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, August 31, 2013

To End All Wars: How the First World War Divided Britain

Click here to access article by Lindsey German from CounterFire (Britain). 

The author offers a book report on a recently published book by this title written by Adam Hochschild. The book appears to offer an accurate account of this devastating war that featured inter-Nicene rivalries for world dominance among capitalist ruling classes at that time. The war, like all wars in the capitalist era also served several other purposes: stifling dissent and activist opposition in their home countries using appeals to patriotism and the huge profit opportunities from weapons production as well as from re-building of assets destroyed during war. 

It's clear from reviewing this history, that nothing has substantially changed: it's still the same story because it still is the same criminal system that is driving history--capitalism.
Lindsey German
at
Labels: , ,