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

Friday, January 29, 2010

World War As Class War

by James Heartfield from Mute magazine's website. This is a must-read account of the terrible effects, aside from military casualties, of war on working people while the capitalist classes prosper. This working class history of WWII is a necessary antidote to all the indoctrination that working people have received in the governing class's educational institutions.