Addicted to War: The Seductive Myths of Militarism

Deepening militarization threatens to hollow out democracy and leave the United States isolated and bankrupt, morally and economically.

Unlike the current US president, George Washington wasn’t naive about the use of military power. In his farewell address, the general-turned-politician issued a warning that would be wise to reconsider as the nation pursues a foreign policy driven by whims and based on so-called “preventive wars” — from past crusades to spread “democratic capitalism” to the current use of force to decapitate regimes, extract resources and project global dominance.

Citizens should be wary, the first president explained, of “those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.” 

While he considered a respectable army essential to national well-being, Washington believed that an overgrown military in the New World would replicate the errors of the Old one. Unfortunately, this concern – considered superfluous in 1796 – has been largely ignored for more than two centuries, a period that has seen the United States transform itself from a revolutionary experiment into a rogue superpower. 

As Andrew J. Bacevich argued in The New American Militarism more than twenty years ago, the roots of the change go deep and can’t be blamed on a single political party or administration. Yet the problem was intensified by disorientation following the Vietnam War, as well as illusions about the invulnerability provided by technology and the extreme right argument that military power provides the “indispensable foundation” for the nation’s unique role in the world. 

Coming from a left-leaning writer, such insights would not be surprising. But Bacevich is a West Point graduate, veteran of Vietnam, and former Bush fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. As such, he watched the evolution of what he described as an “ever-deepening militarization of U.S. policy” that threatened to hollow out democracy and leave the country isolated and bankrupt, both morally and economically. Recent history supports his analysis.

Around the same time, conservative pundit Pat Buchanan made a similar case in Where the Right Went Wrong, a 2004 book on how the far right hijacked the Bush presidency. Calling the post 9/11 Bush Doctrine “democratic imperialism,” this New Right prophet warned that foreign adventurism would “bleed, bankrupt, and isolate this republic. This overthrows the wisdom of the Founding Fathers about what America should be all about. This is an American version of the Brezhnev Doctrine, wherein Moscow asserted the right to intervene to save Communism in any nation where it had once been imposed. Only we Americans now assert the right to intervene anywhere to impose democracy.” 

However, while Buchanan considered Ronald Reagan a real conservative who would not have countenanced “regime change” and preventive war unless the evidence of an imminent attack was absolutely solid, Bacevich charged that Reagan nevertheless romanticized the military to boost defense spending, confront the Soviet Union, and set the stage of further militarization. More than anyone else, he charged, Reagan “conjured up the myths that nurtured and sustain present-day American militarism” and made military might “the preferred measure for gauging the nation’s strength.” 

On the other hand, the shift was underway even before Reagan. Bacevich sees Jimmy Carter’s failures – including his pleas to end the U.S. addiction to imported oil and urge a turn toward self-sufficiency, as well as a disastrous covert mission to rescue U.S. hostages in Iran – as inadvertent persuasions. They convinced people that a weak military was intolerable and thus played into the agenda of the emerging new right movement. 

After Reagan, Bill Clinton aided the project by backing military enhancements like “smart weapons” and “flexible power projection capabilities,” as well as intervening “with great frequency in more places for more varied purposes than any of his predecessors.” 

Although modern right-wing nationalism can be traced back to 1960s attacks on the New Left and counterculture by Norman Podhoretz and others, it didn’t gain much traction until the Reagan years. The argument begins with the assertion that “evil” will prevail if those who confront it flinch from duty. It’s an existential threat, many often claim.The primary example before 9/11 was appeasement of Hitler by Britain and France, combined with U.S. isolationism before World War II. The only effective response is military power, not vague and unrealistic international negotiations. By this logic, the United States has no choice but to assert global leadership. And the mission is open-ended. There’s no room for pessimism or doubt; in fact, such thinking close to treasonous. 

At home, right-wing nationalists defined a set of related threats, among them sexual license, vulgarity (that is, until Trump!), lack of standards, and the decline in respect for authority. In response, they felt compelled to challenge and discredit 1960s legacies such as multiculturalism, affirmative action, feminism, and gay rights, while promoting “traditional values” and so-called beleaguered institutions, notably marriage and the nuclear family. Some extended the list to most of Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Furthermore, the movement claimed that the crisis was permanent and dire, and the only antidote a heroic form of leadership Bacevich defined as a “weird homegrown variant of the Fuehrer Principle.” He held back from using the word fascist. But as Willhelm Reich explained in The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1933/1946), identification with a “Fuehrer” forms the psychological basis of national narcissism. In pre-war Germany, “The structure of the fascist proved to be characterized by metaphysical thinking, piety, and the belief in the abstract ethical ideas and the Divine mission of the ‘Fuehrer’,” Reich explained. “These traits rested on a basis of a strong authoritarian fixation to a Fuehrer-ideal of the nation.” 

In the United States, other factors assisting the rise of a fascist-leaning militarism included Hollywood and evangelical religion. The entertainment industry’s early contributions included a series of influential films that etched a romanticized vision of the military into popular consciousness. Bacevich focused on three: An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), which suggested that becoming an officer was the way to move from a dead-end existence to status and respectability, “up where we belong;” the Rambo series (1982-88), which argued that soldiers aren’t given the respect they deserve at home and should be set loose to win battles abroad by any means; and Top Gun (1986), a feature-length recruitment poster that made combat look clean, technologically sophisticated, and cool. 

Since then Hollywood’s war narrative has become slightly more complex, but no less rose-colored. Dozen of major war films and TV series have been released in recent decades, many looking back at World War II as a violent crucible that nevertheless reflected noble national ideals. Others support arguments about the dangers of a half-hearted response to evil and how political considerations threaten essential missions. 

As far as religion is concerned, Bacevich began a chapter titled “Onward” with the bold statement that the United States remained, “as it has always been, a deeply, even incorrigibly, Christian nation.” At the time up to 100 million people defined themselves as evangelicals, he claimed, and tended to be conservative and vote Republican. The number may have dropped slightly since, but about 24 percent of Americans still embrace the evangelical label. It’s not a majority, but a crucial bloc.

The trouble is that evangelical Christians also celebrate the military as a bastion of the values needed to stop the current slide toward perdition, which provides religious sanction to militarization. This links up nicely with authoritarian logic, offering support for the idea of striking the first blow. Books like The Church and the Sword and One Nation Under God replace the “just war” idea with a “crusader theory of warfare.” As Hal Lindsey, author of The Late Great Planet Earth, argued, “The Bible supports building a powerful military force. And the Bible is telling the U.S. to be strong again.” 

With evangelicals leading the charge, both within the military chaplaincy and the GOP, “Conservative Christians have conferred a presumptive moral palatability on any occasion on which the United States resorts to force,” Bacevich concluded. “They have fostered among the legions of believing Americans a predisposition to see U.S. military power as inherently good, perhaps even a necessary adjunct to the accomplishment of Christ’s saving mission. In doing so, they have nurtured the preconditions that have enabled American infatuation with military power to flourish.” 

So far, Trump’s current conflict with Iran is

 one of the least popular in American history

. Most previous U.S. wars enjoyed high initial public approval. World War II reportedly had up to 97 percent backing. Even the 2001 Afghanistan invasion initially saw major support. In contrast, the new Iran conflict began with only 40 percent approval and dropped in the first month. Opposition to “endless wars” and Trump’s royalist ambitions is growing.

Bacevich has also proposed that the world is already in the midst of World War IV, and defined it bluntly as a battle to guarantee U.S. citizens “ever-increasing affluence.” It began, he claimed, when Jimmy Carter declared in January 1980 that, “An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.” This was called the Carter Doctrine.

Once this "Doctrine" became a widely accepted assumption, Reagan ramped up the military’s ability to actually wage the new world war, thus cocking the trigger that George W. Bush ultimately pulled. What allowed the crusade to proceed, Bacevich added, was a combination of self-induced historical amnesia and a momentum for militarization that had been building since the “national trauma” induced by defeat in Vietnam. 

And the country may be stuck with this “misbegotten crusade,” Bacevich predicted. But at least he offered a set of alternative principles that might help mitigate the effects. They include restricting military actions to those that truly reflect what the U.S. Constitution calls “common defense.” This could force Congress to exercise oversight and renounce preventive war, relegate force to a last resort, limit U.S. dependence on foreign resources, reorganize the military around defense rather than power projection, base the military budget on what other nations spend (rather than a fixed percent of GDP), and increase funding for diplomacy to better communicate with the rest of the world. Considering where things stand, a tall order but worth keeping in mind.

He finished with three ideas for reforming the military itself. Favoring the idea of “citizen soldiers,” Bacevich suggests that the current all-volunteer force should better “mirror society” rather than becoming increasingly “professionalized.” Specifically, he calls for shorter enlistments, more generous signing bonuses, flexible retirement options, and free college education for anyone who serves. If the military is rooted among the people, problems that develop in any future interventions are more likely to be identified early and corrected. At least that's the hope.  

Bacevich also called for a reexamination of the role of the National Guard, along with its expansion. “We need more citizen-soldiers protecting Americans at home even if that means fewer professional soldiers available to assume responsibility for situations abroad.” At least that sounds better than the current para-military drift of ICE. And finally, he urged an end to the current painful and dangerous separation between the military profession and the rest of society. As a former military man, he views war as part of the human condition. But he wants to bind the profession to the “outside world” rather allowing it to keep the world at bay.

An earlier version of this essay was posted March 17, 2016, with material from a first draft in 2005. 

Anatomy of a Maverick: Greg Guma’s Restless Spirits

The core philosophy is a blend of progressive politics, humanistic psychology, and a critique of traditional, overly "rational" management, emphasizing a more intuitive and creative approach. Guma’s work consistently advocates for social justice, diversity, decentralism and critical thinking, challenging established power structures and conventional wisdom. 

By Eugene Michael Scribner

BURLINGTON, VT — A Vermont journalist, author, and activist known for his work in progressive media and local politics, Greg Guma has had an extensive career spanning over five decades as a writer, editor, historian, bookstore owner, and media executive. He began as a reporter in 1968 and later edited the Vanguard Press (1978–1982), an influential alternative weekly in Vermont. He also published a syndicated column and edited Toward Freedom, a magazine on global affairs, from the mid-1980s to 2004. 

BUY

Greg Guma on Amazon

He has been a prominent figure in Vermont activism, instrumental in bringing housing codes to Bennington and neighborhood assemblies to Burlington, helping launch the Citizen Party and Progressive Coalition, coordinating Burlington’s Peace & Justice Center, organizing environmental and independent media conferences, and co-founding Vermont Guardian in 2004. He worked with Bernie Sanders in the 1980s and ran for mayor of Burlington in 2015. He managed bookstores in Burlington and Santa Monica, CA, and an immigrants legal advocacy group in New Mexico. In 2006-2007, he was the CEO and Executive Director of the national Pacifica Radio network.

The core themes of Greg Guma’s writing revolve around progressive politics, social justice, history, the dynamics of power, his media critique, and alternative models for social organization and leadership. His non-fiction reflects a commitment to a more conscious, ethically grounded, and systems-aware approach to leadership and social change. His fiction explores hidden history, memory and denial, personal identity, critical intelligence, psychopathology, and institutional power. This summary draws from a variety of online sources.

Progressive Politics and History: Guma extensively covers progressive movements, particularly in Vermont, as seen in his books The People's Republic: Vermont and the Sanders Revolution (1989) and Restless Spirits & Popular Movements: A Vermont History (2021). He explores the tension between leftist ideals and pragmatic politics, the evolution of political coalitions outside the two-party system, and historical figures and movements that shaped the state's unique political landscape.

A review of Restless Spirits… in Vermont History by Mark Bushnell advises: “For readers new to Vermont history, this book will introduce key figures and important events that helped create the state they know today. For readers steeped in Vermont history, the book’s most rewarding parts will probably come in later chapters, where Guma draws from his decades of reporting to offer insights into some of the major political actors and movements from the late 1960s to the present.” 

Media and Journalism: Another major focus is the role of media in society, concentration of media ownership, and the importance and challenges of independent and alternative media. Having served as the CEO of the Pacifica Radio network and as an editor for various publications, Guma often writes about the "fog of information war," disinformation, and the struggle to maintain democratic institutions in a polarized environment. Managing Chaos (2024) is a memoir of his “adventures in alternative media.” 

Power and Globalization: Guma critiques the abuse of centralized power, whether by governments, corporations, or elite financial institutions. Uneasy Empire (2003) specifically addresses themes of repression and globalization, while many articles analyze the effects of corporate power, economic inequality, and the rise of a "corporate world order."

Social Justice and Human Rights: His work consistently touches upon issues of civil liberties, discrimination, and the pursuit of justice. His third novel, The Trials of Celia, based on a true story, explores race relations, slavery's legacy, and family dynamics in the post-Civil War era. He has written scripts for documentaries on human rights issues in Haiti, Guatemala, and Vietnam, and edited Bread & Puppet: Stories of Struggle and Faith (1985), a photo book in which he wrote about liberation theology and art. 

Alternative Leadership and Social Change: In works like Prisoners of the Real (2023) and blog posts, Guma explores philosophy, psychology, alternative management and leadership models, and specifically "Dionysian leadership," which prioritizes intuition, creativity, and adaptability over rigid, traditional hierarchies. He advocates for decentralization of power and community-based solutions to social problems.

Skepticism and Distrust: A pervasive theme is the erosion of public trust in government and institutions, and how this distrust is exploited by reactionary forces and conspiracy theorists, which he argues can undermine democracy and social cohesion.

Spiritual themes often intersect with his work as an author, historian, and activist, appearing in both his fiction and non-fiction work. Guma’s first novel was titled Spirits of Desire (2005), historical fiction set during the spiritualist craze of the 1870s. Based on real events, his narrative follows characters investigating a notorious family of Vermont mediums, exploring topics like belief in ghosts and an afterlife, supernatural investigation and occultism, astral forces, past lives, and the search for "truth" in spiritual phenomena.

Non-fiction

In Restless Spirits & Popular Movements: A Vermont History (2021) the term "spirits" refers to the enduring energy and drive of historical figures and social movements in Vermont politics. This underlines a thematic link between a metaphorical "spirit" of activism and political change, rather than a strictly religious or supernatural one. That book came more than 30 years after The People’s Republic: Vermont and the Sanders Revolution (1989), widely praised as the first intimate look at the rise of Bernie Sanders and Vermont’s changing politics.

The legendary activist David Dellinger called The People’s Republic “a treasure house of first-hand information and perceptive, if often controversial analysis of great value to anyone concerned to explore realistically the possibilities for combining third-party electoral politics with other methods of working for justice, peace, environmental sanity and genuine democracy.” Former Vermont Governor Phil Hoff said it was “by far the most complete, knowledgeable, and fairest description of Bernard Sanders and his term as mayor of Burlington that I have read…. If you are at all interested in Vermont and Burlington, and public policy, get this book.” The University of Vermont library describes it as “the best book on the pre-Congress years.” 

In his "Maverick Chronicles" columns, Guma reflects on his own past search for a "spiritual compass" after moving away from traditional religion (Catholicism). He describes a period of personal searching and encountering alternative spiritual practices like Tarot cards, and developing a deep personal interest in non-traditional paths to meaning and guidance. Big Lies (2012) and Progressive Eclipse (2013) are essay collections on national and local politics.

In 1985, Guma launched Maverick Bookstore and Gallery, which became a lively oasis in Burlington’s Old North End for several years during the Sanders era. The name fit his emerging image. The Lloyds, his son’s family on his mother Robin Lloyd’s side, were related to the Maverick clan in Texas. Samuel Maverick was a big Texas personality and the origin of the modern usage of the word. The official story is that he won a ranch in a card game and afterward declined to brand his steers. Unbranded steers became known around San Antonio as mavericks.

The TV show Maverick was pure fiction, but Brett Maverick was a cheeky anti-hero whom Guma appreciated at a child, and there was a real large Maverick clan. Lola Maverick married Robin’s grandfather, who became famous briefly as a so-called “Communist millionaire;” she helped organize the Ford Peace Ship before World War I and co-founded the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Some of their children were activists as well, including Robin’s dad Bill. 

Play Burlington Snow by Allen Ginsberg

When Guma thought about launching an independent book business, as well as his journalism and peace work, the name Maverick quickly came to mind. On the bookstore’s first anniversary, a group of modern Texas Mavericks sent a ceramic calf as a gift. Allen Ginsberg once wrote a poem there — and mentioned it!

“Socialist snow on the streets / Socialist talk in the Maverick Bookstore,” it begins. 

After the bookstore, which later relocated downtown and eventually merged with the local peace center’s book business, he began to use Maverick as an Internet handle and publishing imprint. In 1997, “Maverick Chronicles” began a two year run as a weekly column in The Vermont Times, a weekly successor to The Vanguard Press, and was later used as a kicker for columns with VTDigger and for Substack. 

Guma's political writing often incorporates a moral and ethical dimension that touches on spiritual values. He advocates for a "social libertarian culture" that respects freedom, independence, a "positive vision of human nature," and "ethical and ecological tools." His work with Toward Freedom (1986-88; and 1994-2004) also highlighted "a world ethic that honors the human spirit" and a "participatory approach to planetary management," connecting global ethics and human rights to a belief in human potential and unity. 

For several years Guma worked closely with Garry Davis, co-authoring Passport to Freedom: A Guide for World Citizens (1992) and Dear World: A Global Odyssey (2000). Both books explained world citizenship, world law, and world government as a means to end nationalistic conflicts and protect universal human rights.

Greg Guma on Amazon

PODCASTS: The People’s Republic (13 episodes), Fake News (book),

From the Vault — Permanent War, Inquisitions (play), and Nonviolent Warriors

The core philosophy in Guma's writing is a blend of progressive politics, humanistic psychology, and a critique of traditional, overly "rational" management, emphasizing a more intuitive and creative approach. His work consistently advocates for social justice, diversity, decentralism and critical thinking, challenging established power structures and conventional wisdom. 

Dionysian vs. Apollonian Leadership: In Prisoners of the Real (2023), Guma proposes a "Dionysian" leadership model as an alternative to rigid, "rational" management styles that rely exclusively on control and prediction. This approach, first researched and developed in the 1970s, prioritizes intuition, creativity, and adaptability over an antiquated reliance on "objective professionals" and machine-like organizational structures.

Progressive Vision and Social Critique: A long-time writer and editor for progressive causes, he focuses on issues like social justice campaigns, economic inequality, and international relations. He offers a sharp critique of misdirected policies, failed leadership, and the use of fear to undermine freedom and diversity.

Systems Thinking and Interconnectedness: Inspired by systems theory and figures like Gregory Bateson and Ervin Laszlo, Guma views situations within larger, interconnected contexts, questioning narrow, cause-and-effect explanations for complex issues.

Humanistic Values: His work draws on the work of humanistic psychology figures like Abraham Maslow and the linguistic radicalism of Noam Chomsky, aiming to better understand human behavior, motivation, and how people relate to one another in an ethical framework. Other influences include David Dellinger and William Kunstler.

Critique of Scarcity Mentality: Guma also explores the idea of abundance versus scarcity, criticizing how a "scarcity mentality" can lead to accumulation, monopolies, and social inequity, even in the face of plenty.

Critical Thinking and Free Speech: He champions the need for "sharp critique" and highlights historical instances where free speech was suppressed, arguing against a "culture that has taken root over generations" and discourages critical thought.

Philosophical Influences: Guma has soaked up inspiration from a wide range of thinkers, including Paolo Freire, John Lilly, Colin Wilson, Murray Bookchin, E.F. Schumacher, Ivan Illich, Wilhelm Reich, Gore Vidal, Gene Sharp, and Buddhist philosophy. 

11/25 Interview with Jim DeFilippi

Managing Chaos: Adventures in Alternative Media (2024) is an eyewitness account and memoir of Guma’s experiences in alternative media and politics, particularly his tenure as CEO of Pacifica Radio.  The book offers an intimate chronicling of the tumultuous history of the original listener-supported Pacifica Radio network, exploring the challenges of maintaining democratic institutions within a culture of internal conflict and polarization. 

Weaving together episodes from his eclectic career, Guma discusses his life as a student, reporter, radical organizer, and editor, and his experiences managing the radio network. He discusses the evolution of radio and television, the impacts of concentrated media ownership, the rise of the alternative press, and his complex relationship with Bernie Sanders during the progressive movement in Vermont. The Progressive magazine calls it “a great read… revealing and sometimes brutal.”

The book also addresses the larger questions of maintaining a functional democracy in the face of threats, crony capitalism, and demagoguery, emphasizing the importance of realism, skepticism, imagination, and aspiration for a better world. It is a media saga, a personal story, and a cautionary tale about the difficulties of achieving a progressive vision amid real-world economic and political challenges and internal conflicts. 

In sum, Guma's non-fiction reflects a commitment to a more conscious, ethically grounded, and systems-aware approach to leadership and social change, challenging the idea that managers and leaders can be ethically neutral or purely rational.

Fiction

Greg Guma’s fiction explores themes of history, memory, personal identity, and institutional power. Both the time-travel thriller Dons of Time (2013) and the historical novel Spirits of Desire (2005) examine how the past shapes the present, and how personal narratives connect to broader social and political movements. Overall, Guma approaches spiritual themes directly in his historical fiction and uses a language of "spirit" to describe the passionate, ethical drive behind social and political movements in his non-fiction and personal essays.

Greg Guma on Amazon

Dons of Time (2013) blends science fiction and historical mystery, with a focus on uncovering hidden truths and challenging institutional control. The novel features high-tech time travel and explores history not as a static record, but as a fluid and manipulable construct. It questions how we interpret and understand the past. Kirkus Reviews calls it “well-constructed, action-flooded sci-fi set in a realistic historical world...even readers familiar with the Victorian era will learn about some interesting characters along the way.”     

A central storyline is protagonist Tonio Wolfe's political awakening. He transforms from an unengaged "Mafia scion" into an opponent of "institutional injustice," largely due to his time travel experiences and encounters with activists. The narrative has elements of conspiracy fiction and touches on themes of government surveillance and manipulation. Tonio's quest to solve the mystery of Jack the Ripper through time travel mirrors his journey to unearth his own repressed childhood memories. This connection links individual identity with historical and familial legacy. 

Spirits of Desire (2005), a historical novel about the 19th-century figures Helena Blavatsky, Henry Olcott and members of the notorious Eddy family of mediums, explores the intertwining of personal belief, social upheaval, and the development of spiritual movements. Guma places the emergence of Blavatsky as a psychic investigator and spiritual leader against the backdrop of 19th-century debates between spiritual and scientific worldviews. This context highlights the tension between faith, technology, and rational thought. The book explores the "human emotion, individual quest, private doubt, sex, love and social turmoil" of the era, says critic Joe Citro. It shows how broader social change is driven by the personal journeys of individuals. 

On Vermont Public Radio, Citro concluded: “Like E. L. Doctorow’s novel Ragtime, Spirits of Desire is a story that plays out against a tapestry of social, intellectual, religious, political and scientific forces... I don’t want to give away too much. Suffice it to say that Mr. Guma has done a fine job of bringing these characters and their fascinating epoch to life.”  Beyond that, Guma shows how a strong female figure navigates a male-dominated society, exploring her personal struggles and desires within a specific historical moment. Using four points of view, the novel traces the historical currents that led to the formation of a significant spiritual movement, Theosophy, focusing on the personalities and private lives that shaped public awareness. 

A companion monograph, Into the Mystic: From Spiritualism to Theosophy in the Gilded Age (2023), digs into the true story, Blavatsky’s life and beliefs, and the movement she helped launch. Woman of Another World, a film based on Spirits of Desire, is in the works.

Greg Guma on Amazon

Guma's Inquisitions (and other Un-American Activities), a 2003 play that became a radio drama, centers on the conflict between national security and civil liberties, and the historical use of power to suppress dissent. The work dramatizes how, in the name of "national security," fundamental rights, particularly the First Amendment freedoms of speech and assembly, are undermined or violated. It explores a pattern of government crackdowns on radical political activity and dissent in American history, using the 1886 Haymarket bombing and 1919 Palmer raids, with FBI interrogation of activist Lucy Parsons as its framing device.

The historical narrative delves into the conflict between labor (specifically the movement for an eight-hour workday), powerful business interests and the state. It addresses the theme of political paranoia and the denial of justice to those accused of "un-American" activities, regardless of the evidence, often ruining careers and lives. The play also examines how history eventually assesses these events and individuals, often in contrast to the immediate, politically charged judgments of the time. It uses historical events to draw parallels to contemporary issues regarding government overreach, the limits of free expression, and the ongoing struggle to maintain democratic institutions in a climate of fear and distrust. A review in Seven Days concluded, “it’s inarguably timely now, as the contradictory demands of national security and civil liberties are once more at odds.”

LISTEN TO INQUISITIONS HERE

Political Philosophy

Guma is known for his strong advocacy of decentralism as a means to disperse power, increase self-sufficiency, and enhance local democracy. His work in this area has been significantly influenced by social ecology thinker Murray Bookchin. Guma takes aim at "large institutions over which [people] have no control," asserting that centralizing power and wealth is detrimental to human needs and diversity. He actively promoted the development of local self-government structures, such as Burlington's Neighborhood Planning Assemblies, as a decentralist solution to urban management challenges. He sees local power and direct democracy (like Vermont's Town Meeting tradition) as essential in countering the movement toward centralized authority.

Guma became interested in decentralist thinking during his graduate studies and worked closely with David Dellinger and Murray Bookchin, who advocated for a bottom-up, community-based approach to politics and society. Guma helped draft the statement of principles for the short-lived but influential Decentralist League of Vermont, which sought to reorient the political spectrum around the idea of widely dispersed power. Guma’s 1976 pamphlet, Decentralism and Liberation in the Workplace, focuses on applying decentralist principles to the economic sphere, advocating for self-management and autonomy in the workplace. Guma's work often reflects the belief that local action can have a significant impact on larger, even global, issues, such as city councils passing resolutions related to international affairs or nuclear weapons. 

Guma views decentralism not merely as an abstract theory, but as a practical, necessary framework for achieving genuine democracy, social justice, and ecological balance by empowering local communities, US states and individuals against the encroachment of large, centralized institutions.

Guma has long advocated for environmental causes and once organized a large conference on “ecological security.” His work in this area largely focused on local, grassroots activism and its potential to create broader social and political change. During the 1960s and 70s he was involved in the environmental movement in Vermont, participating in town and state meetings to push environmental agendas. Later, as coordinator of the Peace and Justice Center in Burlington, he organized the three day “Building Ecological Security” conference in 1989, expressing his long-standing commitment to the intersection of peace/justice issues and the environment. In 2000 he organized a similar “Building Independent Media” conference, which brought together hundreds of IMC (Independent Media Center) activists with other media makers from across the country.

Guma has emphasized the importance of local action, believing that change occurs most effectively at the community level. He points to the success of consumer cooperatives, community-based agriculture projects, and local businesses in Vermont as examples of creating a sustainable local economy. He has written numerous books and articles, including pieces for VTDigger and Toward Freedom, on environmental problems, climate change, and the need for sustainable practices, stressing the vulnerability of the planet's future in the face of political and social challenges.

In Burlington, Guma has advocated for community-oriented development, such as a "partnership in the public interest" between conservation groups, local colleges, government, and private capital to balance housing needs with open space and preservation. He views ecological security through the lens of progressive politics and community action, emphasizing that local efforts can have a ripple effect on state and national levels.

Leading Women 

Guma's fiction features significant, complex, and often historically-based women who play central roles in driving the narrative, challenging societal norms, and exploring themes of repression, resilience, and the struggle for freedom. 

He frequently uses real historical figures as inspiration or direct subjects, highlighting women who have been overlooked or constrained by traditional historical narratives. In Spirits of Desire, Helena Blavatsky is a complex, powerful figure who influences everyone around her. In his play Inquisitions (and Other Un-American Activities), Lucy Parsons is presented in two distinct periods — as a young black woman in a mixed race marriage and an aging activist under interrogation 30 years later —  and links the repression she has endured to the larger pattern of repressing dissent.  The Trials of Celia centers on the intertwined lives of an enslaved Black woman, Celia Mudd, and a white family in the 19th century, using trial transcripts and letters to explore their challenges during and after the Civil War.

His female characters often operate within deeply patriarchal societies but find ways to assert their agency. They struggle against the limitations imposed by their gender, whether these are legal restrictions, cultural expectations, or the power dynamics within their communities. Guma also delves into the intricacies of female relationships, such as the bond between Celia Mudd and Ann Lancaster in The Trials of Celia, showing how individuals "bound by their time and place" can still form meaningful, if complicated, connections. In Dons of Time, 21st Century Jersey boy Tonio Wolfe first encounters socialist leader Annie Besant through a futuristic video technology called “remote viewing,” but eventually time travels back to 1888 in London, meeting figures like George Bernard Shaw and falling in love with Besant while stranded there. 

Rather than being passive figures, Guma's women are active participants whose decisions and actions are crucial to the development of the plot. They are often the ones who initiate change or face significant challenges head-on. Guma's narratives often provide an "intensely interior look" at his characters' psyches, exploring their personal ambition, trauma, and resilience as they navigate difficult circumstances. Overall, the significance of Guma's leading female characters lies in their role as complex individuals who not only enrich the historical or social context of his stories but also serve as powerful agents in exploring universal human themes of power, freedom, and the ability to overcome adversity.

BUY

Greg Guma on Amazon

EMS, COMPILED FOR GUARDIAN GLOBAL, 11/2025