Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The Trillion-Dollar Question

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, June 2, 2010

The Trillion-Dollar Question

from Foreign Policy in Focus. This is about the media games that the military-industrial complex likes to play as they compete for your money to promote their addictions.

Congress is so addicted to the economic payouts from the military contractors that it can't give up even the asterisk of all budget items, the second F-35 engine, even when so many of the members understand the absurdity of the situation. And Washington, in general, is so addicted to U.S. military control of the world that it can't give up a single base or allied operation....