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Propaganda - "The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general populace. It is their function to amuse, entertain, and inform, and to inculcate individuals with the values, beliefs and codes of behavior that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society. In a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class interest, to fulfill this role requires systematic propaganda." Noam Chomsky (see A Propaganda Model)

Postmodernism - In the postmodernim a cultural wasteland arises in consciousness as capital commodifies human thought and action. As a result of corporate capitalism's drive to seek profits wherever possible by injecting itself into human consciousness with its control of cultural definitions of the "real" and desireable, society's ideological posture reflects corporate control of publically owned media. It (corporate capitalism) seeks to create fear of stigmatization and isolation of one's self; it seeks to create artificial needs. Corporate capital now succeeds at convincing humanity that humanity is separate from, not part of nature. The consumer replaces the citizen as a political subject.

Much of industrialized humanity now persues consumer life-styles.

Much of industrialized humanity romanticizes male ideals above a reverance for life.

Much of industrialized humanity has a great interest in the "real," but a pornographic understanding of the visible.

Much of humanity experiences alienation, resentment, and a detachment from others as "reality," reflecting an existence directed by conspicuous consumption and relationships definded by commercial values.

Post-modernism reflected in literature tends to create characters with individual perspectives, transcending the modernist "stream of consciousness" as found in James Joyce; now characters may individually interpret one another's "meaning," accurately or not. The question becomes, as in contemporary life, which perspective mirrors nature as we might find in Shakespeare? See Tony Morrison's Sula for an excellent post-modern novel. More importantly, which system of beliefs mirrors actually existing nature, human and nonhuman?

See George Herbert Mead's Philosophy of the Act, as well as his Mind, Self, and Society for a dialectial, evolutionary discription of the postmodern, American Pragmatism's narrative on the relativity of the self.

Post-Patriarchial: Patriarch usually means a group's leader is male. The Green Paradigm submits that since at least the agrarian revolution, men have defined symbolic behavior, social relations, and nature. Women literally must find their own space in this top-down, male dominated existence. (Note how women universally negotiate for space in male dominated environments -- quite unsconsciously, this learned behavior is never questioned.). Greens recognize and consciously try to resist this behavior and patriarchail thinking. (return to FAQs)

Race - A term used by the German anthropologist Bloomenbach toward the end of the 17th century to classify humans. Race became a cultural myth as it was used by dominant cultural groups (US slave owners, for example) to further bolster their dominant ideologies. (See Ashley Monteque's Man's Most Dangerous Myth: Race.) For discriptive purposes, the idea of race has some merit in medical science, but in limited cases, and certainly no scientific standing to justify conceiving it as anything other than a social construction, not unlike community and national borders. (return to links) (return to Racism) (Anti-Racism)(Evolution of Racism)(Return to Home Page)

Racism - Racism says that "I am different from and therefore inherently (i.e. without even trying) better than you." Blumenbach provided the formula; the Dred Scott Court acknowledged it; Hitler perfected it." Racism arises from bigoted attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and actions related to theories of race and imposed on others because of their physical characteristics, language, or national origin. Theories of race and racism rely upon stereotypes and generalizations created from naive assumptions related to genetics, and social and cultural beliefs. Frederick Douglas proclaimed that race would be the biggest problem of the 20th century. See race above.

SCIENCE AND WORLDVIEWS Is the earth dead or alive? The ancient cultures of east and west and the native peoples of America saw the earth as a mother, alive, active, and responsive to human action. Greeks and Renaissance Europeans conceptualized the cosmos as a living organism, with a bod I I spirit, and the earth as a nurturing mother with respiratory, circulatory, reproductive, and elimination systems. The relationship between most peoples and the earth was an I-thou ethic of propitiation to be made before damming a brook, cutting a tree, or sinking a mine shaft. Yet for the past three hundred years, western mechanistic science and capitalism have viewed the earth as dead and inert, manipulable from outside, and exploitable for profits. The death of nature legitimated its domination. Colonial extractions of resources combined with industrial pollution and depletion have today pushed the whole earth to the brink of ecological destruction. Carolyn Merchant

Self-reliance - To care for immediate and long-term needs to one's utmost ability. Self-reliance in a Green context shares some similarities with the notions of the 19th century transcendentalists Emerson, Thoreau, and others. In Green politics, the term also takes on a critical context when used to understand relationships between individuals, groups, communities, and nations. For example, "self-reliance" is an ideological term when used by the dominant political parties of the US. When used by Greens, it is also used in terms of the US's failure to seek ecological self-reliance to the greatest extent possible. The implications of this term as the corporate-state dominants locally and internationally are profound for students of Imperialism in its historical and current usage.

Sentience - feeling or sensation as distinguished from perception and thought. (return to Animal Rights and Sentience Issues)

Seventh Generation - Used in various contexts, the Seventh Generation of human and nonhuman life forms remains approximately 210 years in the future of any existant humans. Sociologically, a generation comes and goes about every 30 years, the estimated average age (until most recently) for an "average" human life. Greens estimate that it will take roughly 200 years before today's deadly practices change significantly. To reflect a genuine ecological paradign shift.

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