Dangerous Minds is a blog I have a lot of time for, which generally features stuff about music, funny videos, and general not-that-political fun. They do have a political agenda though, particularly chiming with SSY’s views about drug prohibition.
Each week they do an interview with an interesting person, usually someone who has a new book out or something. This week they’ve spoken to Prof. Michael Lebowitz, who has just published ‘The Socialist Alternative: Real Human Development.’ I’ve not had the chance to get hold of a copy yet, but his previous one ‘Build it Now: Socialism in the 21st Century,’ was absolutely brilliant.
Prof. Lebowitz has done a lot of work as part of the ongoing revolution in Venezuela, and a major focus of his work is recapturing the idea of socialism as a society that would allow everyone to develop their maximum potential. He sees socialism as a direct democratic system that allows people to take control of their own lives and gives them the freedom to determine their own future, much like we do. He writes about the need in workplaces to have real worker control by breaking down the division between those who think and those who do, so that everyone is deciding together about the way forward, and then making it happen together. His work is really worth a look, and to give you a flavour I’ve embedded the interview with him above. Some of the questions are a bit North America-centric, but it’s still worth a watch.