A World Beyond Difference unpacks the globalizationliterature and offers a valuable critique: one that is forthright,yet balanced, and draws on the local work of ethnographers tocounter relativist and globalist discourses. Presents a lively conceptual and historical map of how we thinkabout the emerging socio-political world, and above all how wethink politically about human cultural differences Interprets, criticizes, and frames responses to worldculture Draws from the work of recent major social theorists, comparingthem to classical social theorists in an instructive manner Grounds critique of theory in years of ethnographicresearch

We live in the grip of a great illusion about politics, Pierre Manent argues in A World beyond Politics? It's the illusion that we would be better off without politics--at least national politics, and perhaps all politics. It is a fantasy that if democratic values could somehow detach themselves from their traditional national context, we could enter a world of pure democracy, where human society would be ruled solely according to law and morality. Borders would dissolve in unconditional internationalism and nations would collapse into supranational organizations such as the European Union. Free of the limits and sins of politics, we could finally attain the true life. In contrast to these beliefs, which are especially widespread in Europe, Manent reasons that the political order is the key to the human order. Human life, in order to have force and meaning, must be concentrated in a particular political community, in which decisions are made through collective, creative debate. The best such community for democratic life, he argues, is still the nation-state. Following the example of nineteenth-century political philosophers such as Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill, Manent first describes a few essential features of democracy and the nation-state, and then shows how these characteristics illuminate many aspects of our present political circumstances. He ends by arguing that both democracy and the nation-state are under threat--from apolitical tendencies such as the cult of international commerce and attempts to replace democratic decisions with judicial procedures.

In a time of unprecedented social and economic crisis, this book represents a challenge to the orthodoxy that shapes our vision of educational purpose. It argues that now, more than ever, there is a moral imperative for educators to assume responsibility for helping to bring about a culture of peace and non-violence.

Film festivals have had varied and complex histories starting with Benito Mussolini's invention of the form in Venice in 1932. Since then (and too often) festivals are thought of only in terms of the Hollywood film industry. This text is a celebration of all things un-dependently cinematic. The essays contained in this volume explore the cultural value of alternative film festivals from a wide range of perspectives and experiences. Contributors to this book include Gene Youngblood, Sasha Waters Freyer, Roger Beebe, Michael Betancourt, Charles Lum, Caryn Cline, Alexie Dmitriev, Clint Enns, Leslie Supnet, Chip Lord, Ben Popp, Kristen Lauth Shaeffer, Tina Wasserman, Gerry Fialka, Kamila Kuc, Steve Polta, Bryan Konefsky, Caroline Koebel, and Bart Weiss.

Together, Charles E. Zecher and Sondra Perlin Zecher have nearly 100 years of experience studying the metaphysical and the paranormal. Over the years, they would meet with their colleagues in the Coral Spring (FL) Metaphysical Group where esteemed clairvoyant Sondra, would enter a deep trance and channel her spirit guide. Members of the group would communicate directly with the spirit guide, asking questions on some of the universe’s greatest mysteries. The information received from the guide’s answers to more than 2500 questions provided the basis for this book. These sessions covered a variety of topics that will intrigue readers including: reincarnation, karma, human evolution, life after death, ghosts, angels, the future, religion, God, creation, unsolved mysteries, the prehistoric world, extraterrestrials, the unseen, Atlantis, current world events, conspiracies, secret societies etc. The responses do not necessarily echo the authors’ beliefs. Instead, they simply showcase the information that was channeled through Sondra. Many will be surprised by the answers they find in Knowledge from the World Beyond. Hopefully many assumptions, concerns and skepticisms will be laid to rest. Likewise, as the book is read, the reader will be left with many new unanswered questions. Sondra is probably best known as "The "Son of Sam Psychic". Years ago she provided law enforcement with the information that enabled them to apprehend David Berkowitz.

This book mounts a forceful critique of fashionable thinking on the possibility of a post-work, post-capitalist society achieved through automation, a basic income and the reduction of working hours to zero, suggesting this popular utopia is nothing of the sort.

A world which, like ours, has been ravaged by some sixty wars in recent decades, can rightly be described as the scene of global disorder. Even today, the same world is traumatized by hot and cold wars, proxy wars, and repeated outbursts of blood-filled mayhem, not to mention the threat of a nuclear holocaust unleashed by big power rivalries. These are not mere statistics, but wounds in the body of humanity, calling for healing and reconciliation. In biblical terms, human beings are not meant to be the owners or the destroyers of the world, but rather its custodians or caretakers. This collection is a summons to responsible care-taking, and it approaches the subject from an intercultural perspective in a variety of fields, including religion and politics. The topics covered range from accounts of major global calamities today to explorations of possible political, economic and societal reforms, and to the invocation of basic religious and philosophical resources needed for the recovery of a world beyond global disorder.

...In the world of life beyond death, there are seven main planes. There are different realms in these seven planes assigned for different types of souls. In the lower levels the sinners experience punishments for their sins and in the higher levels the virtuous souls experience the rewards for their virtues. The Bhu-plane and Bhuva-plane are the only planes for experiencing the rewards and punishments in accordance to the worldly karma of a soul. Right after the boundary of Bhuva-plane starts the arena of eternal karma. The field of karma for the enlightened souls start from Swaloka and has extended through Maholoka, Janoloka and Tapoloka. The enlightened souls who dwell in those planes control everything of this universe according to God's instructions...

How did life start? Is the evolution of life describable by any physics-like laws? Stuart Kauffman's latest book offers an explanation-beyond what the laws of physics can explain-of the progression from a complex chemical environment to molecular reproduction, metabolism and to early protocells, and further evolution to what we recognize as life. Among the estimated one hundred billion solar systems in the known universe, evolving life is surely abundant. That evolution is a process of "becoming" in each case. Since Newton, we have turned to physics to assess reality. But physics alone cannot tell us where we came from, how we arrived, and why our world has evolved past the point of unicellular organisms to an extremely complex biosphere. Building on concepts from his work as a complex systems researcher at the Santa Fe Institute, Kauffman focuses in particular on the idea of cells constructing themselves and introduces concepts such as "constraint closure." Living systems are defined by the concept of "organization" which has not been focused on in enough in previous works. Cells are autopoetic systems that build themselves: they literally construct their own constraints on the release of energy into a few degrees of freedom that constitutes the very thermodynamic work by which they build their own self creating constraints. Living cells are "machines" that construct and assemble their own working parts. The emergence of such systems-the origin of life problem-was probably a spontaneous phase transition to self-reproduction in complex enough prebiotic systems. The resulting protocells were capable of Darwin's heritable variation, hence open-ended evolution by natural selection. Evolution propagates this burgeoning organization. Evolving living creatures, by existing, create new niches into which yet further new creatures can emerge. If life is abundant in the universe, this self-constructing, propagating, exploding diversity takes us beyond physics to biospheres everywhere.

"This lucid, thoughtful synthesis makes excellent sense of the dense web that international organizations have spun around the globe over the last two centuries. Above all, by highlighting their role in relation to states and by assessing their performance, this volume provides a welcome introduction to a prime feature of our globalized world."---Michael H. Hunt, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "The author has written a balanced, fair introduction to the modern history of international organizations. While the survey of the League of Nations is well done, the book really comes alive with its analysis of the United Nations. The final chapter, surveying recent UN operations, is excellent. A World Beyond Borders is an effective resource for undergraduate students of international relations."---George Egerton, University of British Columbia There were only a few international organizations at the start of the twentieth century. By the end of the century, there were thousands at the heart of the international system involved in all aspects of international relations, including peacekeeping, disarmament, peace resolution, human rights, diplomacy, and environmentalism. This short book examines how international organizations became the major legal, moral, and cultural forces that they are today. For easy reference, the appendices consist of the Covenant of the League of Nations, The Charter of the United Nations, and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The book also includes a list of League of Nations members and United Nations members, diagrams of the structure of the General Assembly and the organs of the UN, and a list of UN peacekeeping missions.