This is quite possibly the best video I’ve  ever seen on YouTube. First as Tragedy, Then as Farce is a talk by Slavoj Žižek that challenges what I believe is one of the most fundamentally flawed assumptions in society today, that capitalist charity can ever overtake the destruction created by capitalism in the first place. An article from the November 2001 issue of the satire paper The Onion reads “70 Percent Of The World Could Use An All-Star Benefit Concert“. It was of course meant to be a joke but is actually quite truthful and what’s not funny is that number is rising exponentially thanks to so-called “free-market capitalism”. Žižek does a brilliant job here of explaining how charity and ethically-branded consumerism is keeping this unsustainable system on life-support prolonging it’s long term damage. I must warn you though, it’s not for the weak-minded. His ideas will be very uncomfortable for many.

I am so inspired by what Geoff Lawton shares in this video. He talks about how, using permaculture techniques, they were able restore a salty desert landscape into a lush healthy green area.

Last summer I filmed my friend Brigitte Mars at her home in Boulder talking about her wild lawn. Brigitte is an herbalist and author of 12 books on natural medicine. Instead of growing grass she grows a beautifully diverse lawn of food and medicine. I hope more people begin to take her example.

Note: The audio is out of sync towards the end. This is a problem I’ve been having with my videos uploaded to Vimeo. I’m still looking for a solution.