Randall Amster
Randall Amster, J.D., Ph.D., is co-director and teaching professor of environmental studies at Georgetown University. His books include "Peace Ecology" (2015), "Anarchism Today" ( 2012), and "Lost in Space: The Criminalization, Globalization, and Urban Ecology of Homelessness" (2008).
Articles by this author
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Views Wednesday, June 03, 2020 We Interrupt This Pandemic... With Demands for Justice and Healing Remember the coronavirus? It dominated the news for three months, redefined every aspect of our daily lives, and killed over a hundred thousand in the US alone. It also further exposed the venality and the insanity of our current Administration, making this reality-show presidency seem even more... Read more |
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Views Saturday, April 25, 2020 Don’t Drink the Snake Oil—Or the Disinfectant "Come one, come all! Welcome to the sideshow on the big stage, where anything is possible if you're willing to believe it. Whatever ails you, we’ve got what you're looking for! Chloroquine, the untested wonder drug—and who cares if the cure is worse than the ailment (even if I once said that). Try... Read more |
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Views Monday, April 13, 2020 Apocalypse On-Demand It’s the end of the world, but you might hardly know it. Sure, there’s the inconvenience of being mostly stuck at home, making do with a bit less and rationing a bit more, and foregoing most of our exterior social interactions. But let’s face it: for many people right now, our streaming services... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, March 31, 2020 Holding Our Breath, Together and Apart Are you (un)settling in to this brave new reality yet? Beyond hopeful signs of unity, there’s a looming sense that we’ve only just glimpsed how bad things might get in this pandemic crisis. The adjustments in many of our lives to totalized online sociality ( quarantinis , anyone?), teleworking (if... Read more |
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Views Saturday, March 21, 2020 Solidarity in a Time of Social Distancing As we move deeper into the unmapped realms brought forth by this inconceivable viral crisis, it can be helpful to consider lessons from other disaster situations for guidance. While nothing before precisely matches this moment, we might at least derive some solace from the fact that people have... Read more |
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Views Sunday, March 15, 2020 The New Abnormal This is a moment, to be sure. There aren’t many of this magnitude over the course of a lifetime, and the effects can linger for decades after the immediate emergency passes. Whatever shape the trajectory of the coronavirus takes in the weeks ahead, the sociocultural implications alone are... Read more |
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Views Saturday, February 01, 2020 Trump and Subservient GOP Expose Failure of American Exceptionalism The impeachment trial was never going to produce a conviction, of course, but it could have at least served to shore up even a few of the nominal pillars of democracy yet intact. Decades of erosion by chief executives, packed courts, congressional (in)action, and general malfeasance have weakened... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, January 01, 2020 For 2020 and Beyond: 'Keep Hoping Machine Running' It was a racially charged era, fascism was in a resurgence, and people were fighting for political and economic justice at the grassroots. That was 1943, and on January 1st of that year a great American troubadour, Woody Guthrie, handwrote (and doodled) a list of " New Years Rulin's " that serve as... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, December 25, 2019 The Gift of Perspective Among the many wonders of the digital age is the ability to zoom in or zoom out with the push of a button. Whether used on a camera, video screen, or a magnifying app, this quality of jumping scale is critical for a multitude of purposes, but probably underappreciated when compared to functions... Read more |
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Views Friday, December 20, 2019 Dread and Circuses: Powerful Forces Diverting Attention From Imperative Measures Through Crass Distractions As our ongoing political reality show unfolds in real time, a sickening feeling sinks in that all is not well in America. This has been the case for a while now, but the spectacle of parochial politics, impeachment machinations, and unvarnished authoritarianism at the top levels raises the ante to... Read more |