We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Russia, Turkey, and the Great Game: Changing teams

by Eric Walberg on Dissident Voice website. The author looks at some of the recent changes in the Great Game in that area of the world. The inter-elite rivalries are rarely covered as such in mainstream media, and their games often have such devastating consequences for ordinary people. I'm not thinking of this particular example, but of the rivalries between Anglo-American states and Germany in the 20th century.