• home
  • posts
  • category
  • system change
  • Info, news & debate

    System change posts

    Why international investors (i.e. ‘the 1%’) couldn’t care less about politics

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 22-Oct-2015 | 0

    Bloomberg recently covered a Credit Suisse report on the concerns of international investors in the US, in Europe and in Asia. What they found was very interesting – that their concerns were entirely economic. They just couldn’t care less about politics – and especially who gets elected in which country. Read more

    Rebels vs the Empire: why real life is like Star Wars

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 11-Oct-2015 | 5

    My brother is not politically or philosophically motivated, not particularly well read, and doesn’t keep up with current affairs. Most people are like that. Let’s call them ‘the mainstream’, if that’s not disrespectful. I don’t think it is – he’s my brother, after all. Read more

    Class War vs Cereal Killer: is this the way to promote anarchism?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 29-Sep-2015 | 19

    You must know by now about Class War‘s ‘attack’ on hipster cereal cafe ‘Cereal Killer‘. It wasn’t much of an attack, to be honest – no-one was hurt and they were open again the next day. But were they right to target Cereal Killer in their anger about the gentrification of Shoreditch? Read more

    If Corbyn became PM, what would he really be able to achieve in this system?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 26-Sep-2015 | 2

    First, to reiterate something that has been pointed out on this site many times – the corporate empire is global and governments are national, and that fact alone means that national governments are in no position to challenge the corporate sector. Read more

    Conversation with the ‘Moneyless Man’: our problems are way beyond policy changes – we need a new system

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 12-Sep-2015 | 23

    Mark Boyle, the ‘Moneyless Man‘ came to visit last Wednesday. It was the first time we’d met, although we’ve exchanged emails for years. As I suspected I would, I found him to be an inspirational character. Read more

    What were your ‘light bulb moments’ in understanding the way the world works? Here are mine

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 21-Aug-2015 | 2

    Here’s a rash statement, but I believe it to be true. Most people these days know, either rationally or intuitively, that humanity is heading in the wrong direction. If you ask people whether we’ve seen the back of ecological calamaties, financial collapses, corruption, poverty or war Read more

    Suggested campaign to remove unnecessary regulations from independent businesses

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 19-Aug-2015 | 14

    Three things have happened to me recently that have made me realise that local, independent and/or community-owned businesses have been put at a huge disadvantage as regards regulations that cover their activities, and the independent sector is being unnecessarily penalised for the damaging activities of the corporate sector. Read more

    More details of the ujamaa collective village system in Tanzania (from first-hand experience)

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 17-Aug-2015 | 0

    This is an account of my visit to two ujamaa villages in Tanzania in the early 1990s, plus a lot more background information on the system itself. The ujamaa system has since been dismantled after pressure from the World Bank, but at its height, 20 million people out of a total population of 24 million… Continue reading More details of the ujamaa collective village system in Tanzania (from first-hand experience) Read more

    10 reasons we need a non-corporate system as well as a sustainable one (and there are many more)

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 15-Aug-2015 | 0

    Like all environmental / social change organisations, we’d like humans to live in a sustainable system. But unlike many other organisations, we clearly state that we’d like that system to be non-corporate. What do we mean? Read more

    How to answer the question: ‘if you don’t like this system, what do you want to replace it with?’ – aka a review of The Democracy Project by David Graeber

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 30-Jul-2015 | 5

    Graeber was a leading light in the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the book begins with a fascinating insider’s view of the goings-on in and around Zucotti Park in 2011. The most important point in the book for me though was the reminder that people always want a blueprint for a new society Read more

    If you’re not exactly ‘time-rich’, here’s how you can change society with your money as well as your actions

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 24-Jul-2015 | 0

    Since Lowimpact began as LILI in 2001, we’ve offered a constantly increasing bank of information, courses, products, services, books, magazines, links, videos and advice for people wanting to change their lives – to live in a more sustainable and less corporate way. Read more

    Greece v the Empire; how to understand what’s being done to the Greeks

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 16-Jul-2015 | 15

    I’ve been thinking about how to write articles about the fact that we live in a corporate empire – trying to work out a way to present the idea, thinking that it would sound rather silly or extreme to many ears. Then a former World Bank economist (Peter Koenig) says: Read more

    Thoughts about the Breaking the Frame gathering and an idea for a potential spin-off

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 14-Jul-2015 | 14

    I’ve just returned from the Breaking the Frame gathering – a long weekend at Unstone Grange in Derbyshire. My head is still spinning from the workshops, talks and panels featuring specialists on technology around GM, the military, nuclear power, surveillance, synthetic biology, health, energy, toxics annd climate, plus TTIP, emerging and alternative technologies. Read more

    Good luck to Greece, and why you won’t find the real reasons for their crisis in the mainstream media

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 06-Jul-2015 | 21

    It’s so ironic that the biggest lesson in how to destroy democracy is being delivered to the world in the birthplace of democracy. Read more

    Why I’d like to bring together radical academics and people building a sustainable, non-corporate system on the ground

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 05-Jul-2015 | 3

    I’m going to the Breaking the Frame gathering on Thursday, representing Lowimpact.org. The event has been organised by Corporate Watch, Scientists for Global Responsibility, Rising Tide and Luddites200. Dave King of Luddites200 contacted a couple of years ago and I’ve been going along to his ‘politics of technology’ reading group one evening a month since. Read more

    City bans fracking; legislators overturn it and receive $25k each from oil and gas industry. Is this democracy?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 03-Jun-2015 | 0

    A city in Texas voted to ban fracking within its city limits. The ban in Denton passed with around 60% of the vote. Read more

    How would you rank these in order of importance: truth, happiness, justice, freedom?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 01-Jun-2015 | 1

    It’s the next readers’ question in Philosophy Now magazine (much recommended, by the way), and when I saw it yesterday, I had a very strong reaction to it that has big implications for Lowimpact’s position on sustainability and democracy Read more

    Invitation to join us at Breaking the Frame gathering in Derbyshire in July

    David King of | 22-May-2015 | 0

    NB: Dave from Lowimpact.org will be giving a talk about the Ujamaa2 idea on the Saturday afternoon, and the whole event will bring together people from various parts of the ‘alternative technology’ field Read more

    How Julius Nyerere’s Ujamaa idea could form the basis of a new global political system

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 12-May-2015 | 26

    In 1991, I spent a couple of months in two Ujamaa villages in Tanzania. The Ujamaa system was introduced by Julius Nyerere in the early 1960s, and the World Bank effectively killed it as a system in the late 80s, although a few independent Ujamaa villages survived into the 90s. I’m going to briefly describe… Continue reading How Julius Nyerere’s Ujamaa idea could form the basis of a new global political system Read more

    What’s the ‘next system’ going to look like?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 24-Apr-2015 | 28

    I want to bring your attention to this group, if you don’t know them already. They’re called ‘The Next System Project‘ – very slick, very American and very new (founded in March this year), but what they’re saying is rare and, I believe, essential. Read more

    There’s a crash coming – a slap from Mother Nature. This isn’t pessimistic; it’s realistic.

    The human impact on nature and on each other is accelerating and needs systemic change to reverse.

    We’re not advocating poverty, or a hair-shirt existence. We advocate changes that will mean better lives for almost everyone.

    Sign up to our newsletter

    Facebook icon Twitter icon Youtube icon

    All rights reserved © lowimpact 2023