freelansing in Seattle

My name is Lansing Scott. I’ve been working in progressive/radical independent media since 1984, after graduating from Fairhaven College with a degree in “Social Ecology.” I aspire to “radical praxis,” that is, strategic political action based in a theoretical understanding of how our social systems function, seeking out root causes to our problems and creating deep, structural change.

I’m committed to building alternative institutions (or as I prefer to call them, “replacement institutions”) in those areas where current systems are failing us. I’ve focused on building independent media (including Eat the State!, Seattle Community Catalyst, the Portland Alliance, Communities magazine, and Cascadia Spoke). I also worked to build an independent political party (the Green Party) between 1986-2005. Sadly, because our political system is rigged against new parties succeeding, that effort didn’t turn out so well, so now I work within the Democratic wing of our dysfunctional two-party system, because that’s all we’ve got.

I’ve lived my whole life in Pacific Cascadia (the land between the Cascade Range and Pacific Ocean, surrounding the Vancouver-Eugene urban axis). I look at American and international politics with an eye toward how we can respond where we are while strengthening our own bioregionally based culture and communities.

This blog is about big-picture politics. More about the forest than individual trees. I discuss current events in a wider context—social, political, economic, cultural, and ecological—with occasional snark and catalytic creations thrown in.

Understanding the big picture in whole-systems way is essential to making the changes necessary in the 21st century to allow humanity and all our relations to make it into the 22nd century. Our very survival hangs in the balance, as well as “liberty and justice for all.” We must evolve quickly — socially, politically, economically, culturally — in order to meet the challenge.

While looking at the whole Earth as an interconnected system we’re part of, we also need stand on the ground beneath our feet. For me, that’s the city of Seattle, within the Salish Sea drainage basin, within the larger bioregion of Pacific Cascadia. A culture of dislocation is a big part of the American problem; we need to reclaim our connection to the place where we live.