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

Thursday, June 3, 2010

What I Learned in the Charleston Jail

from the Energy Bulletin. 

The title is rather misleading, but the article provides an interesting and inspiring contrast of courses in the manual arts as usually offered by US school systems and some organized by local citizens and small businesses in their communities. 
...we’re raising an entire generation who haven’t learned (in public school at least) how things work…and how to work with things. (We’ve also not been very good about teaching how to work with others....
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