For the most part, almost everywhere and every time, I have found conversations across power differences repeatedly unsuccessful.
“Having wealth is unjustified, but the Rockefellers justify it by doing good. I had to cut through all this and understand that there is no rational justification for my family having the amount of money that it has, and that the only honest thing to say in defense of it …
by Miki Kashtan
I am often haunted by moral questions or conceptual puzzles, sometimes for years on end. In the last couple of months, I made some leaps in my understanding about several such issues.
For many months now I was haunted by my inability to understand, from within, members …
In my last post I spoke about the immense challenges inherent in experimenting with a gift economy within the current economic structure. In this post, I look at how experimenting with the full gift economy can only take place from a position of privilege, and what, ultimately, we can do …
Last Saturday, while leading the first day of the Leveraging Your Influence yearlong program, I responded unskillfully to a participant I will call James. What happened points directly to the way that the experience of privilege or lack thereof shapes our lives. How we handled it, and what I have …
A week ago Sunday, a friend sent me a link to a story about Magazine covers. According to the article, the magazine has different covers for its US edition as compared to its three other editions (Europe, Asia, South Pacific): the former focus on personal issues and feelings while the …
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
— Mary Oliver
Appalachian portrait by Stacy Lee AdamsAfter I wrote my previous post about privilege, I was more attuned to the presence of privilege in my life and around me. It is …
by Miki Kashtan
Some months ago I wrote a piece about privilege and needs (part 1 and part 2) where I explored what I see as the root causes of attachment to privilege. Here I want to look again at privilege with a different aim. I want to shed some …
What if people — even longtime enemies — could transform conflicts into creative dilemmas they feel motivated to solve together? Check out Miki's new book!
