Archaeology Can Now Tell Us How People Have Muffled And Challenged Economic Inequality Across History

• by: Gary M. Feinman

Gary M. Feinman

04-19-2025 ~ Without archaeology, there is no way to truly examine economic inequality, its causes, and its consequences over very long time spans on a global scale. Until recently, most grand narratives that purported to tell the story of human inequality over time tended to focus either on European history of the last five to six centuries or snapshots of recent societies, derived following colonial encounters with people around the world. These were then pyramided into proposed stepped sequences of change that were presumed to mimic unilinear temporal processes. Whereas the former was not global, the latter was not even historical.

Well into the 20th century, European history and its colonial global impact empirically underpinned our conceptual lenses on inequality. For this reason, it is hardly surprising that to the present, our grand narratives on the topic tend to see increasing wealth disparities as inevitable. Inequality is seen as a byproduct of population and economic growth, only potentially reversible through the spread of a supposedly nascent rationality birthed at the outset of the modern era, with the rise of the West and the program of governance and education it offered. Alas, over the last decades, as inequality spirals, nowhere more than at the heart of the West in the United States and the United Kingdom, the long-entrenched grand narratives now seem naive and out-of-date.

Fortunately, over the last half-century, archaeologists have gone to work looking beyond ancient temples and tombs and, instead, have been mapping sites and excavating houses. By broadening their vantage beyond kings and courts, archaeologists in many regions of the world have and continue to gather data on diverse segments of past societies; farmers as well as rulers. The systematic cumulation of these data, with a focus on houses, lies at the core of the GINI project, a broad collaborative effort led by Timothy A. Kohler (Washington State University), Amy Bogaard (Oxford University), and Scott Ortman (University of Colorado), which has measured and coded more than 50,000 houses from more than 1,000 archaeological sites.

During the past and present, disparities in housing have been one of the best measures of wealth differences. And with this unprecedented sample, it is now feasible to trace economic inequality across much of the globe over time. Now, for the first time, we can see that neither farming nor population growth nor urban aggregation are simple determinants of inequality. Nor can we point to a uniform, unilinear sequence that accounts for patterns of change across every continent. Nevertheless, when we look across humanity’s past, there are broader tendencies, patterns, and even lessons to absorb and learn.

One clear trend is that through time, across the broad sweep of human history, the potential for inequality has grown due to advances in technology (domesticated crops and animals, enhanced communication, and advances in transport) and the increasing size of human aggregations and nations. These factors are important as they contribute to the growing extent of economic inequality. Yet alone, they are not determinative.

The deeply held story that sedentary settlement, along with farming, prompted the advent of private property, which generated intra-community inequality that was then a basis for the emergence of top-down, autocratic governance simply does not fit most, if any, global regions. It often took millennia after reliance on farming for degrees of economic inequality to tick significantly upward, and only in specific places.

For the regions we examined as part of this research project, the potential for inequality was not uniformly realized or consistently reached. In fact, in general, within global areas, the variances or ranges in the degree of inequality expanded through time. Over and over, and in different ways, people have devised institutions, modes of governance, and leveling mechanisms to muffle that expansive potential for rises in inequality. Read more

A Nation of Sheep? Trump’s Fascist Tactics Working All Too Easily

• by: Alexandra Boutri & C.J. Polychroniou

C.J. Polychroniou

04-19-2025 ~ Where are the nationwide protests? The national strikes against the destruction of what is left of U.S. democracy? As for the eerie complacency of the Democrats, it is hardly surprising why there is such a huge loss of trust in the leadership of the Democratic Party.

Trump’s historic first 100 days are just around the corner. How is the U.S. doing? What are the global implications, including for climate and the environment, of Trump’s policies to create a “new world order” and “Make America Wealthy Again? In the interview that follows with independent French-Greek journalist Alexandra Boutri, political scientist/political economist, author and journalist C.J. Polychroniou argues that both the future of U.S. democracy and of humanity as a whole are at great risk because of an ignorant, self-serving autocrat at the helm of the world’s most powerful nation.

Alexandra Boutri: Trump’s first 100 days are nearing the end. What have we learned so far about Trump’s second term and his direction for the country?

C. J. Polychroniou: The first thing that ought to be said is that there are significant differences between Trump’s first and second terms. This time he has a much clearer agenda, largely thanks to Project 2025, and is better prepared to see it through to the end. The aim is to undo race and gender progress, restore white dominance, deregulate the economy and use whatever means are available to further enrich the super-rich, and use economic coercion to secure U.S. hegemony. It’s a thoroughly anti-democratic, blatantly neofascist vision that spells serious trouble for the future of democracy, especially given America’s fragile democratic convictions. Indeed, one of the most shocking things so far is the ease with which the country is heading toward a 21^st century version of fascism under Trump’s second term.

This disturbing development speaks volumes of the weaknesses of the U.S. labor movement as well as of the overwhelmingly apolitical nature of civil society. Where are the nationwide protests? The national strikes against the destruction of what is left of U.S. democracy? As for the eerie complacency of the Democrats, it is hardly surprising why there is such a huge loss of trust in the leadership of the Democratic Party.

Alexandra Boutri: Are we witnessing a revolution in the making?

C. J. Polychroniou: With regard to what Trump is doing to American society and its institutions, the right word is “counterrevolution.” Trump is carrying out a fascist destabilization of society in order to stop a progressive agenda, establish new forms of political legitimacy, and suppress, if not eliminate, threats from below. With regard to foreign affairs, he sees the world as a zero-sum game. But it would be naïve to think that what he is after are the interests of the average American citizen. Trump has nothing but contempt for working people. He is both after a world order and an economic regime at home that enriches corporations and the ultrawealthy at the expenses of the many.

Alexandra Boutri: Why is the Trump administration so keen in controlling education and taking over cultural institutions, such as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts?

C. J. Polychroniou: Exerting power over education, taking control of cultural institutions and silencing the press are primary aims of every self-respecting authoritarian regime that wishes to take over civil society in order to transform a country’s political landscape and colonize the consciousness of its citizens. Mussolini did so in Italy; Hitler in Germany; Franco in Spain; and even the colonels of Greece. What Trump and the thugs surrounding him are doing are precisely just that: they are trying to suppress ideas they despise, silence dissent, and convert citizens into a nation of sheep. Fascist goals, fascist tactics. Pure and simple. And, sadly enough, he seems to be doing it with great ease as a huge portion of the American citizenry has already been turned into a nation of sheep. Now it’s only up to that small but courageous community of American dissenters and radicals to stand up to the ignorant and stupid autocrat. Read more

Lustrous Surfaces: Easy On The Eyes, Easy On the Nervous System

• by: Irina Matuzava

Irina Matuzava – Photo: The Observatory

04-13-2025 ~ The attraction to luster is rooted in our evolutionary history and has persisted among prehistoric artifacts, ancient civilizations, and consumer culture.

Our ancestors’ ability to recognize water sources was crucial to their survival. As a result, the attraction to lustrous materials is deeply rooted in our evolutionary history and is evident among prehistoric artifacts, ancient civilizations, and modern consumer culture.

During the Pliocene Epoch, early hominins likely traveled between semi-permanent rain pools, restricting their movement to warmer and wetter regions. During the Late Pleistocene, humid forests declined and grassland-savanna habitats expanded. [1] Thus, the ability to detect water sources became extremely important. In the dry savanna conditions of East Africa, early humans relied on small lakes and rain pools to survive seasonal droughts, and many fossil hominid remains have been found near ancient lakeshores, supporting the idea that access to water played a key role in early human migration. The savanna hypothesis suggests that the expansion of African grasslands led directly to the divergence of hominins from apes and the emergence of the genus Homo. [2]

Natural selection likely chose individuals who could recognize water and wet surfaces, and, according to evolutionary anthropologist Dean Falk’s radiator theory, the success of finding drinking water daily to prevent dehydration and conserve energy played a substantial role in shaping hominin evolution. [3]

Water still significantly impacts our neurological system, influencing physiological and psychological well-being. Psychology professor Richard Coss and his former student, Craig Keller, conducted a pair of studies published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology in 2022 showing that “gazing at bodies of water can help lower your heart rate, blood pressure, and increase feelings of relaxation.”[4]

The first of Coss and Keller’s studies showed that viewing a swimming pool lowers heart rate and blood pressure versus looking at a street sign and a tree in a parking lot.

The second study measured heart rate and blood pressure when viewing six sites with different amounts of visible water. Viewing water compared to the adjacent ground produced effects consistent with a relaxation response or a decrease in heart rate and blood pressure. Moreover, the studies found that looking at wider portions of water produced higher states of relaxation than narrow portions of water, suggesting that abundant amounts of water have a greater potential to limit dehydration. Clear water also produced a higher state of relaxation than murky water, which may be linked to the health of the water, as clear water is less likely to contain harmful bacteria and produce an unfavorable future state, such as illness.[5]

Meanwhile, a 2010 study by Richard Coss investigated the connection between glossy surfaces and their association with water or wetness. Coss designed an experiment using four different papers with varying surface finishes: matte watercolor paper, glossy silk-screen paper, gritty sandpaper, and sparkly glitter paper designed to be reminiscent of an ocean surface. The study’s participants were asked to examine the surfaces using a questionnaire to assess their wet and dry connotations as well as their overall attitude toward each paper type.

The results demonstrated that glossy surfaces appear significantly wetter than sparkling surfaces, and both the glossy and sparkling surfaces were perceived as wetter than the matte and sandy finishes. The participants’ assessment of the sparkling surface, having been rated lower on the wetness scale than the glossy silk-screen surface, suggests that sparkle does not consistently indicate the presence of moisture.[6] Read more

Trump’s Tariffs Buck The Global Neoliberal Order — But Still Serve The 1 Percent

• by: C.J. Polychroniou

James K. Boyce – Photo by Matthew Cavanaugh

04-13-2025 ~ Trump’s tariffs threaten to widen inequality in the US, making the rich richer and impoverishing the working class.

Since assuming office, the Trump administration has taken actions resembling those of an absolutist state: undermining civil rights and democracy at home while introducing a reciprocal tariffs plan that has unleashed chaos around the world. Indeed, Donald Trump’s “liberation day,” a declaration of economic war on the rest of the planet, wiped several trillions of dollars in market value from Wall Street on April 4, the very same day it was announced, and ignited fears of destructive trade wars. After a brief recovery, global markets tumbled again as Trump imposed a 125 percent tariff on China. Furthermore, his plan to “make America wealthy again” via tariffs fuels fears of a U.S. recession — and even of a global economic meltdown.

However, Trump has now reversed course in his global trade war by announcing a 90-day pause of “reciprocal tariffs” for most countries except China. Whether this was due to market backlash or constitutes a market manipulation scheme on the part of Trump is hard to say. But confusion still reigns in the business community and the trade war with China will surely put the global economy on edge.

The poor and the middle classes will bear most of the burden of Trump’s tariffs, political economist James K. Boyce told Truthout in the interview that follows. Boyce contends that tariffs alone will not make the U.S. trade deficit disappear, and that Trump’s obsession with tariffs could start the next Great Depression.

James K. Boyce is professor emeritus of economics and a senior fellow at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is the author of scores of books and academic articles, and the recipient of the 2024 Global Inequality Research Award and the 2017 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought. The interview that follows has been lightly edited for clarity.

C. J. Polychroniou: Trump’s economic agenda focuses on “border security,” deregulation, energy, tax cuts and tariffs. Some have described the strategy behind Trump’s political economy as neo-mercantilism, but it also seems to be strengthening neoliberal economic policy at home. Can we call it a strategy of nationalist neoliberalism?

James K. Boyce: In its heyday, beginning under Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, neoliberalism was the reigning economic ideology both nationally and internationally. In the U.S., its hallmark was downsizing the state’s role in the economy in favor of “free” markets. Internationally, its hallmark was the reduction of barriers to the movement of goods, services and capital in favor of “free” trade. Both served an underlying agenda of increasing the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few.

It turns out that these two components — the national and the international — are separable. Trump is doubling down on the neoliberal agenda at home, while ripping it asunder internationally. China, as the economist Branko Milanovic recently observed, has followed the opposite strategy.

The combination of greater state control in international trade and downsizing the economic role of the state at home does not yet have a widely accepted name. Most important is understanding what is happening. Read more

What Happens When Russian And Ukrainian Soldiers Come Home?

• by: John P. Ruehl

John P. Ruehl – Source: Independent Media Institute

04-09-2025 ~ Russian and Ukrainian soldiers will eventually largely lay down their arms, but as the Soviet Afghanistan War shows, returning from the frontlines causes its own issues.

Two years into his prison term for a 2020 murder, Ivan Rossomakhin was recruited into a Russian private military company (PMC) in exchange for freedom. He returned home from Ukraine in 2023 and, within days, killed an 85-year-old woman in a nearby town. One week after beginning his new sentence in August 2024, he was redrafted and sent back to the front.

His crime marks one of many committed by convicts pardoned to serve in the army and Russian troops returning home. “A survey of Russian court records by the independent media outlet Verstka found that at least 190 criminal cases were initiated against pardoned Wagner recruits in 2023,” stated an April 2024 New York Times article.

Growing concerns point to a potentially worse repeat of the “Afghan syndrome” experienced by Soviet veterans of the 1979-1989 war in Afghanistan. Many of the roughly 642,000 Soviet soldiers who served returned as outcasts to a society eager to forget an unpopular war. Many turned to addiction and alcoholism, alongside organized crime, amplified further by the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. Additionally, Chechen veterans of the Afghan War used their combat experience to fiercely resist Russia in the first Chechen war (1994-1996).

The war in Ukraine is producing an even larger and more battle-hardened generation of veterans. Russian casualties surpassed 15,000 during almost five months of the war, exceeding a decade of Soviet losses in Afghanistan. A January 2025 New York Times article estimates that around 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed by December 2024, while 150,000 Russian soldiers lost their lives until November of that year. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands have been wounded, and millions have been cycled through the front lines. Most survivors will have some form of PTSD, further desensitized by the glorification of brutal combat and torture footage on social media.

Ukrainian soldiers were “experiencing intense symptoms of psychological stress,” according to a 2023 Washington Post article. Meanwhile, in 2024, Deutsche Welle reported that “According to the Russian Health Ministry, 11,000 Russian military personnel who had taken part in the war against Ukraine, as well as their family members, sought psychological help within a six-month period in 2023.”

Reintegrating these men into society will be an uphill battle for the Russian and Ukrainian governments, with lingering wariness from past failures. In December 2022, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko vowed to prevent a repeat of the Afghan syndrome and reintegrate veterans back into civilian life. As the war grinds on, however, its consequences are already unfolding. Both Moscow and Kyiv are managing ongoing troop rotations while preparing for the eventual mass return of soldiers—and exploring how to use them for political and military ends. Read more

The AI Power Play: How ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, And Others Are Shaping The Future Of Artificial Intelligence

• by: Sharon Kumar

04-05-2025 ~ The competition among top AI models is transforming how we work, create, and communicate. But as these systems grow smarter and more accessible, new questions emerge about cost, sustainability, and responsible development in a rapidly evolving landscape.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has seen rapid growth, transforming industries and daily life. From chatbots to advanced generative models, AI’s capabilities continue to expand, driven by powerful companies investing heavily in research and development. “The development of AI is as fundamental as the creation of the microprocessor, the personal computer, the Internet, and the mobile phone,” wrote Bill Gates in 2023. “It will change the way people work, learn, travel, get health care, and communicate with each other.”

In 2025, companies such as OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and emerging challengers like DeepSeek have pushed the boundaries of what large language models (LLMs) can do. Moreover, corporate solutions from Microsoft and Meta are making AI tools more accessible to enterprises and developers alike. This article explores the latest AI models available to the public, their advantages and drawbacks, and how they compare in the competitive AI landscape.

The Power and Performance of AI Models
AI models rely on extensive computational resources, particularly large language models (LLMs) that require vast datasets and processing power. The leading AI models undergo complex training procedures that involve billions of parameters, consuming significant energy and infrastructure.

Key AI players invest in cutting-edge hardware and optimization strategies to improve efficiency while maintaining high performance. The balance between computational power, speed, and affordability is a significant factor in differentiating these AI models.

The Competitive Landscape: Top AI Models

OpenAI’s ChatGPT

ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, is one of the most recognizable and widely used AI models in the world. Built with a dialogue-driven format, ChatGPT is designed to answer follow-up questions, challenge incorrect premises, admit mistakes, and reject inappropriate requests. Its versatility has made it a leading AI tool for both casual and professional use, spanning industries such as customer service, content creation, programming, and research.

ChatGPT is ideal for a wide range of users, including writers, business professionals, educators, developers, and researchers. Its free-tier accessibility makes it an excellent starting point for casual users, while businesses, content creators, and developers can leverage its advanced models for enhanced productivity and automation.

It is also among the most user-friendly AI models available, featuring a clean interface, intuitive responses, and seamless interaction across devices. However, organizations that require custom AI models or stricter data privacy controls may find its closed-source nature restrictive, particularly compared to open-source alternatives like Meta’s LLaMA.

The latest version, GPT-4o, is available for free-tier users and offers a strong balance of speed, reasoning, and text generation capabilities. For users seeking enhanced performance, ChatGPT Plus provides priority access and faster response times at a monthly subscription cost.

For professionals and businesses requiring more robust capabilities, ChatGPT Pro unlocks advanced reasoning features through the o1 pro mode, which includes enhanced voice functionality and improved performance on complex queries.

Developers looking to integrate ChatGPT into applications can access its API, a type of software interface. Pricing starts at approximately $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.60 per million output tokens for GPT-4o mini, while the more powerful o1 models come at a higher cost. A token is defined as a fundamental unit of data, like a word or subword, that an AI model processes to understand and generate text.

One of ChatGPT’s greatest strengths is its versatility and conversational memory. It can handle a broad range of tasks, from casual conversation and creative writing to technical problem-solving, coding assistance, and business automation. When memory is enabled, ChatGPT can retain context across interactions, allowing for a more personalized user experience.

Another key advantage is its proven user base—with hundreds of millions of users worldwide, ChatGPT has undergone continuous refinement based on real-world feedback, improving its accuracy and usability. Additionally, GPT-4o’s multimodal capabilities allow it to process text, images, audio, and video, making it a comprehensive AI tool for content creation, analysis, and customer engagement.

While a free version exists, the most powerful features require paid subscriptions, which may limit accessibility for smaller businesses, independent developers, and startups. Another drawback is an occasional lag in real-time updates; even though ChatGPT has web-browsing capabilities, it may struggle with the most recent or fast-changing information. Lastly, its proprietary model means users have limited control over modifications or customization, as they must adhere to OpenAI’s data policies and content restrictions.

Google’s Gemini

Google’s Gemini series is renowned for its multimodal capabilities and its ability to handle extensive context, making it a versatile tool for both personal and enterprise-level applications.

General consumers and productivity users benefit from Gemini’s deep integration with Google Search, Gmail, Docs, and Assistant, making it an excellent tool for research, email drafting, and task automation. Business and enterprise users find value in Gemini’s integration with Google Workspace, enhancing collaboration across Drive, Sheets, and Meet. Developers and AI researchers can leverage its capabilities through Google Cloud and Vertex AI, making it a strong choice for building AI applications and custom models. Creative professionals can take advantage of its multimodal abilities, working with text, images, and video. Meanwhile, students and educators benefit from Gemini’s ability to summarize, explain concepts, and assist with research, making it a powerful academic tool.

Google Gemini is highly accessible, especially for those already familiar with Google services. Its seamless integration across Google’s ecosystem allows for effortless adoption in both personal and business applications. Casual users will find it intuitive, with real-time search enhancements and natural interactions that require little to no learning curve. Developers and AI researchers can unlock advanced customization through API access and cloud-based features, though utilizing these tools effectively may require technical expertise.

The current versions, Gemini 1.5 Flash and Pro, cater to different needs, with Flash offering a cost-efficient, distilled option and Pro providing higher performance. Meanwhile, the Gemini 2.0 series, designed primarily for enterprise use, includes experimental models like Gemini 2.0 Flash with enhanced speed and multimodal live APIs, as well as the more powerful Gemini 2.0 Pro.

Basic access to Gemini is often free or available through Google Cloud’s Vertex AI. Still, advanced usage, especially when integrated into enterprise solutions, was introduced at $19.99–$25 per month per user, with pricing adjusted to reflect added features like a 1-million-token context window.

Gemini’s main advantage over other AIs is that it excels in processing text, images, audio, and video simultaneously, making it a standout in multimodal mastery. It also integrates seamlessly with Google Workspace, Gmail, and Android devices, making it a natural fit for users already in the Google ecosystem. Additionally, it offers competitive pricing for developers and enterprises needing robust capabilities, especially in extended context handling.

However, Gemini’s performance can be inconsistent, particularly with rare languages or specialized queries. Some advanced versions may be limited by safety testing, delaying wider access. Furthermore, its deep integration with Google’s ecosystem can be a barrier for users outside that environment, making adoption more challenging. Read more