Recent Articles

Clothes With A Conscience (Conscious Choice) -  So, am I wearing sweatshop-made clothes? Probably. But how can I know for sure?

Against Schools  (Spinning Globe) -  How public education cripples our kids, and why.

The Silence Of The Lambswool Cardigans (AlterNet)  -  It's not easy for anyone to stay pure of Payless and Wal-Mart. Good stories, too – pricey organic and free-range and shade-grown food that is only available in the hipper stores of the fancier regions – can be a luxury.

Television Addiction Is No Mere Metaphor (SciAm)  -  Most people admit to having a love-hate relationship with it. They complain about the "boob tube" and "couch potatoes," then they settle into their sofas and grab the remote control.

Teaching Commercialism (AlterNet)  -  Good grief, they're turning field trips into come-ons for tiny shoppers, teaching the crass art of consumerism

One Mom's Struggle With Brand Mania (AlterNet)  -  As a caring, understanding parent I worry about what this slavish devotion to brand names does to my pocket book and to her morality.

Cool Commodities (AlterNet) - There's no question that dissent has become cool, and nothing sells quite like "nonconformity." Billboards across the country encourage us to "think different" in a campaign that features none other than Mahatma Gandhi himself stitching his own clothes (khadi) in an explicitly anti-colonial, anti-capitalist gesture.

Just One Look (CSM) - Cosmetic surgery may be pointing more individuals toward an aesthetic sameness that could change the way we view identity.

Little Farms On The Prairie Bow To A Wal-Mart Era  (CSM) - 'Promised land' struggles to diversify - and survive.

Live By Their Tools, Die By Their Tools  (Lip Mag) - Political limitations of culture jamming.

Fast Food Fascism (CommonDream) - The fast food industry stands against the personal values that made this country great.

Brand America (CommonDream) - Move Playboy into China, and it's another feather of freedom in the Yankee cap.

Commercial World (AlterNet) - This merciless industry is targeting doctors offices, movie lobbies, commuter trains, convenience stores – even ski lifts!

Revolution, Hemp Style Now (AlterNet) - Canada and most of Europe allow their farmers to grow industrial hemp. Why has the hemp revolution bypassed the United States?

Life In Plastic (Economist) - No amount of human willpower can defy the might of the pink princess.

Instead of Scattering, Families Are Living in the Same Town (WSJ) - In a little-noticed but steadily growing trend, the American extended family is making a comeback.

Levi Strauss And The Price We Pay (Organic Consumer) - The cost of apparel has declined for a quarter century, helping make Americans the best-clothed people in history. All is right in the world, unless you ask how it happened.

Growing The Alternative Economy (News for Change) - “But if I don’t buy Nike or Gap, what should I buy?”

Go Into The Woods Young Man (CSMonitor) - A Vermont alternative school taps into native American survival skills to help boys focus and gain confidence.

To Worship Winning (Resurgence) - Modern sporting achievement has its roots in aggression.

Commercialism In A Can (Common Dreams)  - 5,000 schools in the United States have contracts to sell soda pop and candy from vending machines and fast food in school cafeterias.

Weapons of Mass Distraction (Salon)  - A new breed of computer games is teaching today's teenagers how to wage, and win, the war against terror.

Chain Reaction (CSMonitor) - Conserving American character, town by town.

If The Shoes Doesn't Fit (Grist) -Sometimes, a simple task like buying a pair of sneakers turns into an exercise in coming to understand our place in the world.

It's an Ad, Ad, Ad World (TIME)  -  As conventional methods lose their punch, more marketers are going undercover to reach consumers .

Who Owns Our Children's Minds (American Values) - Advertisers want to - in their own words - "own your child", and they will if you don't stop them. Find out just how serious the media threat is, and what you can do politically to fight it.

What's Happening to the American Home? (CSM) - Traditional ideas of home as a place of refuge and comfort are being challenged by a 'work-centric' culture and ever-larger houses.

Advertising Can Ruin Your Health  (LIP Magazine) - Consuming, in other words, is our placebo. Consuming and advertising provide easy temporary solutions to whatever ails us.

Corporate Corruption  (Guardian) - The conflicts of interest driving US financial scandals are being replicated on a global scale.

Do You Know What's Going On? (AdBusters) -  Never have so many communicated so much, on so many screens, through so many channels, absorbing so many hours of irreplaceable human attention.

The Culture Of Make Believe  (GNN) - We are members of the most destructive culture ever to exist.

Addicted to Oil (AlterNet) - Confronting America's worst habit.

When Everything Is Made In China (Rense) - It's not hard to connect the dots. "China is becoming a manufacturing superpower,"

Revolution Via Homeschooling (World Net Daily) - The only effective group of citizens today in open opposition to big government are the home schoolers.

Buy, Buy, Baby (ABC News) - Companies taking the fight for consumer loyalty to kids.

How Wal-Mart is Remaking Our World (AlterNet) - Corporations rule. No other institution comes close to matching the power that the 500 biggest corporations have amassed over us.

Mounting Evidence Links TV Viewing to Violence  (CSMonitor) - Report that TV affects violent behavior, even in adults.

Branded For Life? (CSMonitor) - By first grade, most US children are aware of some 200 logos.

Videots Delight ( Working For Change) - The next time your kids are playing video games, check out the action. They may be buying into the new video game racism that William Pierce is peddling.

The Center for a New American Dream works toward a less materialistic society (ENN ) - Your neighbors are expanding their house, the driveway across the street is starting to look like a luxury car lot, and your kid's room is filling up with video game cartridges, $150 sneakers, and bean-filled toys.

How Consumerism Affects Our Society, Our Economy and the Environment (Verdant) - Imagine yourself in the following world..

Do We Really Love Our Children (VegSource) - The fast food industry is destroying the family structure and rituals of cooking, sharing stories and beliefs.

Nine Pioneers of Mental Environmentalism (Adbusters) - Aldous Huxley was talking about this 50 years ago, when he said it wasn't so much the un-truth of information, but the complete irrelevance of information that was going to be the problem in the end.

The Birth of Mental Environmentalism (Adbusters) - Information flows have reached critical levels in a culture polluted with mental toxins. Synchronize your watches. This is the birth of the mental environmental movement.

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