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

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Re-imagining the future of work

Click here to access article by Rhiannon Colvin from openDemocracy. 

This extract from a book entitled Resist! Against a precarious future provides some visions about how society could be organized to serve everyone in society instead of what now exists--serving only those few who "own" part of society--the economy. While reading this and other articles like this, I question whether such ideas are merely exercises in fantasy to detract from effective revolutionary activities, to encourage a belief that one can simply create such egalitarian institutions within a society that is organized to serve the needs of one tiny, but very powerful class. 

The answer that I arrive at is frequently the same: there are many paths to a future of social justice and a sustainable economy, and there are many people who will take these paths. No one path guarantees success, but many people going down many promising paths can add up to a better future. What is dead certain is that simply doing nothing in the way of radical social change is no longer a serious option. Human survival now makes social change of the greatest urgency. Before we choose a path, we must ask ourselves if the path's activities can somehow contribute toward the construction of a new society, the realization of an egalitarian and sustainably society, a society designed for the benefit of all that can exist within the natural limits of our planet.