Visionaries: People & Ideas to Change Your Life

This book presents profiles of the most original minds of our time. The Utne Reader editors have outdone themselves with the selection of this compilation. The biographical information is amazing, and the ideas that sprang from those experiences will sweep you away. The book literally cuts across the entire board: Included are scientists, mystics, activists, business leaders, talk show hosts, poets, dissidents, musicians, novelits, Buddhists, rabbis, economists, bankers, futurists, jazz singers, environmentalists, architects, community organizers, feminists, dissenters, book clubers, journalits, conservationists, philosphers, healers, dancers, and America's leading Idler. A small sample of some these amazing people: * THOMAS BERRY: Catholic priest, environmental philosopher, grandfather of the religious ecology movement. "We have a moral sense of suicide, homocide, and genocide, but no moral sense of biocide or geocide, the killing of the life systems themselves..." * NOAM CHOMSKY: After Marx, Lenin, Shakespeare, Aristotle, the Bible, Plato, and Freud comes Chomsky on the most quoted top ten list. As you can see, he is the only living person on the list, making him numero uno in the land of the living. Linguist, political analyst, and America's most prominent dissident.* THICH NHAT HANH: Described as a "living Buddha." "Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and everything we do and see. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it." * SATISH KUMAR: Magazine editor, global wander, and advocate of spiritual ecology. "There is a dance between what you know and what you don't know. The place of mystery is the essential ingredient." * ZALMAN SCHACHTER-SHALOMI: Radically genius, dancing spiritualist, LSD-imbibing rabbi scholar, and flagstaff leader of the "psycho-eco-spiritual revolution of our millennial age." * STARHAWK: Pagan, feminist, author, activist, protestor, rejuvenator of rituals in American life. "And by `sacred' what I mean is not a great something that you bow down to, but what determines your values, what you would take and stand for." * FRANCES MOORE LAPPE: Author of "Diet for A Small Planet," chronicler of community activism across the country, promoter of public life. "I made a vow to myself that I would never do anything else again in my life until I understood how it related to the underlying causes of human suffering."* HELENA NORBERG-HODGE: Advocate of alternative development, defender of global diversity and local culture, founder of the Ladakh Project, a group dedicated to helping Ladakhis understand that they can choose which of the Western ways they want to adopt and which of the traditional ways they want to keep. "The destructive global economy exists only as long as we are prepared to accept it and subsidize it. We can reject it."* JOHN PAPWORTH: Human-scale advocate, former assistant to the president of Zambia, "shoplifting vicar," and protestor of "car madness." "Ther

I came across this book not long ago while looking for something completely different. After reading a few of the small bios in it about activists such as Bill Moyers, Noam Chomsky, and bell hooks to name a few, I bought it.The best thing about the book is not the bios of the famous. It is the moving and inspiring stories of the unknowns. The activists who have worked tirelessly for years and decades to fix some injustice that they will receive very little praise for.It made me realize (I guess I had known, but needed verification) that one person can make a REAL difference and after reading this book, I won't stand idle while a problem openly exists.

Here is a book for everyone who thinks that ideas are the greatest source of power on the planet. Within this highly-readable volume, you'll find ideas from more than sixty original thinkers - people who, depending on your point of view, can be described as mavericks, geniuses, philosophers, mystics, agitators, insurgents, visionaries, leaders, or members of the lunatic fringe. The profiles are billed as presenting "People and Ideas to Change Your Life." That may be a tall order to fill, but the range of ideas presented will, at the very least, make you re-think your view of the world and the people in it. It is a book of possibilities and alternative viewpoints, of helpful suggestions and dire warnings - little or none of which you'll find championed in the mainstream media. These are the voices the establishment wants to relegate to the hinterlands of public debate. They are important voices, regardless of whether you find yourself nodding in agreement or shaking your head in bemusement.