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

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Europe’s Misery Spells Opportunity for Rich Americans

by Jamie Johnson from Vanity Fair. The author specializes in the lives of the top 1% who "own" and control the wealth that the US Empire has brought them. I may be making this a regular feature of my blog, that is, if my readers can stomach it.
...in the U.S....great opportunities were beginning to surface for those wealthy enough to purchase a Greek island of their own. Bargain hunting for real estate in the Aegean and Ionian Seas has become a new American pastime, made all the more appealing by the advent of the summer holidays.