New Age Politics is an attempt to articulate a new political philosophy, based on the movements that began to arise after the New Left faded away in the 1970s - especially the feminist, ecology, spiritual, decentralist, and world-order movements. It is often recognized as the first book of its type. For example, in his foreword to the German edition of New Age Politics, Fritjof Capra - co-author of Green Politics (1984) - writes, "[I]t was the first attempt to not only describe a new kind of political activity but also to provide a synthesis of the new political theory beyond left and right." Some have called its outlook "anti-materialistic," "post-socialist," or "transformational." There are three distinct versions of New Age Politics. The first, printed in 1976, is the most succinct (84 tightly-packed pages) and is aimed at a largely counter-cultural audience. The author, Mark Satin, a 28-year-old American Vietnam War draft evader, wrote it partly in a free-love commune in Vancouver, Canada, and partly in a house trailer on Mayne Island, off the Vancouver coast, where on clear days he could see the U.S. He designed, typeset, and printed the first edition himself, and took it to the first "World Symposium on Humanity," held in Vancouver in 1976 - where it promptty sold out and garnered the attention of the Toronto Star (which ran a long editoial about it) and New Age Journal in the U.S. (which serialized key parts of it). Many printings followed. The second version of New Age Politics was published by Whitecap Books, in Canada, in 1978. It is considerably longer than the first (240 pages) and aims at a broader audience. It benefited from the editorial eye of Bonnie Kreps, a Canadian journalist and founder of Toronto New Feminists. The cover art was contributed by Anne Koedt, co-founder of New York Radical Feminists. After U.S. President Jimmy Carter pardoned the draft evaders, Satin embarked on a two-year speaking tour of the U.S., largely by Greyhound bus, with a big box of books always in tow. The third version of New Age Politics appeared in the U.S. in 1979. It came about when a representative of Dell Publishing Co. discovered that Satin was, surreptitiously, selling dozens of copies of his book at a plant- and cat-bedecked booth at a national meeting of the American Sociological Association. The third version is longer than the others (349 pages) and far more detailed. It includes important new chapters on New Age economics, and a 22-page political platform offered as a "discussion document." In addition, its tone is different. It is the third version that is featured in University of Texas Professor Dana Cloud's chapter in Herbert W. Simons and Michael Billig, eds., After Postmodernism: Reconstructing Ideology Critique (1994).

New Age Politics: Healing Self and Society

Satin, Mark

Dell

New Options for America is a collection of 25 of the best and most talked-about articles from Mark Satin's Washington, D.C.-based international political newsletter, New Options.  During its nine-year existence, 1984-1992, Newv Options was the go-to publication for those who were seeking creative, imaginative, and idealistic alternatives to traditional liberal and socialist policies.  It was often called "post-liberal" or, among those with a spiritual bent, "transformational."Satin, who wrote most of the copy, built it from scratch into the second-largest independent political newsleteer in the U.S.  (Wahington's great direct-mail maestro, Roger Craver, played a key role here - as an unpaid coach.)   In its heydey you could find New Options mentioned everyhere, from the  militant Earth First! Journal (May 1, 1987) to the front page of the Outlook section of the Washington Post (April 1, 1990).  The advisory board, which reflected the capaciousness of the post-liberal universe c. 1990, included Atlantic Monthly editor James Fallows, feminist Robin Morgan, ecologist Lester Brown, futurist John Naisbitt, Aquarian Conspiracy author Marilyn Ferguson, Reagan White House advisor John McClaughry, and all-purpose gadflies Hazel Henderson and Jane Jacobs.New Options for America brings order to the post-liberal  cacophony.  Satin's articles are arranged in five parts (with brief introductions by him to each), corresponding roughly to overviews, economics, domestic issues, foreign policy, and great activist inititives, respectively.  Among them are several examples of Satin's intensely personal, participant-observer journalism, including two pieces on the early U.S. Green Party movement that capture the hopes, frustrations, and lost opportunities of that group, and a study of street prostitutes near the White House called "Some of Our Daughters, Some of Our Lovers."  After that appeared, advisory board member Fallows sent Satin a brief, handwritten note: "It is an astonishing piece of reportage and humanity."The result of New Options for America's five-part arrangement is a coherent, some might say "holistic," overview of the most cutting-edge thoughts of post-liberal, post-socialist activists as they began gearing up for the new century.  Some might find the beginnings of a new "ideology" here.  Others might find the seeds of two movements that have since diverged, one anti-globalist, the other radical-centrist.  Satin's earlier book, New Age Politics: Healing Self and Society (1976), was uncompromisingly decentralist and anti-corporate; his later book, Radical Middle (2004), helped articulate the more reformist radical-centrist philosophy.  In New Options for America, Satin is clearly pulled both ways.  As were many of us in the 1990s.  As are many of us today.

New Options for America: The Second American Experiment has Begun

Business & Money

Economics

Southern Illinois University Press

New Options for America is a collection of 25 of the best and most talked-about articles from Mark Satin's Washington, D.C.-based international political newsletter, New Options. During its nine-year existence, 1984-1992, Newv Options was the go-to publication for those who were seeking creative, imaginative, and idealistic alternatives to traditional liberal and socialist policies. It was often called "post-liberal" or, among those with a spiritual bent, "transformational." Satin, who wrote most of the copy, built it from scratch into the second-largest independent political newsleteer in the U.S. (Wahington's great direct-mail maestro, Roger Craver, played a key role here - as an unpaid coach.) In its heydey you could find New Options mentioned everyhere, from the militant Earth First! Journal (May 1, 1987) to the front page of the Outlook section of the Washington Post (April 1, 1990). The advisory board, which reflected the capaciousness of the post-liberal universe c. 1990, included Atlantic Monthly editor James Fallows, feminist Robin Morgan, ecologist Lester Brown, futurist John Naisbitt, Aquarian Conspiracy author Marilyn Ferguson, Reagan White House advisor John McClaughry, and all-purpose gadflies Hazel Henderson and Jane Jacobs. New Options for America brings order to the post-liberal cacophony. Satin's articles are arranged in five parts (with brief introductions by him to each), corresponding roughly to overviews, economics, domestic issues, foreign policy, and great activist inititives, respectively. Among them are several examples of Satin's intensely personal, participant-observer journalism, including two pieces on the early U.S. Green Party movement that capture the hopes, frustrations, and lost opportunities of that group, and a study of street prostitutes near the White House called "Some of Our Daughters, Some of Our Lovers." After that appeared, advisory board member Fallows sent Satin a brief, handwritten note: "It is an astonishing piece of reportage and humanity." The result of New Options for America's five-part arrangement is a coherent, some might say "holistic," overview of the most cutting-edge thoughts of post-liberal, post-socialist activists as they began gearing up for the new century. Some might find the beginnings of a new "ideology" here. Others might find the seeds of two movements that have since diverged, one anti-globalist, the other radical-centrist. Satin's earlier book, New Age Politics: Healing Self and Society (1976), was uncompromisingly decentralist and anti-corporate; his later book, Radical Middle (2004), helped articulate the more reformist radical-centrist philosophy. In New Options for America, Satin is clearly pulled both ways. As were many of us in the 1990s. As are many of us today.

New Options for America

Biographies & Memoirs

California State University Press, Fresno, 1991

Forget the term "New Age," says Mark Satin in the introduction to this revitalized "40th Anniversary Edition" of his book New Age Politics. That term was tied to an historical moment.  What this book is really about is the new politics arising out of the social movements of our time, among them the spiritual, ecology, feminist, human-potential, decentralist, and global justice movements.   New Age Politics was the first book to show that these movements were producing a coherent new political perspective or ideology. Today that perspective goes by many names: green, holistic, radical centrist, transformational, transpartisan.  It has made many advances through movements as diverse as the Green Party, Tea Party, and Occupy. But as futurist David Spangler points out in a new foreword, the foundational statement of this still-emerging new perspective was New Age Politics.   This new edition, streamlined and updated for our time, draws on nearly 200 texts, and at least that many late-night conversations with activists. It is all here: our drive for a life-loving new consciousness and better values.  Our critique of "deep monopolies" like the private automobile and doctor-dependent health care, not just brand-name monopolies.  Our vision of an all-win future that empowers local communities and enhances global cooperation.  Our strategy that encompasses both "inner work" (personal growth) and "outer work" - everything from working in local and national groups to electoral activity to nonviolent direct action that respects one's audiences.   Today, New Age Politics is more relevant than ever.  In his foreword to the German edition, systems thinker Fritjof Capra calls it "the blueprint for a new politics beyond ... left and right," and in his introduction Satin holds up this edition as a "common ground" on which all the real alternative movements of our time can stand.  Those who want to steer contemporary movements away from the twin shoals of Marxism and liberalism and toward a healing future that is uniquely their own will find this book especially useful.

New Age Politics: Our Only Real Alternative

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Lorian Press

First published in 1968 by House of Anansi Press, the Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada was a handbook for Americans who refused to serve as draftees in the Vietnam War and were considering immigrating to Canada. Conceived as a practical guide with information on the process, the Manual also features information on aspects of Canadian society, touching on topics like history, politics, culture, geography and climate, jobs, housing, and universities.The Manual went through several editions from 1968–71. Today, as Americans are taking up the discussion of immigration to Canada once again, it is an invaluable record of a moment in our recent history.

Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada

Reference

A-LIST

Up From Socialism: My 60-Year Search for a Healing New Radical Politics

Leaders & Notable People

Bombardier Books

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