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

Monday, May 24, 2010

The White House, Big Oil, and the "American Power Act"

from The Economic Populist. Here the blogger argues that it is the oil industry that is driving policy, whereas Washington's Blog at my next post looked at a wider phenomenon--the military-industrial complex. I think they are both correct, but one must look still deeper at the system that drives the whole show if any real change is to occur.