Here's our latest newsletter, featuring a short essay from Laurie, Spencer, and Emily on deep understanding and action. Bryant's technological sublime short series begins this Wednesday, April 12 at 7 p.m. US Central Time and will continue for the following three Wednesdays (April 19, 26, and May 3). We hope to see you there!
This week begins Bryant Macfarlane's four-part short series, On the Sublime and the Beautiful: Impacts of the Technological Sublime. This group will meet starting Wednesday, April 12th at 7 p.m. US Central Time on Zoom and will meet the following Wednesdays: 4/19, 4/26, and 5/3. Register on Eventbrite or become a Patron with us at Patreon where the... Continue Reading →
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Laurie will be live on zoom tonight at 7 p.m. US Central Time to discuss a bit about Aquinas and natural law and then to focus on his views on property. She'll compare his views on private property with the neoliberal view as exemplified by Milton Friedman. To that end, part of the session she'll be reading a section from the draft of the book she's currently writing. The chapter is "Ideological Strong-Arming" and she spends some time discussing how Friedman helped set up the conditions for what we now call "capitalist realism."
Spencer, Emily and Laurie continue their conversation about the history and "failure" of the first attempt, instigated by Spencer, to start an urban farm collective, based on sharing resources and labor, in Kansas City. We discuss the various obstacles Spencer, and then Emily too, continued to face as they tried to cooperate with others who claim to share the same values and goals. What does it take to get people who agree they are of like minds to actually consistently cooperate? This is not an easy question to answer, but it gets to the heart of why most experiments like this are ultimately deemed "utopian." If we understand the main pitfalls, does that help us find a way to succeed, even a little
Mark your calendars! Wednesdays April 12, 19, 26, and May 3 at 7 p.m. CST, live on Zoom. Join The Maurin Academy's Bryant MacFarlane as he leads this four-part series to unpack classical and modern theories on individual and social motivations through aesthetics. You can register on our Patreon here, at patreon.com/maurinacademy, or on our... Continue Reading →
Spencer, Laurie and Emily delve into the history of Spencer's attempt to form a collective of friends in Kansas City, and why it failed. The aim was to pool resources and labor, live better and influence the growing and food scene. The lessons learned are generally applicable and hopefully useful to anyone who is interested in cooperating with others in a quasi-communal setting or getting involved in smalls-scale local farming.
In this Dustbowl Diatribes episode, Spencer, Laurie and Emily have a frank discussion with a small businesswoman with rental properties in Kansas City, MO. Reminiscent of our discussion with Dan Krull on the loss of community gardening space due to development in the city, which makes the city less human and livable, Mary Farmer talks about how a big developer in her area is making it hard for her to stay in business and even harder for her tenants and others in the area who count on affordable housing. Mary points out that the goal of mass-transit and bike-reliant areas of the city may be ideally good, but they backfire dramatically if 1., decision makers fail to consult the people who live there or study their actual habits and needs, and 2., fail to understand what is required for small business people to operate in the areas impacted.
Spencer and Laurie interview Dan Krull about the closure of an innercity agricultural initiative. We discuss the ins and outs of the project, some reasons why it "failed", and the limits (or lack thereof) of education as a means of improving society. Please fill out this form to be put on the email list for future Maurin... Continue Reading →
Here's our latest newsletter, with an article from Jakob Hanschu, "‘Live Fast, Die Young’: A Reflection on 24/7 Capitalism and Ecological Arrhythmia" and news about our upcoming classes. Laurie's two session class on Pope Francis's Laudato Si is right around the corner! regenerative-reader-febmarchDownload
The Maurin Academy for Regenerative Studies 