Radical Middle Political Newsletter: Idealism Without Illusions

MONTHLY ARTICLES BY MARK SATIN
. . . author of Radical Middle: The Politics We Need Now (Westview / Perseus, 2004), winner of "Outstanding Book Award 2004" from American Political Science Association / Section on Ecological and Transformational Politics; former street activist, former business attorney

Dear Viewer, -- I will be spending the years 2010 & 2011 writing two books, a memoir (see reading list HERE) and a political tract (see research notes HERE and HERE). So after 10+ years and 120 articles, Radical Middle Newsletter has come to an end.

But this website shall remain -- and shall continue to be updated. Because political change is so slow in this country, most of Radical Middle’s articles are as timely now as ever! Here's how I've rearranged them for you:

our five most frequently viewed articles are summarized below;
my “Best of Radical Middle” selections (36 articles in eight subject areas) come after that; and
all 120 articles are summarized HERE.

Our articles are unusually rich in ideas and information. I hope you’ll not only enjoy them, but make good use of them. All best, -- Mark Satin

OUR FIVE MOST VIEWED ARTICLES

1. Ten Best American Political Novels
Although many Americans are immersing themselves in trendy political novels like Tom Wolfe’s I Am Charlotte Simmons, social change agents might prefer drawing from this list of the 10 best political novels of our time.

2. Modest Women, Honorable Men
Guy in his 50s, formerly a “radical activist,” encounters twentysomething Wendy Shalit’s book A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue.

3. The One-State Solution for Israel-Palestine Is the Most Visionary AND the Most Sensible
Under the radar, increasing numbers of Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans are saying that the two-state solution for Israel-Palestine is unworkable, and that a sensibly designed “one-state” solution could induce all parties to the conflict to finally grow up, accept each other's rights and needs, and create a 21st century civilization together.

4. Universal, Preventive, and Cost-Effective Health Care Is Within Our Grasp
Not one of the health care bills in Congress comes close to giving us what we want and need: Universal health care that induces us to take full advantage of preventive services and alternative therapies. But – psst! – some policy analysts have figured out how to give us that. And save us money in the process.

5. Barack Obama: First Radical Middle Presidential Candidate?
During the run-up to yet another shrill and intellectually shallow national election (that of November 2006), Illinois Senator Barack Obama’s new book The Audacity of Hope stood out like an oasis. Here’s why.

We've had OVER THREE MILLION ARTICLE VIEWS ("pageviews") through 2009. See stats at the bottom of this page.

BEST OF RADICAL MIDDLE

For a more sumptuously presented version of this “virtual anthology,” with summaries of each article, see HERE.

I. Introduction

Post-Partisan! The First Uniquely American Political Ideology Is Being Born

Are the Best Conservative Thinkers Becoming Radical Middle?

Where’s the Juice? A Review of Halstead and Lind’s The Radical Center

II. Economy

Could Common Ground on Capitalism (and Globalization) Be at Hand?

Selling U.S. Products Abroad: Malign, Moral, or a Chance for Mutual Learning?

Art Kleiner’s Good Corporate Guys vs. David Yamada’s Good Corporate Laws

To Balance the Federal Budget, Build a Better Society!

III. Polity

Repairing American Democracy: Changing the Rules Is Not Enough

Mediator-Leaders: The Leadership We Need Now?

OK, Congressman Rangel, Let’s Bring Back the Draft – But a Better One Than Yours!

Healing First! Time for the U.S. Justice System to Get Less Mechanistic and More Therapeutic

IV. Society

What the Poor Need Now

Confronting the Sociopolitical Causes of Psychological Depression: Too Taboo?

Liberal vs. Conservative vs. Holistic Immigration Reform

Rx for Black America: Stop “Therapeutic Alienation” Now!

V. Culture

Re-Inventing American History: When Narratives Collide

These Self-Help Books Celebrate Honesty, Connection, and Complexity!

Safety and Love First: The Politics of Children’s Literature

Zadie Smith’s On Beauty: First Great Radical Middle Political Novel

VI. Global

Coming to Grips with Our Badness

Is “Democracy” What the World Needs Now?

“Ethical Realism”: The Foreign Policy We Need Now

Fareed Zakaria’s Global Humanism vs. Alanna Hartzok’s Earth-Rights Idealism

VII. Strategy

Alienation Forever?: A Critique of David Korten’s The Great Turning

Where’s the Depth?: A Critique of Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat

Where’s the Mutual Learning?: A Critique of George Lakoff’s Don’t Think of an Elephant

Where’s the Backbone?: A Critique of Paul Hawken’s Blessed Unrest

VIII. Groups

Participants Agonize Over (and Draw Lessons From) the Death and Life of the NEW WORLD ALLIANCE

Resentment and Transcendence at the NAACP Convention

Don Beck’s SPIRAL DYNAMICS INTEGRAL Confab: Political Evolution Now!

Coherent “Radical Centrist” Agenda Emerges at NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION Conference

IX. Movement?

At Last, a Movement that Would Have Us Listen To and Learn From Each Other

First “Transpartisan” Political Organization Prepares for Liftoff

There Is a Radical Middle in Congress

Mushy Middle? No Way! A 12-Point Radical Middle Agenda

X. Conclusion

The Katrina Dialogues: A Dream Deferred

"Thank you for your very real ministry" -- unsolicited note to Mark Satin from M. Scott Peck (1936-2005), author of The Road Less Traveled

"Sometimes I get a dismal feeling that all the magazines have one Group Mind or One Editor. You’re an exception, and I’m a grateful reader" – unsolicited note to Mark Satin from Jane Jacobs (1916-2006), author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Radical Middle, edited and largely written by Mark Satin, was an online newsletter that covered policy issues, conferences, and books in the fields of politics, law, business, and global governance.

From January 1999 through December 2004, Radical Middle was an old fashioned printed newsletter. From January 2005 through June 2009, it was online only. Rest assured that this Web site is less primitive than it looks -- it was designed to resemble the printed newsletter!

We published original articles each month. Our focus was on holistic, sustainable efforts that transcended politics-as-usual AND bitter alienation; our goal, one economically, culturally, racially, and politically integrated world.

Radical Middle's articles from the first five years were transmuted into an award-winning book published in 2004 by Perseus Books Group (see cover image close to this paragraph). You can get a good sense of the book by clicking on the special BOOK PAGE we created for you. And you can purchase copies at discounts from Amazon.com (click HERE) or BarnesandNoble.com (click HERE). Alternately, please shop at your local bookstore -- and urge it to order more copies!

"Mark Satin's book [and] insightful web magazine . . . isn't the place to go [if you want] cheerleading for left activism. But it is a place for people . . . looking for fresh solutions" -- Art Levine, "Beyond Centrism," The Huffington Post, July 16, 2006

Mark Satin speaking with feeling at the Fall for the Book Literary Festival, September 21, 2004. Photo kindly donated to this Web site and the public domain by Penny H. Gilchrist, manager / hero of the Festival.

"It is admittedly far easier to divide than to unite. But while dividers may win battles, uniters win wars" -- John Avlon, Independent Nation (2004)

ARTICLES FROM NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION
. . . Washington DC's leading "post-partisan" think tank, founded by Gen-Xer Ted Halstead, co-author of the book The Radical Center (2001); founding chair was Atlantic Monthly national correspondent and Radical Middle Newsletter advisor James Fallows

To view the latest articles by New America fellows & senior fellows, click HERE.

"The Radical Center [is] interested not in tinkering at the margin . . . but rather in promoting, when necessary, a wholesale revamping" -- Ted Halstead & Michael Lind, The Radical Center (2001)

AWARDS
10
"Top 10 e-newsletters for an emerging culture"
-- iShift, monthly e-zine of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, August 2006

RADICAL MIDDLE's predecessor newsletter, New Options, won Utne Reader's first "Alternative Press Award for General Excellence: Best Publication from 10,000 to 30,000 Circulation." It also made the Washington Post's chart of 12 periodicals spearheading "The Ideology Shuffle."

"Over the years, Satin has unabashedly challenged tired thinking on any part of the political spectrum" -- Helen Cordes in the Utne Reader

As an "Associate" of Amazon.com, we earn a substantial referral fee (at no cost to you) whenever you "click" on a book we've highlighted in blue and purchase it from Amazon.com. (Our "Best Books" sections include many such books. So do most of our articles.)

We earn a smaller but not insignificant fee (at no cost to you) on any items you buy after entering Amazon.com through the logo below.

So if you've been enjoying our writings, please help support our efforts by buying from Amazon.com through this website. We're one of the few political newsletters that's 100% independent of advertisers, Big Foundations, corporate largesse, and wealthy "publishers" . . . and we'd like to keep it that way.

"The Radical Center is not neutral, not middle-of-the-road, but a view of the whole road" -- Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980)

This logo was created for us by the talented young founder of "Openartist," Paul Bloch. Although we appreciate it no end (and bloggers are free to copy and use it, as was done HERE), I think a third creature representing imaginative new ideas -- owl? wolf? rhinoceros? -- needs to be in there somewhere.

"While most issues in contention are presented as having just two sides . . . there usually exists a third [from which] the truth of each competing point of view can be appreciated" -- William Ury, The Third Side (rev. 2000)

. . . or, how a Web site gets built via word of mouth (we do no advertising):

Year 2000    25,521 article views (aka "pageviews")
Year 2001    93,267
Year 2002    127,539
Year 2003    181,262
Year 2004    193,719
Year 2005    431,285
Year 2006    518,862
Year 2007    528,761 article views, avg. 1.84 views & 3 mins. 39 secs. per session
Year 2008    467,689 article views, avg. 2.12 views & 6 mins. 02 secs. per session
Year 2009    443,439 article views, avg. 2.07 views & 7 mins. 53 secs. per session

"I reject none, accept all, then reproduce all in my own forms" -- Walt Whitman, "By Blue Ontario's Shore" (1856)