Background Briefing: November 25, 2021

On By gram

 

Thanksgiving for the Earth and Stopping Shopping on Black Friday

We begin on this Thanksgiving with Reverend Billy, the pastor of the Church of Stop Shopping, a group of activists based in New York City, whose main tactic is singing-while-trespassing. The Stop Shopping Choir has staged performances in Walmarts, Disney Stores, Monsanto labs, the roof of Carnegie Hall, and at jails, pipe-lines and JPMorgan Chase lobbies across five continents. And the earth church just returned from the climate conference at Glasgow and this week is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a performance at Joe’s Pub’s Public Theater in New York City on Sunday the 28th. We discuss the choir’s recent appearance at the COP 26 Climate Summit is Glasgow and their planned activities on Black Friday when they will be protesting the orgy of consumerism as shoppers descend on malls and big box stores. 

 

What We Can Be Thankful For and Aspire to Become

Then on this Thanksgiving we look into both what we can be thankful for and what we can aspire to become and speak with Stephan Schwartz, a Distinguished Consulting Faculty of Saybrook University as well as editor of the daily web publication Schwartzreport.net and a columnist for the journal Explore where his latest article is “America’s Desperate Need For Wellbeing.” Although the planet faces the existential challenge of climate change and the U.S. faces the possibility of devolving into a one-party fascist state controlled by an anti-democratic GOP led by a mentally unstable wannabe dictator, we will focus on what can be done to improve the lives of Americans at a time when liberty appears to threaten life and the pursuit of happiness.