Facing our Challenges in Dangerous Times - Part 1

Featuring analysis of election results by John Nichols and Sen. Jamie Eldridge, and strategy presentations by Phyllis Bennis; Prof. Jackson Lears; Lindsay Koshgarian; Jean-Luc Pierite; Jordan Berg-Powers; and Mallory Hanora.

We live at a time characterized by numerous dire threats to justice, peace, and the very stability of our country. Among these threats are rampant militarism, galloping climate change, growing inequality, an ongoing and divisive pandemic, and the emergence of a dangerous right-wing extremist movement. The goal of this Conference is to explore with activists and thought leaders how to address these enormous obstacles to the fulfillment of a progressive vision.

Among the questions we examine are: How do we speak about militarism as we address inequality, climate change, racism and threats to democratic processes? And how do we understand and overcome the political vacuum which not only led to the exponential growth of corporate power (including the military industrial complex) but also destroyed belief that a collective or government can solve the problems currently undermining our societies?

The first panel addresses militarism and how the ideology of militarism has impacted all aspects of U.S. society. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has made this task more complex and more critical. The Ukraine War has greatly strengthened NATO specifically and militarist ideology in general and has set off divisions in the peace and social justice movement. Under these difficult circumstances, as political activists, we need to address how the buildup of military resources drains the public treasury, puts us at risk of nuclear holocaust, and short circuits democratic and collective responses to problem solving.

John Nichols is National affairs correspondent for The Nation. His most recent book is Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers: Accountability for Those Who Caused the Crisis.

Jamie Eldridge is State Senator representing the Middlesex and Worcester District, which includes Ayer, Acton, and Marlborough.

Phyllis Bennis is director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. The seventh edition of her Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict : A Primer was published in 2018.

T. J. Jackson Lears is an American cultural and intellectual historian with interests in comparative religious history, literature and the visual arts, folklore and folk beliefs. He is Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers and Editor in Chief of Raritan. He is author of Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920.

Lindsay Koshgarian is Program Director for the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. She is an expert in dissecting the Federal budget including the contrast between Pentagon spending and domestic needs.