Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Has the Greed of Our Species Put Us on the Road to Extinction? Just Ask the Dinosaurs.

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, August 23, 2010

Has the Greed of Our Species Put Us on the Road to Extinction? Just Ask the Dinosaurs.

by Stephen Pizzo from Buzzflash.

There is time, but that time is short. We live at the edge of imagination… a place we have only dared imagine in science fiction. Children alive today will live the real thing. Who says? Not me. But arguably the smartest member of our species. See below. Of course, Hawkins would not be the first wise man to be ignored by selfish, self-indulgent, chattering humans submerged in their own mass denial.

I am alarmed also, but it doesn't help much to blame "chattering humans" when there is overwhelming evidence that the capitalist system is driving us to consume more (mostly needless junk) all in the name of profits for those who benefit from the system. If you don't identify the source of a problem, what hope is there of solving it?