My paternal grandfather’s cousin, Yechezkel Pulerevitch, was imprisoned in a Soviet concentration camp for seventeen years for the “crime” of being a Zionist.

After his release, he was eventually alloweed to emigrate to Israel, where he organized former Soviet prisoners to oppose the communist regime and, specifically, its treatment of Jews. That helped create a broader human rights movement that eventually posed a serious threat to the Soviet system.

Yechezkel Pulerevitch (Source: Jerusalem Post)

In 1973, he came to Washington to meet Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D-WA) and advocate for the passage of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment–which former dissident Natan Sharansky has called the “first nail in the coffin of the Soviet dictatorship.”

In 1974, Pulerevitch published a memoir of his experiences in the Gulag, entitled Short Stories of the Long Death. The foreword was written by future Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, and the book appeared in several languages.

One story in particular recalls a Hanukkah celebrated in the concentration camp, in the most difficult of circumstances. Its message of resistance is appropriate to the themes of the holiday–now on its eighth and final night–and for a generation that has yet to understand the folly of socialism or to memorialize the horrors of the communist system.

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A Hanukkah Candle in the Concentration Camp

by

Yechezkel Pulerevitch

Where have I seen that face? – I wondered, staring at the old man opposite me, a prisoner with gaunt features and blue-green eyes with a dreamy faraway expression. All around us – Russian prisoners in tattered clothing, bickering at the top of their voices and swearing a blue streak. The old man’s clothing was also in rags. But the face, the face… (more…)

When one hears someone say “communism is a great concept, a wonderful idea on paper, etc,” you know right away one is dealing with a political novice. For someone to make such a ludicrous statement in light of insurmountable evidence is either ignorant or is willing to suspend reality to entertain their own thinking, which is in essence, liberalism.

Communism runs counter to everything we know about human nature. Humans cannot reach their fulfillment while existing under arbitrary restraints. Communism is indeed a concept; a concept of shared misery. Liberals only fluff up the language and call it shared sacrifice. Either way, it brings man down to a lowly state of existence by force of a badly flawed human idea and, if removed, humans will do what comes naturally. That is produce, trade, think freely, and continuously challenge their environment where innovation and abundance comes naturally.

To say communism is a great idea on paper is like an engineer who designed a bridge except once the bridge was constructed it collapsed under its own weight. The engineer would certainly not say his design was right on paper. He would have to concede that his idea was flawed from the start, both on paper and in application.

The great flaw of communism was identified in the earliest days of the communists heyday. Back in 1920, Ludwig von Mises, argued that communism calls for the abolishment of free markets and because of this, central planners would effectively be flying blind during planning production. “Every step that takes us away from private ownership of the means of production and from the use of money also takes us away from rational economics.”

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Bill Ayers speaking to a crowd at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg, PA on December 14, 2011. Occupy Harrisburg invited Ayers to speak. Photograph © Paul Hair, 2011.

This is the second time I have covered Occupy Harrisburg.

Bill Ayers spoke at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg, PA on December 14 at the invitation of the militant Occupy Harrisburg. I estimated between 100 and 200 people attended the event.

Eric Papenfuse owns the Midtown Scholar Bookstore. Papenfuse, a former public school teacher, previously invited Ayers to speak in south-central Pennsylvania in 2010. He wrote an OP-ED explaining why he did so and The Patriot-News published it, revealing his radical, anti-capitalist views.

I summarize the night in a list of bullet points in the following section but I don’t go into extremely thorough commentary because there is a bigger point here than Bill Ayers and Occupy Harrisburg.

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Over the past few weeks, we have brought your attention to how the unions behind the front group “We Are Ohio” are intertwined with the radical socialist/communist movement in America. First, we laid out for you who funds the vast majority of “We Are Ohio’s” campaign and how they have expressed not only support but provided coordination and accommodations for the “Occupy” movement, which is organized almost entirely by socialists who want to overthrow the American economy.

Then, we showed you that their “Statewide Youth Outreach Coordinator” is deeply involved in the “Occupy” protests around Ohio and openly decribes himself as a “revolutionary” whose goal is to implement communism in America. Now, “We Are Ohio” is hosting an official event with another radical self-admitted communist, Van Jones.

The American Dream Movement is flexing its muscle in Ohio. I’m coming to Columbus to be a part of it. This Thursday, November 3, we’re gonna Rock the Repeal of Senate Bill 5 and restore the voice of hard-working, middle-class Ohioans in their workplaces by voting “No” on Issue 2.

Yes, the “We Are Ohio” unions are bringing in the same guy who said this:

But in jail, he said, “I met all these young radical people of color — I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was, like, ‘This is what I need to be a part of.’” Although he already had a plane ticket, he decided to stay in San Francisco. “I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary.” In the months that followed, he let go of any lingering thoughts that he might fit in with the status quo. “I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th,” he said. “By August, I was a communist.”

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Yesterday on Third Base Politics, we shared with you how the anti-Issue 2 group “We Are Ohio” is made up of organizations that have given their full endorsement to a movement that seeks to overthrow the entire American economy, by violent means, if necessary.  In fact, 74% of the money behind We Are Ohio comes from the unions who have publicly praised a movement that consists of radical Marxists.

Occupy Wall Street and its various offshoots in other cities seems not to be satisfied until the society that has produced the most mass prosperity, the most advancements in technology and freedom, in human history, is replaced by the model more like the failed and deadly Soviet model.  And We Are Ohio is fully on board with that!

But not only do they support the socialists behind the Occupy movement, they even employ one.

Meet Will Klatt. He is a self-described “community organizer” and claims on his Facebook page to be the “Statewide Youth Outreach Coordinator” for We Are Ohio.

Since it appears often on his Facebook wall, and he is officially the Youth Outreach Coordinator, he is presumably the brains behind the Facebook group “We Are Ohio Students.” So, how is young Will reaching out to Ohio’s youth? By organizing and attending “Occupy” protests around Ohio, of course! Here is a part of his wall highlighting that We Are Ohio Students is directly endorsing, attending and organizing the Occupy Columbus protests.

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In the beginning, I was willing to accept that a group of unhappy citizens utilized their First Amendment rights to protest what they believe to be an injustice (as I have written here and here):  the picking of winners and losers by government with a weak coverup attempt via cronyism.  I accepted, at first, their claims of being a “non-violent” group wanting to have their grievances heard.

Yet, as the “movement” began to grow, it became obvious that being “non-violent” is “non-correct.” Quickly, the OWS protesters were co-opted by those who believe in violence as a legitimate means of achieving their objectives:  Van Jones, who wants to see an “American Autumn” emulating the Arab Spring (which was, and still is, very violent), Michael Moore — who has stated publicly that the “rich” can give up their money now, peacefully, or later (though he doesn’t elaborate on what happens to get the money later, one can imagine), and even Roseanne Barr got into the mix. Barr actually said she longed for the return of the guillotine and re-education camps for those who don’t give up their wealth willingly.

In my appearance on CrossTalk, I was joined by Jason Del Gandio – assistant professor of rhetoric at Temple University and author of “Rhetoric for Radicals,” (a handbook for 21st century activists) and Kevin Zeese, organizer of October 2011.org and activist.  In that program a few things came to the surface:

Both Del Gandio and Zeese pushed the meme that the organizations across the nation were non-violent. Zeese made it clear that they were not allowing themselves to be co-opted by Jones, Moore, the Democrat party or anyone else, claiming:

Van Jones is not part of the Occupy movement…he’s a Democrat…if Obama and the Democrats embrace us, they gonna be very sad to see that we will be protesting them as well…we see them as part of the crony capitalist corrupt economy that has resulted in 400 people having as much wealth as 154 million, not because they are smarter or work harder, but because they are politically connected and essentially bribing through campaign donations…

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As an authentic grass roots movement in which every Local Tea Party organization has different beliefs from the next we have a core value system aligning with all the others.  Some are libertarian, some are religious, some are the flat-out stock broker business types.

They all have one thing in common: They are responsible people.  Their word is their bond.  As much as the groups differ and may argue on issues they all understand that there is a greater good and focus on the tasks at hand.  They get over their personal differences and get to work on what they can contribute.

I heard comments from our own administration (Biden calling Tea Partiers Terrorists) and leaders calling ME, a veteran, a patriot and a true American, Satan. What is Nancy Pelosi thinking when making such comments? (Actually, if I wanted to have fun with this and play it out a little I’d say … it is a “Satan sandwich” with “Satan fries” on the side!)  Biden called the Tea Party terrorists!

I think you really don’t understand the gravity of these statements Mr. Biden and Mrs. Pelosi.  Luckily, I am aware you know not of service to MY Country and you are not aware of the words you have called me and the people of my ilk.  I AM the Tea Party as are the millions of citizens I call my countrymen.

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The corporate media is panicking about the debt crisis. The politicians are squabbling over entitlement reforms and tax increases. The capitalist ratings agencies are warning about a downgrade in the U.S. credit rating. Americans are worrying about their jobs, their homes, their possessions–everything. The government wants to print more money, and the people can’t find enough money to buy basic goods. We are told to be afraid.

But those of us who have always struggled for social justice, for a truly free and humane society, know there is nothing to fear. FDR was wrong: we need not even fear fear itself! For the imminent collapse of the American economy is not just proof that the critique of capitalism was right all along. It is also an opportunity to replace an oppressive system with a revolutionary one–more efficient and democratic than last century’s attempts.

Lenin in Atlantic City. Source: Vernon Ogrodnek, AP

Comrades! This is our moment. The extraordinary confluence of the debt crisis in the U.S. and the debt crisis in the European Union is the surest sign that the globalized capitalist empire itself is crumbling, defeated by its own internal contradictions. Yes, the Soviet Union fell because it could not match capitalist production. But the United States will fall because it cannot afford capitalist consumption–neither private nor public. (more…)

On his Wednesday show, Adam Carolla interviewed Andrew Breitbart to discuss Andrew’s new book, Righteous Indignation.  Let me assure you, you’ll LOVE this duo. Andrew’s been a guest on Carolla’s show before, but this was hands down the most entertaining so far.

Check out some of the comments from Carolla’s regular listeners – not surprisingly, some aren’t exactly Breitbart fans (which makes it that much more enjoyable for me, at least).

Carolla tackled topics with Andrew on just about everything – from Righteous Indignation to Communism, the Left’s Racist meme, the racket of building permits and greenwashing, and unions, just to name a few.  And a whole lotta LA, which, as Andrew illustrates for us, ain’t what is used to be.  The two were on such a rant roll over our waning freedoms, Carolla, who has described himself as having libertarian leanings, almost sounded like another grassroots activist.  Who knows? Sounds like he may just have a bit of Presidential appeal.  Andrew certainly thought so!

“By the way, are you aware that the Republican Party has nobody running for the presidency right now, and if you had put that out there by mistake and people heard that, and that was your spiel, you would have gone up to Donald Trump level, you would have gone up to 17%?”

Oh yeah – Carolla’s also not a big fan of Maxine Waters.  Not. At. All.  Which reminds me, this audio is NSFW.

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There was a time when Communism was anathema to the U.S. labor movement. However, that ship has long since sailed. In fact, the tide shifted significantly in 1995 when John Sweeney, Richard Trumka and Linda Chavez-Thompson ousted Lane Kirkland and took over the AFL-CIO.

Following their ascension to the leadership of America’s only (until 2005) federation of unions, the AFL-CIO dropped its ban of Communist Party members in 1997. Since that time, Marxism has regained a strong foothold in the American labor movement that really hadn’t been seen since the 1930s. And, as every year passes, the Marxist (and Communist) influence on the labor movement becomes more and more evident.

For example, according to the Texas Communist Party USA’s website:

Real Marxists emphasize the tremendous importance of the union movement, even if some so-called ‘radicals’ seek to discredit it. The CPUSA requires its members to join the union in their workplace, if there is one. Interested activists who cannot join a union can still become part of the union movement through the AFL-CIO’s Working America. No communist ever scabs. In the most recent great union upsurge in America (1935-1947) Communists played an outstanding role.

While many rank and file union members would not view themselves as Socialists, Communists, or even Marxists, the fact is, many of the unions’ leaders throughout the country have wholly embraced Marxist ideology and have taken unions, as a whole, in that direction. (more…)

While claiming the American flag represents racism and discussing today’s Progressive Movement’s efforts to defeat America both at home and abroad, including on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan to help their international “comrades,” Communist Tony Pecinovsky pulls the mask off today’s Progressive Movement in two new exclusive Big Government videos of a University of Missouri course offering, already much in the news.

Pecinovsky first came to light yesterday in a Washington Times item by Kerry Picket.

Communism 101 at the University

Tony Pecinovsky, a Communist Party USA representative who is serving as the Communications Workers of America Secretary and Treasurer in St. Louis, spoke to students at the University of Missouri in St. Louis. In the video, he speaks about how the Communist Party looks to support candidates saying (5:30 mark in the video):

While discussing “the idea that the American flag is racist,” in the video below, Pecinovsky mentions a 2005 international youth festival in Venezuela sponsored by the World Federation of Democratic Youth(WFDY).

Pecinovsky brags that the WFDY is officially recognized by the United Nations. He also defines Cuba, Venezuela, and others as genuinely ”progressive,” the very same code word today’s entire American Left uses for itself. That would include the Obama administration and today’s Democrat Party, which it has finally managed to take over. In deed, in the second video, Pecinovsky touts their linkage to such so-called mainstream efforts, including trade unions.

The Young Communist League(YCL) sent 700 young Americans to Venezuela for the event. There, claims Pecinovsky, they had to actually engage in internal debate as to whether, or not to display the American flag next to the flags of countries like Cuba and Venezuela. If they did, it would be only so as to reclaim it from representing racism and what he calls the Right Wing. That includes the Bush administration, as Pecinovsky later reveals.

Going on to call America “the belly of the beast,” Pecinovsky notes the surprising growth of the Communist Party in America today, claiming an additional 1,500 – 2,000 new members this year, just through the Internet. That number does not include results from ground-level activism and recruiting, according to Pecinovsky.

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This afternoon, Big Government will break additional exclusive video clearly demonstrating the anti-American, anti-Capitalist nature of a University of Missouri (UM) course on Labor and Politics. See here and also here for previously released videos.

If you are wondering why some folks are starting to question whether a college education is worth the cost, the video below goes a long way towards explaining it. Recently, the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) and the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) sponsored two college courses: Introduction to Labor Studies and Labor Politics and Society, to be taught simultaneously through a video conference between to two campuses.

While waiting, one might ponder why hardworking American taxpayers are forced to fund an institution touting a course in how to undermine America, both at home and abroad – including in Iraq and Afghanistan while we’re at war – to the tune of 400 Million dollars.

On page 394 of this pdf file, note the Governor of Missouri is requesting $400 million for UM this budget year. That’s similar to the dollar amount they received in 2010.

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If you are wondering why some folks are starting to question whether a college education is worth the cost, the video below goes a long way towards explaining it. Recently, the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) and the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) sponsored two college courses: Introduction to Labor Studies and Labor Politics and Society, to be taught simultaneously through a video conference between to two campuses.

The Professors are Judy Ancel, Director of Labor Studies at UMKC and  Don Giljum, business manager for the International Union of Operating Engineers at Ameren UE in St. Louis. (Bonus: he is a member of the Communist Party.)

In the class, the Professors not only advocate the occasional need for violence and industrial sabotage, they outline specific tactics that can be used. As one of our colleagues pointed out, its the matter-of-factness of it all that is so disturbing.

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In the wake of changes to government employee unions’ power in Wisconsin and elsewhere, The Communist Party USA is working in conjunction with national labor unions and other left wing political groups to organize protests in Madison, Wisconsin and across the nation on April 4th.

Scott Marshall, Vice Chair of The Communist Party USA said his organization is working with the likes of MoveOn.org, the SEIU, the AFL-CIO and others to make April 4th, the anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., a national day of action.

“Support is beginning to grow,” said Marshall in an online meeting earlier this month. “A bunch of organizations already are hyping the idea of massive demonstrations on April 4th.”

The Community Party in particular has benefited from the recent debate over Wisconsin government employee unions’ power to collectively bargain, using the opportunity to build their ranks.

“In this struggle, the question of building the Left and building the Party has to come to the fore,” Marshall said. “Recruiting has picked up, more people are joining the Party and the broader left is getting bigger.”

The Communist Party USA leader said his members cannot just participate alongside other organizations, however. They must continue to join and help lead them.

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As we embark upon a new year of trying to save this country and restore its founding principles, I have spent much time contemplating questions of readers — most important of which is that given the massive problems we continue to face, and would face even with the most principled conservative Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches, what can be done?

But in order to deal with our current struggles, we must recognize that they are symptoms.  The cure to these symptoms lies in dealing with their root causes.  However, even before dealing with our struggles and their root causes, we must ask, what is our vision for America, and what is the role of government in helping to ensure it rather than dooming us to never reach it?

My view of America is a country in which people are free to pursue their greatest good as they see it, or as the founders put it to create a land in which people can pursue their happiness.  This system presupposes that the people are protected.  Before people can partake in mutually beneficial trade and activity, they must be reasonably secure in their persons and their property.  As such, free markets and the free people that create these markets require strong national defense.

So the vision should be clear — government’s role is to lay the foundation for people to be free, furnishing and preserving prosperity by providing defense for it, both against external aggressors and internal ones by providing a set of stable laws protecting private property and contracts specifically and the individual generally.

Where we stand today is that the government, created to ensure these things is instead imperiling them.  Rather than securing private property it consumes and redistributes it.  Further, at every avenue government creates barriers to the free voluntary exchange of goods and services that heretofore have provided such unparalleled levels of comfort for us all.  Rather than defending us from foreign enemies it cuts deals with them, concedes to them and generally submits to them out of political correctness, moral relativism and an inane commitment to multiculturalism.

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Anne C. Heller’s critically acclaimed and best-selling 2009 book, Ayn Rand and the World She Made, is new in paperback (we’re tempted to say that it makes a great Christmas gift, though it’s clear that Rand didn’t believe in the holiday or the altruism that attaches to it!).

Reason’s Nick Gillespie talks with Heller about Rand, whom the biographer says remains the great explicator of capitalism’s virtues and remarkably undervalued by the literary establishment.

“How many novelists of ideas do we have in post-war America?” asks Heller, who says the most surprising thing she learned about Rand during her research was her fearfulness. From double-locking doors to wearing heavy rubber gloves while washing dishes to avoid germs, Heller argues that Rand bore the scars of a Jewish childhood spent in the virulently anti-Semitic confines of czarist Russia and the fledgling Soviet Union.

As Gillespie noted in his review of Ayn Rand and the World She Made and Jennifer Burns’ Goddess of the Market, Heller’s biography is a rich, sympathetic treatment of a major cultural figure that simultaneously analyzes and humanizes Rand’s major, continuing influence on 20th- and 21st-century America.

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The loud clanging alarm clock went off promptly at 6:00 a.m. as it always did. I hopped off my government-issue twin mattress right away. As an unmarried single dweller, I’m not permitted to own a queen-size mattress, and concealing a king-sizer could even get me a 90-day jail stint if some overzealous bureaucrat were to come knocking. No, for me the twin-size was deemed sufficient “nocturnal  replenishment space” (governmentese for “mattress”). The government didn’t seem to mind that at 6’4” I find my allotted replenishment space a tad confining.

“One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” (opening of 1970 Caspar Wrede film)

Anyway, I leapt right into action. Not like in the good old pre-2013 days when I’d take my sweet time and listen to my favorite morning talk radio show under the cozy covers. Unfortunately, ever since the Obama administration’s Broadcast Airwaves Czar reinstituted The Fairness Act in August of 2012, the talk radio shows one by one all faded from the airwaves. Talk radio was simply no longer commercially viable once the stations had to counterbalance with unprofitable Air America-style programming. Well, if it gets me out of bed and becoming a productive member of the labor force one hour sooner, I suppose that’s for the better. As Mr. and Mrs. Obama have reminded me on many occasions, it’s a shared sacrifice. And I know they’re shouldering their portion of the burden just like me.  I’m sure their Nocturnal Replenishment Space is only a Queen.

Solzhenitsyn in the gulag

Today was the first day of the month, which meant I had to get to the Mortgage Relief Assistance Office by 7:30 if I wanted to get a good spot in line for my subsidy. Since that MRA check covers 90% of my mortgage payment, I’m not about to pass it up—even though I could easily make the payment myself from money I squirreled away before the Equity in Compensation Act of 2012 reduced my handsome programmer’s salary by two-thirds. I guess all those years I spent studying the intricacies of digital architecture were not the wise investment in my future I once thought.

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When I learned over the weekend that the Free Vietnamese Mutual Association of Quad Cities will support Illinois Republican Bobby Schilling in his bid to unseat liberal Democrat incumbent Phil Hare in the 17th Congressional District race, I was reminded of a story I published Aug. 19.

That story focused on the hardships, past and present, endured by Thi Nguyen. Now going by her American name, Teresa Pershall, she told me some incredible things about the hardship and oppression that accompanied communism in her native Vietnam. In addition, she drew my attention to hardships she is enduring today as a small business owner in St. Peters, Mo.

An excerpt from that article appears below:

Asked to describe what it was like to live under communism, she said, “It’s a really wonderful life for people who work for the government and a really horrible life for those who work outside the government.”

Comparing government officials to “sticks” who are willing to cover up for each other and accept mediocrity as long as it allows them to enrich themselves, she went on to highlight corruption as one of the biggest problems she saw in Vietnam.

“One stick, you can break it,” she said. “One chopstick, you can break it. But one-hundred chopsticks, you cannot break.”

In other words, it’s hard to get rid of crooked politicians once corruption becomes the norm.

Though I’ve not had no direct contact with the FVMA, I have been told by people in Illinois’ 17th CD that the group is comprised of individuals who, like Pershall, fled their homeland for many of the same reasons as Pershall and eventually landed in the heartland of the United States: They wanted to escape oppression and enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That in mind, it should come as no surprise to anyone that members of the FVMA are backing Schilling, a small business owner with labor union experience, instead of Phil Hare, the man who has been described as having lived a “year of foolishness” and said, among other things, “I don’t worry about the Constitution to be honest.”

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After seeing the U.S. economy start to dive during the summer of 2008, Teresa Pershall decided it was time to downsize her business and prepare for the long, tough economic road ahead. She had, after all, seen this type of thing before. In Vietnam. Decades earlier.

In 1980, Teresa — then known by her Vietnamese name, Thi Nquyen — found herself standing in a rice field holding two little babies and asking herself, “What do I do now?” Her only answer at the time was to work. And work hard. Twenty hours a day was not uncommon.

Only a few years earlier, the Viet Cong had taken over South Vietnam and seized her family’s property. Teresa’s husband and many of her family members were able to flee the country, but she remained behind to take care of her two elderly parents and her two babies by herself. Many others she had known simply disappeared after being taken away by armed men from the new regime. She did not want the same to happen to her children and her parents.

Asked to describe what it was like to live under communism, she said, “It’s a really wonderful life for people who work for the government and a really horrible life for those who work outside the government.”

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As we mentioned in our last article, the prevalence of the Triple Bottom Line philosophy is signaling a changing paradigm, a time of transformation. Our question, then, is this: What exactly are we transforming into?  The knee-jerk answer might be that we are transforming from a capitalist system to a socialist system. However, the widespread adoption of 3BL belies such a simple answer. Socialism, with its complete government control of production, is hardly desirable for private business interests. American corporations are willingly embracing 3BL without even a government mandate. There is something deeper going on than simply a tug of war between two economic systems, and we are seeking to explore just what that may be.

Our first clues as to where we are going lay in the past, with the origin of the term “Triple Bottom Line.” For that we can credit John Elkington (his personal website and blog is here), who introduced the public to the term for the first time in his 1997 publication Cannibals With Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. Elkington is a longtime advocate for corporate environmental and social awareness, having cofounded the business development consulting firm SustainAbility in 1987. In fact, we may consider him a “founder” of corporate sustainability, having been called a “dean of the corporate responsibility movement for three decades” by BusinessWeek.  Elkington currently serves as the Executive Chairman of the sustainability think tank Volans, which he helped found in 2008. His work with Volans is what provides a real glimpse into the end game of 3BL, in a concept termed “The Phoenix Economy.”

The Phoenix Economy is a concept professing that the failure of an existing economic system will leave a void and an opportunity for a new system to take its place.  (The term “phoenix” refers to the bird of that name which, in ancient mythology, dies in a self-created fire and is then reincarnated from the ashes.)  Old paradigms and established principles are replaced by a new way of approaching economics — and indeed the culture. Elkington recognizes this as an opportunity to establish a new paradigm based on 3BL philosophy. Global sustainability is the principle by which the economic and social culture will be driven. The Volans website provides a concise explanation of the Phoenix Economy.

According to Volans:

From the ashes of the downturn, a new economy is self-assembling—focused on providing social and environmental solutions, where markets and governments have failed.

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