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

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The fear campaign and Social Security

by Glenn Greenwald from Salon

I had not heard about this radio address in which Obama warned about the Republicans attack on Social Security. This is truly astonishing as Greenwald explains. 

However, it is not so much that the Obama administration is cynical as it is the US ruling class, which always works behind the scenes as in a puppet show manipulating the characters. Their favorite way of attacking working people is to use the Democratic party to pass legislation on the unsuspecting public who naively believe that this party works for them.