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, August 22, 2010

Ecocide and consumption: a case study

by Ian Angus from Green Left. 

This article illustrates the extravagant lifestyle of a member of the 1% in the US who through their connections and wealth shape America's domestic and foreign policies. People like the Rennerts are the lead killers of the planet and destroyers of communities and the lives of working people.

But it is not such people that I like to focus on. Rather it is the system of capitalism that produces such people that we must understand and change.
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