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, July 3, 2013

Capitalism and the destruction of life on Earth: Six theses on saving the humans [must read]

Click here to access article by Richard Smith of the Institute for Policy Research & Development, London from Real-World Economics Review. (PDF doc as of this time.)

You may be surprised as I was by the conclusion drawn by this economist in this just published piece in a reformist oriented economics journal. Indeed, I was rather shocked, but also delighted. It "made (more than) my day"! This is the best piece that I have posted in my more than three and half years of blogging. If this is an opening crack in the iron wall of capitalist economics thinking, then the possibilities for the survival of the human race and many other species are greatly enhanced. 
When, on May 10th, scientists at Mauna Loa Observatory on the big island of Hawaii announced that global CO2 emissions had crossed a threshold at 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in millions of years, a sense of dread spread around the world and not only among climate scientists.
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