97% Owned – Director’s Cut

by Shaun Chamberlin | May 20, 2012 | All Posts, Cultural stories, Economics, Politics, Reviews and recommendations

Off the back of my recent post on Transition Money, this excellent new short film, 97% Owned, explains the privatised, debt-based money system we currently use. The one that allows UK banks to simply create around £200,000,000,000 (£200bn) a year and use it as they...

My foreword for “The Future We Deserve” – out now

by Shaun Chamberlin | Mar 3, 2012 | All Posts, Cultural stories, Favourite posts, Reviews and recommendations

Untitled piece by Maria Elvorith (from the cover of TheFWD)The Future We Deserve, a collaborative book project edited by Vinay Gupta, Cat Lupton and Noah Raford, is available today. It can be read in full, downloaded or bought in hard copy here. I contributed one of...

Untitled, 2010

by Shaun Chamberlin | Dec 21, 2011 | 21st December, All Posts, Cultural stories, Reviews and recommendations

David Buckland, text Amy Balkin, ‘Going to hell on a handcart.’, Ice Art “Untitled, 2010” was written by artist Maria Elvorith for The Future We Deserve, a book project about collaboratively creating the future we deserve, set for publication in January...

My new heroes

by Shaun Chamberlin | Jul 25, 2011 | All Posts, Cultural stories, Economics, Favourite posts, Politics, Reviews and recommendations

I recently heard an interviewer ask someone who their heroes are, and was struck by the lack of names that came up when I asked myself the same question (although Dr. James Hansen now springs to mind…) But now I think I have one, having discovered the brave story of...

Uncivilisation, 19-21 August 2011. See you there?

by Shaun Chamberlin | Jul 23, 2011 | All Posts, Cultural stories, Reviews and recommendations, The Transition Timeline, Transition Movement

As regular readers will know, I am an admirer of the Dark Mountain Project – fellow adventurers in uncovering and reshaping the cultural stories that define us and guide our behaviour. Their manifesto is well worth a read. So I have accepted this contribution...

Revolution – RapNews #7, feat. Bono

by Shaun Chamberlin | Mar 30, 2011 | All Posts, Climate Change, Cultural stories, Favourite posts, Politics, Reviews and recommendations

Robert Foster’s brilliant Rap News makes it onto Dark Optimism for the second time, with a comment on recent events featuring the likes of Hugo Chavez, Glenn Beck, Bono (“Tell China to end first world debt”) and John Pilger, as well as footage from...