PUTTING THE IDEA OF DISSIDENCE, AND THE CONFIDENCE TO EFFECT CHANGE, BACK IN FOCUS A collection of essays examining current beliefs and suggesting the possibility that the everyday actions of ordinary people could mould an agenda for progressive change. Believing that our leaders are creating a world that offers nothing but endless war, fear and insecurity - and believing that ordinary people and their efforts to make this a more humane world are attacked by elites who fear that such efforts, if successful, would mean the end of their control over people and the loss of wealth, power and privileges - ON THE PUBLIC AGENDA reviews popularly held beliefs on religion, education, health care, revolution and war in order to encourage and nurture a movement for progressive change. Moreover, the authors claim, such change is truly possible because most people are already engaged in efforts that are implicitly revolutionary - every day, routinely, and without thinking.
With a combination of realism and hope, Spritzler and Stratman re-examine the Abu Gharib prison scandal; the Israel/Palestine conflict; making Iraq democratic by waging war; a market-driven healthcare; who really controls AIDS research; the cost of higher education; billionaires, crime and corruption; global solidarity; and what kind of society we want. | 
