fathers like Thomas Jefferson. PNS associate editor Andrew Reding explores the origins of the new fundamentalist doctrine. Reding directs the North America Project of the World Policy Institute at the New School for Social Research.

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