Welcome to my personal site.
It is now focused mainly on my work since about 2000. During this period, I served as dean of the Yale School of the Environment for a decade and then as a professor of law at the Vermont Law School and as a fellow at The Next System Project. I am now an unemployed writer of books and articles and an undiscovered writer of poems and such.
My views have evolved over these years as I observed the lack of needed progress on environmental and social issues.
The more I researched and thought and wrote about our current situation, the more it has seemed to me that the grave shortcomings around us result mostly from key features of our system of political economy--our thoroughly interwoven systems of economy and polity. In other words, Americans are now living through a period of system failure. I have read that as people grow older, there is a tendency to move to the political right. I have moved instead to the left. In recent years, calls for transformative change in the American political economy have multiplied, and I am pleased to see it. “System change, not climate change!” the marching banner proclaims. During this period, it has been a pleasure for me to work closely with colleagues at The Democracy Collaborative, where among other things we launched The Next System Project in 2015.
Gus at home in Vermont
With Cece in Arizona
If transformative change interests you, as I hope it does, you will find links and references to the books and articles I have authored and other materials on these subjects.
These materials also provide introductions and references to a host of other writers whose works are highly relevant and valuable.
I also invite you to join me in my efforts to say meaningful or humorous things poetically. Not many beyond my family and friends have thought of me as an aspiring poet, and perhaps with good reason. Still, I think they are worthy efforts on balance, and I encourage you to take a look.
Thanks for visiting.
America's interlinked economic and political systems--our political economy--is failing us across a broad front and has been doing so for a long time. Problems fester, and America finds itself at or near the bottom of the OECD countries and below many others when it comes to attainment in public health, well-being of children, democratic performance, gender equality, environment and climate, poverty reduction, personal safety, social justice and cohesion, and even equal opportunity. Meanwhile, America's political polarization and hyper-partisanship have effectively paralyzed Washington and halted national progress across this huge swath of concerns. To many, America now seems in steady decline. As a result, there is growing public sentiment in America for deep, transformative change.
From “Can Transformative Change Come to America?” Common Dreams
In thinking about the need for transformation, I have had to think about a “theory of change”—how transformative change can happen. The theory embraces the seminal role of crises in waking us from the slumber of routine and in shining the spotlight on the failings of the current order of things. It puts great stock in transformative leadership that can point beyond the crisis to something better. The theory adopts the view that systemic changes must be driven both bottom-up and top-down—from communities, businesses, and citizens deciding on their own to build the future locally as well as to develop the political muscle to adopt system-changing policies at the national and international levels. And it sees a powerful citizens’ movement as a necessary spur to action at all levels. … I have stressed the centrality of new values and the evolution to a new consciousness. I would never say that no progress can be made until America’s dominant culture has been transformed. But I do believe that we won’t get far in addressing our major challenges unless there is a parallel, ongoing transformation in values and culture.
From “The Joyful Economy,” online at thenextsystem.org
State of the Union
We so want America to succeed!
But the struggle is uphill, steeply.
The economic system is hard wired
for production and profit and power,
not for people and place and planet.
Our fabled Constitution is outmoded,
its many checks and balances instead
saddling us with clogs and barriers,
while repeatedly providing against
government of, by, and for the people.
And if that were not enough,
now, just when a new sense
of national purpose is imperative,
when real action is most demanded,
the people themselves are cleaved,
in trenches facing each other in mutual rejection,
with massive efforts expended
for small gains, often rolled back.
We now know much about the divide
and the major role of racism fueling it.
It is hard to see where to turn!
The books are full of good proposals,
both reformist and radical,
for near-term and long.
We know what must be done.
But how? That is the question.
This we can do.
We can search for small openings,
seizing opportunities wherever.
We can be crisis ready,
anticipating moments when
impossible becomes inevitable.
We can back leaders with vision and skill
in the mold of FDR and LBJ and MLK.
We can meld now-siloed progressive energies
into an unprecedented fusion of forces.
We can sustain journalism and scholarship
to keep truth alive and reality vivid.
We can embrace the preachers and prophets
who elevate new values and battered spirits.
We can hold each other tightly.
There are some encouragements and,
even more, avenues for engagement.
Among the building blocks now evident,
labor activism is increasing,
as is activism among the young,
the marginalized, and the victims.
Doubts about the current order multiply,
and calls for transformative change
grow louder in the country.
Aversion to socialist ideas is fading,
at least for young people.
Recent affirmations of government action
challenge the hold of market fundamentalism.
The rising menace of climate change
is bringing home the imperative of
a strong, effective government
focused on people and planet.
Federal paralysis is countered partially
by impressive initiatives by states and localities.
The threat to democracy is recognized,
and the fight for a democratic future is joined.
All is not lost, but it is a close call.
— G.S.