Ben Grosscup
Ben is an alumnus of the Institute for Social Ecology where he studied from 2001-2003. During that time, he also interned as a community organizer with the ISE Biotechnology Project. He was the organizer the 2005 Social Ecology Intensive Colloquium. In December 2005, he finished his BA in anthropology of science and technology at Hampshire College, focusing on questions of democracy and technology. He currently works as a community organizer with the Northeast Organic Farming Association Massachusetts Chapter. Based in Western Massachusetts, he serves on the board of the ISE.Articles by Ben Grosscup
Mass Movement: Genetic Engineering becomes question of Democracy at Massachusetts Town Meetings
(This article was published by Gene Watch, Volume 20 Number 3 May – June 2007.
http://www.gene-watch.org/genewatch/volume20.html)
Since the year 2000, in many parts of New England — especially Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts — there has been renewed interest in bringing resolutions to town meeting on a range of national and global issues. Measures concerning the USA PATRIOT Act, the military occupation of Iraq, impeachment of Bush Administration members, and global climate disruption have appeared on many town meeting warrants. One of the issues that has gained the most attention at New England …
Crisis and Crisis Management in Hurricane Katrina: A Radical Critique
During crisis events, people often show their most compassionate and even heroic sides. In Hurricane Katrina’s disruption of every day life, most people in New Orleans have done the best they can to help each other. While decried as “looting” by the officials of order and private property, reports have shown that people neglected by rescue authorities are in many cases taking from the ravaged city’s stores and distributing the goods equitably among fellow desperate people. Under police threats of “shoot to kill,” make no mistake that these are …
The Vote Fallacy: Strategically Advancing Radical Politics in the 2004 Elections
While election seasons are widely seen as times when the polity practices politics, this is an illusion; electoralism that accepts the premises of representative democracy is conceptually distinct and incompatible with practicing true politics. Politics involves public debate on the issues of a self-manging political community that leads to social policy. Voting is no political act in that it has nothing to do with this. Rather, it is a highly personal act, which indicates the isolated location of the citizen in representative …
