Good news, everyone! Being a sociopath is not immoral!

This editorial by Harry G. Frankfurt, writing for Bloomberg View, caught my attention. Especially the following paragraph:

Exaggerating the moral importance of economic equality is harmful, in other words, because it is alienating. It separates a person from his own individual reality, and leads him to focus his attention upon desires and needs that are not most authentically his own.

In other words, if you "exaggerate" the moral importance of of economic equality, you run the risk of veering away from sociopathy. So, beware! More basically, the whole editorial seems to be arguing against the strawman argument that people concerned with economic inequality on moral grounds want equality of outcomes. That is not a widely held position by people who argue about the importance of economic inequality.

Community Power Segments 01 - 05 now available here!

Community Power #5 has now aired, and I'm putting the first five segments up so you can listen to them here. As I finish the remaining segments I'll add them. The theme music is the "Apple Pickers' Reel", performed by Larry Hanks, from the Folkways Records' 1972 release Berkeley Farms: Oldtime and Country Style Music of Berkeley.

• Community Power 01 - Will Yandik, Farmers and Families for Livingston, Hudson Valley Smart Energy Coalition, and Deputy Supervisor of the Town of Livingston. Also, co-producer of this series.
• Community Power 02 - Erin Tobin, Director of Preservation at Preservation League of New York State
• Community Power 03 - Joe Gatti, Livingston Town Historian, and Will Yandik
• Community Power 04 - Pam Kline, founder of Farmers and Families for Livingston.
• Community Power 05 - Hayley Carlock, Director of Environmental Advocacy for Scenic Hudson, and Daniel P. Duthie, a lawyer representing four towns and three organizations before the Public Service Commission.

Community Power Segment #5 airing this week on WGXC 90.7 FM

This week on Community Power, I talk with Hayley Carlock, Director of Environmental Advocacy for Scenic Hudson and Daniel Duthie, a lawyer representing several towns in the Transmission Line project process. We discuss the current state of affairs in the process of approving bids for Transmission Line expansion in the Hudson Valley and the NY State Public Service Commission's technical conference: what the technical conference is for, what happened and what remains to be done. We also discuss prospects moving forward of preventing the project from happening. The interview will air in segments beginning on Wednesday, at 6:15pm on WGXC 90.7 FM and streaming online at wgxc.org. Don't miss it!

Panel in Athens NY, 8/15/2015

I'll be participating in a panel discussion with three artists and two environmental educators. It should be a pretty wide-ranging discussion of the relationship between art and advocacy, the impact of changes in our ecology on our economy, etc. Come on by if you're in the area.


Shifting Ecologies II - Panel Discussion
Aug 15, 2015: 5pm - 7pm
Athens Cultural Center
24 Second Street
Athens, NY 12015
(518) 945-2136
The panel will present and discuss the interplay between art and science on the subject of environmental change, and will conclude with a group manifestation by the river with multidisciplinary artist and activist Carrie Dashow.